Great Blog out of Minnesota that summarizes how transit planning is done now:

“At some point in our recent history, people became obsessed with trains — not with improving the usefulness of our transportation network, but with building rail lines. From the very start we have asked not “How can we improve our transit network?” but “Where should we put our next rail line?”  That makes no sense.”

Read the whole piece here:
https://www.minnpost.com/minnesota-blog-cabin/2013/11/what-are-we-trying-accomplish-southwest-light-rail