When you get annoyed with people you tell them to take a hike, or get outta town.  In my case, I’d like to tell CNN to take a ride, in particular, a train ride; even more specific, a loooong train ride across America through big cities and small towns. I’d be happy to escort them.

A trio of reports have been added to the Resource Center best practices database.

An April 2012 article from the Journal of Public Transportation entitled "Bus or Rail: An Approach to Explain the Psychological Rail Factor" has been added to the Research Center best practices database. The article by Milena Scherer of ETH Zurich and Katrin Dziekan of the Berlin Institute of Technology explores whether there is an inherent preference for fixed rail transit among transit riders and why. The research found a preference for using rail, assum­ing equal service conditions, of 63 percent for regional train and 75 percent for trams compared to bus services. The rail factor is highly loaded with emotional and social attributions, the researchers note, and account for 20–50 percent of the share in the different schemata for bus, rail, and tram.

The Northeast Corridor and California are the two most promising regions where the United States should pursue high-speed rail initially, according to a new report "High-Speed Rail: International Lessons for U.S. Policy Makers."

Don't X Out Public Transportation rallies are being scheduled around the country for Sept. 20. At the rallies, public transit riders, advocates and employees will call on Congress to support public transportation by opposing proposed cuts of more than one third to federal transportation funding.

Federal Railroad Administration's Office of Railroad Policy and Development has a released a station area planning guideline designed to be a reference tool for state transportation departments and local and regional jurisdictions.

(Original Here)

The U.S. Conference of Mayors has released a report prepared by the Economic Development Research Group and sponsored by Siemens that details "The Economic Impacts of High-Speed Rail on Cities and their Metropolitan Areas."