The Morning Briefing: Protests, pushing for high-speed rail

“The Morning Briefing” is SmartPlanet’s daily roundup of must-reads from the web. This morning we’re reading about high-speed rail.

1.) Russia jails four over plot to bomb high-speed train. A Russian court jailed four alleged Islamist militants on Monday for plotting to bomb a high-speed train between Moscow and St Petersburg last year.

2.) Obama pushes ahead with high-speed rail plan. Undaunted by the looming fiscal crisis, the Obama administration said that it plans to forge ahead with its signature transportation project, investing billions of dollars in a long-term effort to build a high-speed rail network.

3.) Rare Beijing protest takes aim at high-speed rail project. Authorities in Beijing allowed a rare protest to take place on Sunday against a new high-speed rail line, with about 300 demonstrators shouting slogans disrupting traffic in a busy eastern suburb.

4.) A blight on rural England: 170,000 homes already hit by high-speed rail. An estimated 172,000 homes have been blighted by plans to build a high speed rail line from London to Birmingham, the High Court has been told, as a challenge to the plans is launched.

5.) EIB financing for high-speed rail. A financing contract worth €60 million to carry out the second phase of the high-speed East European railway line was signed, on 4 December, by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Conseil Régional de Lorraine (France).

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

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