Latest on my Substack - my darkhorse for the most important passenger rail project going on in America today, and how it will greatly benefit Amtrak most: open.substack.com/pub/phriendl...

London can teach us a lot about transit, but not just us in Baltimore—us in the entire United States 🇺🇸 Had a blast doing this video and visiting family in the UK. youtu.be/2TY99n5jtmU

Je suis à un niveau avec mon français où je comprends beaucoup, mais je ne peux pas répondre avec la même vitesse ou énergie. Mon père n'a jamais parlé français avec nous, conversationnellement, donc quand je vais à Montréal, je réapprends, constantement.

We need to stop treating urban and rural America like misbehaving children and spend real money to fix them. And, yes, that means not giving so much to suburbia. open.substack.com/pub/phriendl...

Urbanists don't talk enough about transit safety - and we need to change that. The murder of Iryna Zarutska wasn't the 1st murder of a woman on transit by a deranged man, and won't be the last. We need to fix so many things - and I write about them here: open.substack.com/pub/phriendl...

This is NICHE, but every time the MARC gets to Halethorpe, the auto voice says you can transfer to the “UMBC Shuttle” (fair) “and CityLink Yellow” The Yellow runs limited service + is a 16min walk up a steep incline to get to Washington & Ridge where it stops. Hardly a transfer.

The mainstream press in the U.S. candidly don’t know much about trains or passenger rail. YES—the new Acela IS slow, but you’re not giving the “why,” so here it is. A stop-by-stop breakdown on WHY the fastest train in the Americas is hardly fast at all: open.substack.com/pub/phriendl...

I see comments that say there should be "more positive content" about U.S. public transportation - and yes, good news is great. BUT - your wish for "more positive content" doesn't negate the fact that there's some AWFUL transit in this country that deserves to be criticized.

Another great @phriendlyphotog.bsky.social video showing exactly how much the light rail crawls as a streetcar on Howard Street solely because the City refuses to give it gates and signal priority

Rode the Penn Shuttle and timed how long the light rail takes to get thru the much maligned Howard Street corridor. Red light stops alone lead to lots of people saying they may never take the mode again, and who can blame them? youtu.be/6p9ZbX68nrw?...

This graphic is from a group OPPOSED to transit funding. See that green line? If you blink, you’ll miss it. That’s what’s needed to keep public transit afloat in PA. Condition funding, fine, but don’t act like it was ever going to sink PA. That’s a lie not even the transit detractors can sell.

Got frustrated this year with heat delays, so I made an explainer to educate on how summer can k*ll your commute: youtu.be/A2QnTf58zQM?...

Boston's MBTA can teach us a lot of what to do and what not to do when it comes to mass transit - still loved riding it tho: youtu.be/PKICgzDlh7s?...

If you're proposing a transit project that doesn't have value capture built-in, you aren't proposing the right project, and need to go back to the drawing board. There's not a single transportation project that JUST does transportation of human beings ON EARTH that entirely funds itself on tickets.

Call and email GOP PA state senators and tell them they need to fund SEPTA. They are holding up funding in the PA General Assembly.

You didn't choose driving. The U.S. government did for you. phriendlyphotog.substack.com/p/you-didnt-...

So many federally funded contracts expired today and there is terrible communication so people aren’t sure what to do… stay in their jobs, leave, take vacation, keep working… the chaos across communities is hard to explain. And people are scared to complain and face retaliation.

Remember, people less qualified than you are doing the things you don't think you can do. Get out of your own way and keep pushing forward. You are enough!

I did something new on the YouTube channel and built a Baltimore transit map on @metrodreamin.bsky.social This video's long, but you can hop thru it in the description and not get too caught up in the 58min timestamp lol www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7fL...

Bikeshare is America’s most slamdunk transit asset, and we need way more programs: open.substack.com/pub/phriendl...

Phil (Phriendly Photog) phriendlyphotog.substack.com/subscribe?pa...

Started a substack for my transit ranting - first post here: substack.com/@phriendlyph...

Transit social media has this incessant insistence that we need to elevate the positive, despite the exact opposite being true in the data. My videos on “this funding squabble is bad” get thousands of views. My videos on—‘here’s a plan to INCREASE funding!’ get crickets lol

I dived into the new BMore Bus plan put out this week by @mta.maryland.gov to see how it could transform bus service in the Baltimore region: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX7b...

There will be—and likely are right now—Type 1 diabetics in ICE custody who, due to language limitations or general chaos of being arrested unprepared, are w/o food, insulin, a glucose meter, fresh supplies, etc. who will brush with death or die in custody. My heart is broken.

We need to build *actual* BRT in America: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSL0...

I was only in England a little more than a week, and @mta.maryland.gov is doing diesel cab locomotives on the Penn Line?

An idea as to what platform screen doors would look like at a DC metro stop, that isn’t a rendering. This is Westminster station on London’s Jubilee Line.

The guy who killed those two Israeli embassy employees thinks he’s Luigi Mangione, but the difference is Luigi Mangione didn’t kill anyone.

Folks—

Absolutely insane thread. Insane!

Shot. Chaser.

US cities need to stop acting like the only good transit ideas come from Europe and Asia youtu.be/Fbbw8oxch4U?...

“After generations of traffic engineering intended to make driving easier – at a cost to everyone else – we can’t expect all street users to follow the same rules.” nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/05/19/c...

A tornado ripped the roof off of the Merritt in Canton. 👇🏼 (Drone shot by Ulysses Muñoz) @thebaltimorebanner.com www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/cl...

Said it before, I will say it again. Whatever the Premier says, this is not transportation policy. It's an dogmatic position on who has the right to use public space and how. www.thestar.com/politics/pro...

“Philadelphia isn’t a real place” isn’t just a meme—the mayor who ordered the MOVE bombing got RE-ELECTED

Three Texas House bills are trying to kill Austin’s light rail, Dallas DART, and defund bike lanes across the state! Please help us by calling these representatives ASAP and tell them you oppose anti-transit bills HB 3879, HB 3187, and HB 4348.

Today is the 111th birthday of Viola Ford Fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre

Broad daylight. 85 year old driver of an SUV kills a priest

Today is National Train Day. We must save our intracity rail transit and intercity rail systems that are under attack. Transit is absolutely essential for supporting and stimulating local economies all across the country with value well beyond simply moving people from A to B.

"Stop playing games and fund the damn trains." - @phriendlyphotog.bsky.social youtu.be/SLQICWHumTg?...

SEPTA’s funding gap isn’t gonna just hurt every day transportation, it’s gonna hurt big time next summer during the FIFA World Cup— youtu.be/SLQICWHumTg?...

Docked bikeshare w/ e-bikes and regular bikes should be in every single 🇺🇸 city. It’s a great equalizer in a way we’re told the car is. I’m not talking about every bo-dunk suburb. I mean within the city limits—the CITY—every 🇺🇸 one should have this. It’s phenomenally cheap for what you get.

Another great video on local transit issues by @phriendlyphotog.bsky.social

Between major layoffs at Amtrak today and the gutting of any high-speed rail the world’s largest economy could have had (CAHSR), the next three years will be the worst for transit and rail in the modern era. But I'm sure there will be billions for more highway lanes.

Another great deep dive into Baltimore area transit by @phriendlyphotog.bsky.social

These videos on Maryland transit by @phriendlyphotog.bsky.social are great www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lhq...