Passenger Rail
A $1.9 billion project to add a second set of rail tracks to the Long Bridge that connects Virginia to D.C. is ready to move forward with a recently completed Environmental Impact Statement.
The Virginia Mercury
Amtrak service between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama, stopped after Hurricane Katrina. But recent efforts point to restored service in the coming years.
T4America Blog
New passenger rail improvements for the Virginia Railway Express and Amtrak are on the way in 2020.
WTOP
Transportation advocates are calling for expanded rail service to the east, but studies indicate the needed infrastructure improvements would be pricey.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A quarter of German long-distance trains ran behind schedule, and they're not likely to improve soon.
The Economist
The intercity passenger rail service previously known as Brightline is now Virgin Trains USA.
Miami Herald
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.
Modern Cities
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.
Modern Cities
Brightline launching service to Miami and start construction on Phase 2 expansion to Orlando in early 2018.
Modern Cities
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.
Modern Cities
A new passenger rail line between Baton Rouge and New Orleans is just one of the links being proposed along the Gulf Coast.
The Advocate (Louisiana)
Long stretches of Connecticut's "lifeblood" shoreline rail line lie in the path of rising seas and future floods. While moving the tracks further inland is prohibitively expensive, a resilience plan is still needed.
The Connecticut Mirror
In a segment for WNYC, journalist Simon van Zuylen-Wood discusses Amtrak's current status as a "national embarrassment." Decades of lackluster investment, he argues, make it difficult to prove demand in the first place.
WNYC
Deepa Sanyal writes the second installment of a series devoted to the idea of "Rail Redux"—this time examining the question of what components are necessary to drive a "true rail resurgence."
PlannersWeb
The last private passenger rail in the United States closed in 1983, but a private company is working on a 240-mile service between Orlando and Florida. CityLab recently detailed how a relic of the past could transform the Florida of the future.
CityLab
Ever dream of traveling from Rockland, Maine to Charlotte, North Carolina without using a car? With the Northeast Rail Map you can plan your journey via the East Coast's long-distance, regional, metropolitan, and heritage rail lines.
Greater Greater Washington
Ever travel to a foreign country and gaze longingly at their sleek modern rail stock? Pardon my wandering eye, but passenger trains in the U.S. are undeniably ugly. New rules being developed by the FRA could ease the import of foreign beauties.
Next City
Unless these states come to an agreement with Amtrak by Oct. 16 to help subsidize regional rail service, required by the Passenger Rail Investment & Improvement Act of 2008, Amtrak will cease operating them. Agreements were reached with 16 states.
Governing
In 19 states across America, "small-town mayors, state budget hawks and fans of passenger rail" are debating whether to subsidize passenger rail service or see it disappear thanks to a 2008 Congressional mandate. States have until Oct. 1 to pony up.
The Wall Street Journal
The latter half of the twentieth century saw the slow decline of train travel and the deterioration of America's grand railroad stations. Amid growing rail readership, the country is embarking on a new era of station construction.
Urban Land
