High-speed rail

A legal fight is likely tp follow FRA's unprecedented and highly political effort to rescind $3.5 billion from the project.

Part two of our discussion of French high-speed rail and cities covers how France approaches infrastructure projects of national significance, the challenges of building the Grand Paris Express rail expansion, and the latent opportunities of San Jose's Diridon station.

The White House released its 2017 budget [PDF] this morning, which includes more detail about the exciting but politically doomed transportation proposal President Obama outlined last week. Obama's plan doesn't have a chance in the current Congress, but it shows what national transportation policy centered on reducing greenhouse gas emissions might look like.

This week we’re joined by Eric Eidlin, a community planner and sustainability lead at the Federal Transit Administration. Over the last few years Eric has also been studying high-speed rail in Germany and France as a fellow with the German Marshall Fund. He recently published a report, "Making the Most of High-Speed Rail in California: Lessons from France and Germany."

Train maker Talgo is suing the state of Wisconsin for $65.9 million as a result of Governor Scott Walker's decision to cancel passenger rail plans connecting Madison to Milwaukee.

Behold, Streetsblog's brand-new podcast! In what we aim to turn into a recurring feature, Reconnecting America's Jeff Wood and I recently chatted about the week's news in livable streets, urbanism, and sustainable transportation. The topics are drawn from Jeff's excellent daily compendium of transportation and planning links, The Direct Transfer, and from stories we're tracking at Streetsblog Capitol Hill. It's a treat for me to get back to producing audio -- I was a radio reporter before joining Streetsblog.

The Spanish train crash in Santiago de Compostela that killed 79 people last week has sparked questions about whether high-speed rail is safe. In fact, it's among the safest ways to travel, and technology that already exists can make the type of human error that led to tragedy in Spain nearly a non-issue. Future high-speed rail in California will be equipped with that technology.

My apologies, readers: Anderson Cooper did another segment slandering high-speed rail last month and it’s taken me this long to bring it to your attention.

Last week, a House panel envisioned some big cuts to next year’s transportation budget. TIGER and high-speed rail would get nothing, Amtrak would get slashed, and ixnay on all that green “livability” crap. (And that's practically a quote.)