All Aboard Florida's Brightline is more than a privately funded passenger rail service. The ability to develop dynamic mobility-centric urban centers of Transit Oriented Development was a significant factor in the decision to launch the service.
Despite years of anti-rail opposition, operations are expected to start before the end of the year on an ambitious project that leverages a 100-year-old infrastructure backbone to combine rail transit with transit oriented development. Here is a brief overview of where the $3 billion privately funded passenger rail project and the accompanying 4 million square feet of transit oriented development currently stands.
Read the full story: Privately Funded High Speed Rail Project Nears Finish
Brightline Launches In Florida, Eyes Expansion To Other States
Pundits predicted that a privately-funded passenger rail system in Florida would fail to materialize. Those predictions were wrong, and now company officials are eyeing regional expansion.
High Speed Rail From Houston To Dallas Inches Closer To Reality
The Texas 'bullet train' cleared a major hurdle as the Federal Railroad Administration releases draft environmental impact statement identifying preferred routes and identifying passenger station locations.
Feds Approve Passenger Rail Expansion From West Palm Beach To Orlando
Brightline launching service to Miami and start construction on Phase 2 expansion to Orlando in early 2018.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
Seattle passes record-breaking transit services expansion
Proposition 1 will double the city’s transit tax to add 95,000 more bus trips and preserve 180,000 bus trips annually.
Post election, Texas is no longer Musk’s 'AI oasis'
Elon Musk dolled out $446 million on the 2026 midterms, the most ever spent by a non-canidate.
Chicago voters approve permanent festival grounds, penalty for vacant property owners
Currently, major summer and fall festivals take over public parks for weeks at a time, drawing criticism from nearby residents
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority