A steering committee has picked light rail to link downtown Portland and Tigard, and opted to ditch a plan that would have called for a tunnel to serve Portland Community College's Sylvania campus.

The selection follows a likeminded recommendation earlier this month from planners at the Metro regional government. The planners said light rail would cost less and cause less congestion because it could operate with fewer vehicles than the high-capacity bus service they had also considered.

And in the long term, the bus service couldn't keep up with anticipated growth, the planners said.

Light rail, however, can't climb the steep hill to access the hilltop college campus. A tunnel, like the one that serves Washington Park in Portland, would have made that possible -- but increased the project cost by an estimated 21 percent.

The light-rail project is expected to cost $2 billion as currently imagined. A final route hasn't been determined, but it would likely follow Southwest Barbur Boulevard for much of the route.

The steering committee -- which includes elected officials and managers from TriMet and the Oregon Department of Transportation -- voted 10-2 in favor of light rail, and 12-0 to end consideration of the PCC tunnel.

-- Elliot Njus

enjus@oregonian.com

503-294-5034

@enjus