High-speed rail may still be a distant vision in the United States, but conventional passenger rail is having a resurgence.

Writing in Fast Company, Benjamin Schneider offers a hopeful vision of U.S. passenger rail, which is being infused with historic levels of federal funding. Schneider admits that the $66 billion federal investment in trains “will not yield revolutionary changes to passenger rail,” it will help improve and expand service for many U.S. train riders. “On several rail-friendly corridors—big city pairs less than 300 miles apart—train travel will go from an eccentric travel option to a perfectly logical one.”
Pointing to new train cars on Amtrak’s Midwestern lines, Schneider writes, “State-of-the-art rolling stock is the most vivid sign that train travel is no nostalgia trip. It’s modern, it’s efficient, it’s comfortable, and it’s only getting better.”
Schneider points out that improvements to conventional rail—rather than the more glamorous high-speed rail—“will cumulatively impact the lives of many more Americans, much sooner, than multigenerational infrastructure projects like California High-Speed Rail.”
The article lists several impactful projects in states across the country, such as Colorado’s new Front Range Line, expanded service between St. Paul and Chicago, and improvements to a popular Southern California train line threatened by coastal erosion.
FULL STORY: Amtrak is having a renaissance across the United States

Rethinking Redlining
For decades we have blamed 100-year-old maps for the patterns of spatial racial inequity that persist in American cities today. An esteemed researcher says: we’ve got it all wrong.

Montreal Mall to Become 6,000 Housing Units
Place Versailles will be transformed into a mixed-use complex over the next 25 years.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Seattle Safe Parking Site to Close, Relocate
A nonprofit leases lots during permitting stages to erect tiny homes and RV safe parking sites for unhoused residents. But the model means constant uncertainty and displacement.

LA ‘Mobility Wallet’ Increased Quality of Life for Participants
The city distributed a monthly $150 transportation subsidy to 1,000 low-income Angelenos. It dramatically improved their lives.

Texas, California Rail Projects Seek Out Private Funding
In the wake of Trump’s cuts to high-speed rail projects, rail authorities are looking to private-public partnerships to supplement their budgets.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions