Uday Schultz
@a320lga.bsky.social
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I like trains. Opinions mine. he/him blog:
https://homesignalblog.wordpress.com/
reposted by
Uday Schultz
24 days ago
BART is planning changes for platform assignments at Daly City that will balance headways and enable more cross platform transfers at Bay Fair and MacArthur.
bart.legistar.com/LegislationD...
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As manufacturing continues moving southwards and outwards from cities, it's fascinating to watch new clusters emerge. A good example: the string of 5 steel mills north of Memphis. They're low-profile and (relatively) low-employment--but are now the most significant group of plants outside of Chicago
about 1 month ago
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Today is Conrail day! 50 years on, Iād suggest we remember its least credited legacy: the Northeast Corridor. Without the region-wide network planning exercise that created Conrail, the NEC would still be full of freightāas it was until the 70s. Since Conrail, that feat has never been repeated.
about 1 month ago
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This train is one of many that exports New York City's export trash to a network of landfills and incinerators across the eastern United States. As urban landfills reach capacity, arrangements like this one will likely become more common.
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about 2 months ago
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reposted by
Uday Schultz
Aden Y
2 months ago
From my newest (and first!) substack post
open.substack.com/pub/adenyaco...
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SEPTA Slow Down on the D Lines: Part 1
And the beginning of a blog...
https://open.substack.com/pub/adenyacobi/p/septa-slow-down-on-the-d-lines-part?r=8cxkx&utm_medium=ios
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I may write about this more formally at some point, but the degree to which NS's cut-service-and-hike-rates strategy completely kneecapped their Crescent Corridor partnership with states to decongest I-81 is nuts. After billions in govt investment, train service is now *slower* than it was before.
4 months ago
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reposted by
Uday Schultz
Brendan Dawe
4 months ago
So, Brendan, Why is the Millennium Line Bad?
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Earlier this fall, I noticed something odd going on with rail service on Los Angeles's C line. So, I wrote about it, because I could not have asked for a more perfect encapsulation of how schedule design can drive service outcomes.
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2026/01/03/a...
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A Study in Schedule Design
From time to time, I enjoy browsing the LA Metro subreddit. A creature of the East Coast, I am forever fascinated by the Los Angelesās preculiar mix of ambition and ambivalence around transitā¦
https://homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2026/01/03/a-study-in-schedule-design/
4 months ago
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All the Toronto streetcar discourse has had me looking at a lot of TTC stringlines, and I must say, it seems there's an incredibly opportunity for quick improvement there with some basic terminal ops fixes. Why was nearly every streetcar *entering service* on this random wednesday late?
5 months ago
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A few years ago, I wrote a long piece about why NS wanted to bulldoze part of a neighborhood on Chicago's South Side to expand an intermodal yard.
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2023/07/18/c...
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Chicagoās Railroad Problem
In February 2023, two thousand feet of Chicagoās South Normal Boulevard disappeared. The streetās end came at the hands of Norfolk Southernās 47th Street intermodal terminal, a facility which movesā¦
https://homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2023/07/18/chicagos-railroad-problem/
5 months ago
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Reading the UP/NS merger app alongside CP/KCS, you really get a sense for how railroad managements' read of the pax rail environment differs now vs 2021 In 2021, "expansion of psgr svc" made an appearance in the CEO's statement. Now? Just procedural assurances that the merger won't break anything
5 months ago
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Such an elemental yet overlooked reality of planning. If you don't: - Design a new route to add value to the network overall - Make changes to the existing network to incorporate the new asset ...you're kneecapping yourself. A key part of transit hist:
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2024/07/12/t...
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5 months ago
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A few weeks ago, PATH announced a series of service expansions that will finally reverse this trend. Though paired with a rather steep fare increase, these changes will finally put weekend PATH service levels above where they were 25 years ago. Huge congrats to all the advicates who made this happen
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5 months ago
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reposted by
Uday Schultz
Steven Lucy
7 months ago
This is insane. ICE raided an apartment building in South Shore (a 90%+ Black neighborhood) at 10pm, using chainsaws to gain access and throwing flash bangs. According to witnesses they just handcuffed everyone, with people who werenāt arrested being held for over five hours.
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hello from the central valley
7 months ago
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reposted by
Uday Schultz
David Schleef
8 months ago
I created stringline diagrams for the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit schedule, following up on discussions about why SMART can't run a 30 minute Takt. It's currently running a 32-minute Takt after opening the Novato Downtown and Petaluma North infill stations.
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Uday Schultz
Alex Wolford
8 months ago
New story about trains and corporate mergers, and why you should never ever stop spending money on the railroads.
medium.com/p/c6ab8375d4f0
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Who are the Railroads For?
On Mergers, Electrification, and Nationalization
https://medium.com/p/c6ab8375d4f0
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Tangential to Stephen's point, but we really need to bring back the art of the high-profile government-sponsored market research report. At the height of Progressive scientific management fever dream-ism, this sort of thing would become a 1,000 page report called "The Grocery Question" or something
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9 months ago
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A lot has happened to PATH in the past 25 years -- 9/11, major construction work, COVID, etc. But consistent across all of these events have been ensuing reductions in off-pk service levels: since 2005, the number of PATH trips crossing the Hudson on Saturdays has fallen by *50%*
10 months ago
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You really begin to see the divergence between the US and everywhere else when you compare this map (18% double track, 1950) to Italy, where about 26% of the network was double track in 1956.
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10 months ago
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At a high level, this is a good thing. Railroads suffer massively from the friction inherent to carrier handoffs. Mergers can mitigate that, potentially opening new markets and allowing more effective competition w already continent-spanning trucking companies.
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10 months ago
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A few months ago, I paid a visit to Boston and spent some quality time with the MBTAās bus service. After spending a while digging through Tās (excellent) open data, I had some Thoughts to share about the experienceāand bus operations in general.
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2025/06/29/h...
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How a Bus Route Falls Apart
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 ā¦
https://homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2025/06/29/how-a-bus-route-falls-apart/
11 months ago
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Going to publish a much longer look at bus operations soon, but it is just _incredible_ how significant the trip-level effects on performance are, even on fairly frequent routes. Two examples from the MBTA's network:
11 months ago
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For my money, one of the greatest gaps in benchmarking practice surrounds the *tactics* of service management ā how different systems respond to incidents, gaps, congestion and so on. Gaining that knowledge just got a good bit easier, thanks to this incredible new tool:
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11 months ago
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Uday Schultz
Marco Chitti
12 months ago
No only there will be zero accountability. There will be zero lessons learned from the errors of this project because we will never know what went wrong. So we will start from zero and make the same mistakes again and again and again...
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Continuing my series of posts on the railroad industry's immense challenges managing complexity and market alignment, I have (finally) finished some thoughts on the trajectory of railroading's growth engine: intermodal
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2025/05/11/w...
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Why Railroadingās Growth Engine Might Be Stalling
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 aroā¦
https://homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2025/05/11/why-railroadings-growth-engine-might-be-stalling/
about 1 year ago
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reposted by
Uday Schultz
Christopher Mims
about 1 year ago
āMommy, no. Mommy.ā Daughter captures the moment masked ICE agents smash the window of her mother's car in order to take her into custody. The government claims the 52-year old seamstress is an associate of the MS-13 gang.
www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/lo...
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Rejected at her door, ICE nabs a Maryland woman in her car after smashing her window
Video shows a U.S. ICE agents breaking the window of a Maryland woman, Elsy Noemi Berrios, after failing to detain her at home.
https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/local-news/video-ice-arrest-wesminster-elsy-noemi-berrios-QJ7CIME76ZGPZEBW5C3REEPZ6E/
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This is an excellent post, well worth your time to read. When contrasting this history to the US, it's hard to overstate the deleterious impacts of fragmentation on investment. Marco's emphasis on the importance of nationalization is critical!
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about 1 year ago
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Theoretically, dispatching buses to a timetable w/ accurate running times should yield similar levels of service consistency on most routes as pure headway management (so long as timepoints are well-placed). But I feel like I'm missing something--anyone have reading recs?
about 1 year ago
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Uday Schultz
Prem Thakker ć
about 1 year ago
Consider this. 6 people in plainclothes approach you, and begin to cover their faces. At least one appears armed. As they grab your phone and backpack, they do not prove who they are. They say they're going to take you, but they're not saying why. What would you call that?
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read the quote. then read the date at top. then ponder the nature of railroad management and investment markets.
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about 1 year ago
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The whole case for the expansion is predicated on two incorrect suppositions about traffic trends - Truck traffic growing due to port expansion [it hasn't] - Car volumes growing due to development [they're flat vs 2010, when JC/Bayonne were 15% smaller]
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2023/07/08/d...
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about 1 year ago
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reposted by
Uday Schultz
Marco Chitti
about 1 year ago
Here is my latest long post on Substack about the Long Modernization of the Italian Railways. I tried to capture how the railways in Italy (and elsewhere) remained relevant to today's world and what this history teaches us. I hope you'll enjoy it.
open.substack.com/pub/marcochi...
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The Long Modernization of the Italian Railways
Why High-Speed Rail is not the only modern rail.
https://open.substack.com/pub/marcochitti/p/the-long-modernization-of-the-italian?r=1rjrgo&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
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siri, whatās a strawman?
www.aar.org/news/study-c...
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Study Confirms Catenary System Infeasible for U.S. Freight Rail NetworkĀ - Association of American Railroads
Analysis Underscores Need for Continued Alternative Fuel ResearchĀ WASHINGTON, D.C. ā February 26, 2025 ā The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today released a new independent analysis highligh...
https://www.aar.org/news/study-confirms-catenary-system-infeasible-for-u-s-freight-rail-network/#
about 1 year ago
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It's a lost nuance in transit's financial history, but these observations on the relationship between off-peak demand and overall profitability remain extremely relevant to system design discussions today:
over 1 year ago
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well this is quite the anecdote
over 1 year ago
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scenes from the chemical coast
over 1 year ago
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These constant fights over passenger priority are depressing on several levels. Of course, freight railroad mistreatment of passenger svc is bad--but the convo currently misses that it's essentially inevitable with our current rail operations paradigm in the US.
www.trains.com/trn/news-rev...
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Class I railroads see red over Amtrakās views on passenger train preference - Trains
WASHINGTON ā Class I railroads this week disagreed with Amtrakās contention that its passenger trains should enjoy absolute and unlimited priority over freight trains. Amtrak, as part of its complain...
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/class-i-railroads-see-red-over-amtraks-views-on-passenger-train-preference/
over 1 year ago
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"Commuting from downtown Washington DC to jobs in adjacent Montgomery County, in 1968, took between 43 and 72 minutes, depending upon the destination and assuming minimal waiting time...A suburban resident using the same route in the opposite direction spent 12 to 27 minutes less in transit."
over 1 year ago
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In 2004, when Jersey City was ~20% smaller: - PATH ran the normal weekday service pattern (at 15 min frequencies) on weekends, plus 10 min midday service on all lines. - HBLR ran 15-minute headways middays & weekends (vs 20 now)
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over 1 year ago
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if i had a nickel for each time i've visited intrepid's potash mine near moab, i'd have two nickels
over 1 year ago
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reposted by
Uday Schultz
Yonah Freemark
over 1 year ago
In Chicago: āThe planned Red Line Extension is projected to cost seven times more per mile than the Orange Line, which we completed in 1993 (thatās after adjusting for inflation).ā
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One map I have grown to hate: this one. Nostalgia for all the lost intercity trains often masks the fact that those services were dinosaurs. Some stats: - In 1954, 70% of e/b trains on the PRR from PGH left PGH 10p-5a - In 1960, 50% of the Santa Fe's Chicago-KC trains arrived in KC 10p-5a
over 1 year ago
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not to beat a dead horse, but: itās consistent across 100+ years of railroads (re-)ādiscoveringā the benefits of network planning that these plans are compromised by incomplete scheduling, imprecision, and a belief that vulgar cost minimization is OK
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2021/12/27/e...
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over 1 year ago
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Thereās an interesting analogy to be made btwn transit and freight rail networks. Historically, several transit agencies have (over-)emphasized suburb-to-downtown service over a more comprehensive route network because it provides strong loadings and isnāt that hard to run well
over 1 year ago
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allow me to put in a good word for the california zephyr
over 1 year ago
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So this is an interesting map:
over 1 year ago
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A lot of this is downstream of the fundamentally speculative build-out of the network in the west. To belabor the point: during our transcontinental railroadsā early years, their traffic base was CA/WA farm products moving to pacific ports just 1-300 miles distant.
add a skeleton here at some point
over 1 year ago
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www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/imp...
The long-awaited NAP report on long freight trains was released the other day. Tl;dr of its findings: - Long trains do indeed derail more frequently - Railroads should be required to discuss operational changes in their existing risk reduction programs
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Report shows link between manifest train length and derailments caused by train makeup and handling issues - Trains
WASHINGTON ā Long manifest trains are more likely to derail than their shorter counterparts due to excessive in-train forces ā and the number of wrecks related to train makeup and handling issues has ...
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/report-shows-link-between-manifest-train-length-and-derailments-caused-by-train-makeup-and-handling-issues/
over 1 year ago
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