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Latest Update:
14 April 2008

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FEATURES
Additional feature stories relevant to public transport, light rail transit, and rail transit generally...
NEWS

LRT and related issues in the news ...

EVENTS

Upcoming events relevant to light rail transit, public transport, and rail transit generally ...

MYTHS

Analysis and debunking of myths and propaganda spread by opponents of mass transit and particularly rail systems.

FACTS

Useful and crucial facts and statistics helpful to advancing public transport and light rail transit.

LiNKS

Useful links to key organizations and agencies involved with public transport, light rail transit, and other rail transit issues ...






USA rail transit
USA:
Federal Panel's Call for Motor Fuel Tax Hike to Fund Infrastructure Upgrade Stirs Transport Policy Debate

The National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, citing a looming crisis in America's transportation infrastructure and proposing a gradual increase in federal motor fuel taxes to help address it, has stirred up a heated national controversy involving broad transportation policy issues, ideological dogma, a dispute over the relative responsibilities of the public vs. private sectors in infrastructure development and maintenance, and apparent hanky-panky by the current Bush administration. Passenger rail transportation – both urban rail transit and intercity rail – is a key component of the Commission’s vision for the future. ... More...


Yakima trolley
NEWSLOG

Yakima:
Heritage electric trolley may grow in size and function to serve new shopping mall

Also ... Phoenix: Transit-oriented development booming along light rail line ... Ft. Lauderdale: Streetcar plan gets $37.5 million boost from City ... Detroit: Streetcars at last to make a comeback? ... Columbus: Mayor and civic leaders propose 2.8-mile, $103 million streetcar project ... USA's Bush administration proposes to raid transit funds for highways ... More...
NewsLog Archives...


Dallas LRT
Dallas:
DART's Light Rail Success Drives Vigorous Expansion Program

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) is working on major expansions that will significantly increase the reach of its light rail transit system over the next six years, in a growth program driven by the system's major success in encouraging new development and redevelopment of older districts. When the current expansion is completed in December 2013, the system will add new Green and Orange lines, and will grow to include 91 miles of line with 63 stations. ... More...


Le Mans LRT
France:
Light Rail Continues Growth With New Tramways in Marseille, Le Mans, Nice

In the worldwide race to re-install light rail transit in urban areas, France may be taking the lead, with three new light rail tramways – Marseille, Le Mans, and Nice – just opened in recent months... More...


Norfolk LRT
Norfolk (Virginia):
Light Rail Project Gets On its Way With Federal Funding

Norfolk, Virginia has emerged as America's latest New Start light rail transit project, as the city's planned 7.4-mile (11.9-km) system in early October 2007 received a strong green light and a contract for over 50% funding from the Federal Transit Administration. ... More...


Minneapolis LRT
Point ... Counterpoint

Minneapolis:
Light rail's spectacular ridership growth rebuffs critics

This Weblog-style feature provides an ongoing forum for relating current and familiar claims and allegations – and Urban Legends – promulgated by rail transit opponents, and then fact-checking and responding to them from a pro-transit advocacy perspective.
Other issues: ... Portland: New Yellow Line LRT on interstate Ave. covers capital investment from operating cost savings and benefits ... London: Lower public transit costs, better services – all from out-sourcing operations? ... Boston: "Big Dig" highway project a "waste" with less than 2% of urban trips? ... Dallas: Light rail carries as many as 16% of residents in corridor – on a Sunday! ... More...


 Portland LRT
Debunking Randal O'Toole's Attack on Portland:
CNU Study Rebuts Anti-Rail/Anti-Planning Hokum

The latest effort by national anti-transit, anti-planning, pro-sprawl activist Randal O'Toole to trash Portland's reputation as a model of effective planning and superb urban transit is adroitly and powerfully rebutted by a critical rejoinder sponsored by the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU). ... More...


Safety graph
US Rail Transit Excels in Safety

Recent US data continue to confirm that public transit – particularly light rail and other forms of rail transit – is an extremely safe way to travel compared with private motor vehicles on streets, freeways, and highways ... and certainly, by far the safest way to travel in urban areas. ... More...


Chicago RRT
Busting "BRT" Mythology
USA's Rail Transit Development Under Attack as "BRT" Promoters Rev Up Misinformation Campaign

Growing interest in electric rail transit seems to have got Road Warriors in the motor vehicle and highway construction industies seriously bent out of shape and really running scared, leading them to mount a ferocious and massive public relations blitz, apparently designed to convince us all that - despite our intuition, and despite the barrage of evidence to the contrary - petroleum-fueled motor vehicles, including private cars, SUVs, and buses, are supposedly superior to electric rail transit. This article responds to a number of recent propaganda attacks on rail transit. ... More...


Sacramento LRT
Electrification 101
Transport Energy Debate:
How Many BTUs on the Head of a Pin? ...er...Power Line?

In what might be called the "Battle of the BTUs", opponents of electrified public transportation have seized on a new figure for assessing the energy content of production and distribution of electric power to launch a campaign to disparage the energy efficiency of electric transit. But when the equivalent production and distribution efficiency of motor fuels is taken into account, comparative analyses still place electric rail well ahead – especially in terms of carbon-emissions energy. More...


Pittsburgh BRT
Busting "BRT" Mythology
Top "Bus Rapid Transit" Lobbyist Lobs Barrage of Baloney Against Rail

"Bus Rapid Transit" promoters, led by Bill Vincent of the so-called "Breakthrough Technologies institute", claim that "BRT" is better than rail for addressing a number of urban ills. However, their latest media campaign consists of a string of whoppers. While some of those who promote BRT mean well, most of them seem to believe transit is strictly for the poor and seem to be out to kill good rapid transit. ... More...


St. Louis LRT
MythBusters Weblog

"Free" buses vs. "expensive" rail?

Contrary to a widely held notion among the public that rail transit systems, such as light rail transit, are weighted down with substantial heavy capital expense, while buses are more or less "free", bus systems incur sizable capital expenses, too, as well as rail, with typically much higher operational costs – and often, when you add up all these costs, account for the relative life of the components, plus the work performed, you may find that rail actually gives amazing "bang for the buck" ... as this case study of bus vs. rail in St. Louis suggests... More...




Light Rail Now Project Underwriters

Want to help inform the public about the benefits of light rail, rail transit, better mass transit, and more diverse mobility options? Become an underwriter!

The Light Rail Now Project is sponsored by Texas Association for Public Transportation, a 501(c)(3) charitable educational organization. Contributions may be tax-deductible. TAPT believes that presenting facts, reliable information, and well-supported arguments is important to counteract the avalanche of misinformation and misconception about light rail transit and mass transportation in general, and to enable planners, decisionmakers, and the public to make truly informed decisions.

The Light Rail Now Project team strongly appreciates the following underwriters whose generous contributions help fund the ongoing maintenance and expansion of this website:

· Action Committee for Transit

· Brookville Equipment Corp.

· Fred Cain

· Citizens for Efficient Mass Transit

· Citizens for Modern Transit

· Friends 4 Expo Transit

· John Gear - Salem, Oregon

· Jane Holtz Kay (Asphalt Nation)

· LTK Engineering Services

· New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers

· People for Modern Transit
· ROUTE - Rethinking Our Urban Transportation Environment

· Rochester Rail Transit Committee

· John Schneider - Cincinnati, Ohio

· John Schumann - Portland, Oregon

· Sierra Club, Austin Regional Group

· TranSystems

· Texas Association for Public Transportation

· The Transit Coalition

· Transit for Livable Communities

· Mark Yznaga



For more information about our generous underwriters, please click here...
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