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...

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 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...

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, 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

"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...

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...