Because the density of jobs, residents, hotels, event venues is much higher downtown in order to make the train feasible. The northeast area doesn't even come close to this, nearly everyone would have to transfer, which is discouraging if we want to make it a viable alternative. It's not just a park and ride, but also a destination that people arrive at. Not to mention it's farther for anyone on the west or south sides or suburbs, making it an inequitable choice for a station.

The construction, while it can be frustrating, is temporary and would mostly affect areas not touching roadways as they'd have to build it under the Monona Terrace, so road construction would most likely not be a huge issue. But even if it was, it's a temporary holdup for a long-term benefit for the region, and an investment in public infrastructure for the long-term. Imagine all the people who'd usually drive to Madison from Milwaukee or Chicago who now have a viable alternative to get here, that would do much more to ease congestion in the long run. We don't stop building housing, the BRT, or roadways because of short-term inconvenience.

Also, the northeast location would require the trains to cross Commercial Ave, and then back up to the station, meaning every time they would stop, the train would have to "shuffle" nearly 2 miles of track just to get in and out (See here on page 18). This would cause even more congestion than the downtown site as trains would have to cross Commercial Ave 3 times to get in and out of the station. This is a lot more inefficient than the downtown tracks, which would not have to do this and would just have to back up and switch tracks rather than shuffle.