Thoughts on transit, urbanism and industry in New York and beyond
From time to time, I enjoy browsing the LA Metro subreddit. A creature of the East Coast, I am forever fascinated by the Los Angeles s preculiar mix of ambition and ambivalence around transit and urbanism, and will find myself spending hours dwelling on discourse from the basin. In a browse back in September, I came Continue reading A Study in Schedule Design
All opinions in this post are solely my own, and do not represent the positions of my employer or any organizations of which I am part. About two months ago, I found myself waiting for a 77 bus in a Boston rainshower. Like billions of others on this planet, I do not own a car, Continue reading How a Bus Route Falls Apart
Over the past year, American railroads seem to have discovered the value in growth. After over a decade of Wall St-fueled cost-cutting and service reductions, regulatory and financial pressures around the industry seem to have turned its attention to traffic—sparking hope among industry commentators and critics alike that the 2010s’ focus on capital discipline and Continue reading Why Railroading…
For the last century, the central question of American transit planning has been how best to serve our suburbs. As people moved out of urban cores, bought cars, and began living decentralized lifestyles, the transit industry has struggled to compete. To a great extent, this history has been one driven by factors outside the direct Continue reading The Forgotten History of Light Rail
In February 2023, two thousand feet of Chicago’s South Normal Boulevard disappeared. The street’s end came at the hands of Norfolk Southern’s 47th Street intermodal terminal, a facility which moves thousands of containers a year between trains and trucks. For over a decade, the railroad had been trying to expand the yard through a over Continue reading Chicago s Railroad Problem
A year ago, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority released a plan to widen the New Jersey Turnpike Extension through Jersey City. Estimated to cost over $10 billion, the plan has earned the support of a series of construction industry groups, unions, and the state’s governor — and has run up against vigorous resistance in Jersey Continue reading Don t Widen the Turnpike
Every day, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers lurch into dusty darkness as their Manhattan-bound 4 or 5 train leaves Brooklyn’s Franklin Avenue station. As the blurred fluorescence of the station cuts to the brown-grey textures of tunnel walls, their trains speed up, and tilt uphill, following the lines of tortured topography bequeathed on Brooklyn Continue reading How We Slowed the Subway Down
If you follow my Twitter account or have read other articles on my blog, you will have likely seen a chart that looks like the above. These are what are called stringline (or Marey, or time-distance) charts, a very common tool used in transit and rail planning. Usually displayed with distance on the vertical axis Continue reading Stringlines!
Every now and then, someone on Twitter posts an image of a subway countdown clock showing an extraordinarily long wait for the next train. Sometimes, that headway is the hard reality of our transit system, beset as it is by crew shortages, long off-peak headways, and disruptive maintenance. But sometimes, that seemingly distant train is Continue reading The Subway s Broken Schedules
Since the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Amtrak expansion has become a hot-button topic. Articles in the press have examined proposed new services, discussed the future of high-speed rail, and highlighted ongoing infrastructure projects to expand the nation s passenger network. Yet these stories are as much about great challenges as they are grand plans. Continue reading Planning,…