Best reporting I've seen to date on what last week's @airresources.bsky.social vote could mean for Muni: cuts to free and reduced-fare programs, and a big gap in capital funding for the upgrades to the train control system.

There's an interesting political lesson here. SMART went to the voters in 2020 (pre covid) and got crushed, barely clearing 50%. Since then they have seen an explosion in ridership thanks to (1) new and better management and (2) free fares for youth and seniors.

CARB has been a repeat villain in quiet wonky policy choices that actually have big consequences for pollution and getting things done in California. Two prior examples: - Dis-incentivizing electric trolly-buses - Pushing hydrogen/battery train incentives (a scam) over proven electrified trains

Worth noting that the loan to operators that bridges the gap between July 1st and if/when the Connect Bay Area act funds are disbursed, the loan that keeps transit funded consistently, is funded through the TCIRP program that @airresources.bsky.social just voted to gut 🙃🙃🙃

How can @airresources.bsky.social claim to be prioritizing climate goals and affordability when their MDI will push us past our 2030 climate goals and gut funding for transit and affordable housing?

Wild that Free Muni for youth, seniors and people with disabilities is one of THE SMALLER programs on the chopping block if Gavin's appointees on the Air Resources Board approve the big cuts to transit, affordable housing, and clean air programs. Rally at noon! actionnetwork.org/events/emerg...

Early 2026 transit data is in today, & SF is seeing a mini rail boom with Muni ridership up 15% & BART ridership up 12% compared to last year SEPTA (Philly, 9.2%) and WMATA (DC, +6.8%) are also seeing strong growth, while the MBTA (Boston) & MTS (San Diego) are losing riders🧵

Mary Fong Lau, the 80 year old woman who killed four people including a baby and a toddler after crashing into a bus stop going 75mph the wrong way down a 25mph street, has been sentenced to probation and will not permanently lose her drivers' license. This is a despicable miscarriage of justice.

Arrivederci 🫡

Yay, SB63 signed into law, authorizing a regional transit funding measure for the SF Bay Area, essential to save and improve service for BART, Muni, AC Transit, Caltrain! Bill allows a signature-gathering effort that would passage with 50%+1 of the vote. www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/u...

Very neat paper www.brookings.edu/wp-content/u...

To put this loan amount in perspective: California is spending $500 million to widen a 10-mile stretch of Highway 37 in the northern Bay Area (through a wetland, no less). But $750 million to save the *entire* Bay Area’s transit systems is apparently infeasible.

Gov Newsom still hasn't signed the $750m loan to Bay Area transit agencies that would get us to the Nov 2026 funding votes. He has eight days to act. Please take a moment to call his office at (916) 445-2841 and use the attached script, copied from a @transbaycoalition.bsky.social.

Across Philadelphia and its suburbs, commuters are bracing for a dramatic reduction in public transportation after state lawmakers were unable to agree on how to fund the struggling system. SEPTA officials have called it a “death spiral.”

might get crucified for this but I think they all suck. if you’re going to brand these as “super different/fleet of the future,” then don’t make them look like the same trains that are from the 70s. be bold! do something totally new and interesting!

Contrast this to another west coast agency that is trying to light as much money on fire as possible while building a rapid transit extension

Troubling findings in this new UCLA report: Americans are taking far fewer trips than they did before the pandemic. When they do travel, they've shifted toward driving and away from transit. Those trends are particularly pronounced among youths 15-29. escholarship.org/uc/item/3gd0...

Some good news is that ridership on the Bay Area's Caltrain continues to skyrocket in the wake of the route's electrification—passenger counts are up 79% compared to this time last June

5. People in my industry (transit) have an extremely hard time relating to average riders and desperately need either full-time advisors or to test messaging and products *far* more and *constantly*. It's more important to talk to people unfamiliar with the system than people who know it well.

How does an agency like the TTC have the online presence of an insecure 10 year old boy who can’t make a 3 point shot in front of somebody they like

Lots to unpack on Gov. Newsom’s May Revise and its impact on transit. Here’s what we know. The MR’s Cap-and-Invest Plan effectively resets the Cap-and-Trade Expenditure Plan established in 2014 as well as years of budget actions to direct multi-year funding to various programs. 1/X

Tom, context matters. In April we had 26 overruns from over 213,000+ 🔴🚇station stops which is a 99.99% reliability rate & overruns are not considered a safety issue by federal database or other peer agencies as it simply does not pose a safety risk. ATO is safer operations.

How does anybody involved with the SJJPA think this is acceptable to passengers. This is embarrassing for any train service. They market this nonsense as a SF to LA option, with worse amenities than a youth sports post-loss team snack spread?

mood

Most rail services in the US still use polluting diesel locomotives. Recently, our commuter rail system in San Francisco, @caltrain.com, was electrified. Good news: we found DRAMATIC air quality improvements once the electric trains replaced the diesels. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

cutting bus lines off of market street for the past several years and then allowing Waymo to get exclusive access is certainly a choice…

The market getting centel’d today was not what I thought was going to happen, but then again, when is anything predicable nowadays

Santa Clara County officials killed the 9-county regional measure which was supposed to be on the 2026 ballot, and now they have opted out of the latest ballot measure to save BART and co. -- all while receiving a BART extension into Downtown San Jose costing a gorillion dollars

I don’t think I’ve seen a more tone deaf communications campaign. Negotiating team asks ATU to hold off so their board can re-asses their position tomorrow, then comms goes on the assault promoting a narrative which is demonstrably false. Literally amateur hour down south, Freudian slips inclusive

oh joy now we have Canadian civil war discourse

San Francisco Transit Operator Day is this Tuesday. Ride Muni! Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your neighbors friends. And read this article in Mission Local: missionlocal.org/2025/03/this...

Couple of awesome #MBTAjobs folks should consider applying for: 1) Senior Manager of Fare Policy & Analytics, on an excellent team adjacent to mine www.governmentjobs.com/careers/mbta... 2) GIS manager supporting engineering and asset management www.governmentjobs.com/careers/mbta...

I'm reading Ezra's column that adapts his Abundance book, and he's using California high-speed rail as the example of liberal America's inability to build. And I ctrl-F "consultants," and find nothing. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/09/o...

How is metro north paying ~$20M per locomotive for some untested vaporware product that hasn’t been tested and isn’t even projected to exist in a serviceable condition until after Penn Station Access (which these are supposedly being bought to serve) is supposed to open. Truly what are they cooking.

new S(ubstack)-Bahn post: It feels comically small stakes to write about the state and the prospects of American public transit in the breakneck throes of a second Trump administration -- but I put together 11 thoughts I have been gestating for a long time www.substack-bahn.net/p/end-of-the...

Always is fun to come back here and still be amazed at the sheer number of people this system moves

So are we the 11th province now

MTA suggesting that you'd need to go through NEPA to shut down congestion pricing is lol, dare I say it, L M A O storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The TTC is an embarrassment at this point. Every train runs slower than jabba the hutt moves, they have derailments and then lie harder than the north korean propaganda agencies about the causes (until the truth inevitably comes out) and can’t even fire the chief executive properly. Shameful.

evergreen

30 years ago, Breda meets world. The first car arrived a month earlier, but various complications (such as its size, it hit multiple poles and walls when they first ran it around the yard) caused the public presentation to be delayed. 30 years later, less than 60 cars remain.

Imagine being Chris Paul No rings, and your legacy is 1) rejected trade and 2) this

The fix is in already 💀

It's time to modify CA ICT and turn it primarily into an ops grant program that scores proposals on mode shift impact. The current structure is pushing agencies toward risky tech with high operational overhead at the exact time there is no room for ops overhead.

Alstom disasterclass with a new high speed train?? Impossible! Totally haven’t heard that before. Who could imagine such a crazy situation??? www.lesechos.fr/industrie-se...

today is just international trade malpractice day