Plans for a long-imagined underwater high speed rail line connecting Europe and Africa emphasizes the comparative lack of rail development in the United States.
"A high-speed rail line connecting Europe and Africa that has been on the drawing boards for a quarter of a century is finally being ushered along."
"To join Spain and Morocco by rail across the Strait of Gibraltar would be among the world's most ambitious, expensive and complex civil engineering feats, alongside the Panama Canal and the Channel Tunnel. The project is now edging closer, with Morocco having hired Lombardi Engineering, a Swiss engineering firm, to begin planning."
"Throughout the world, rail, one of the older forms of passenger transportation, is undergoing a renewal, with the Europe-Africa rail link being only one example of new passenger rail lines being considered."
"The United States is like a developing country when it comes to passenger rail, and various Democratic and Republican presidents have been nearly uniformly hostile to Amtrak, which was created in 1971 to relieve private railroads of the financial burden of passenger trains. Congress has consistently saved the trains, but without enough subsidies to expand."
FULL STORY: Free Flow: Planned Europe-African rail link underlines U.S. shortcomings
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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.
New York City School Construction Authority
Village of Glen Ellyn
Central Transportation Planning Staff/Boston Region MPO
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions