Finally trying out electrified Caltrain

Furthest I've been (on land): N: 71.171°N Nordkapp, 1989; as an adult 69.715°N Nordpissen, Tromsø, 2025 E: Likely 176.378°E near Waimangu on a Wellington-Auckland bus, 2013 S: 65.065°S Port Charcot, 2020 W: 159.782°W or so in Kauai, 1988; as an adult 150.022°W Point Woronzof, Anchorage, 2013

My favorite proposals (that I hadn't already seen elsewhere) from the "1 like = 1 passenger rail project" threads:

🦋 Is this public transportation?

1 like = 1 passenger rail project idea

Today we are familiar with the enormous Chinese high-speed-rail network, but decades ago, it took a tremendous amount of work to build out the conventional rail network from its state at the proclamation of the People's Republic - mostly sparse, in ruins, and incredibly regionally concentrated

Travel threads I have posted: Antarctica-Boston without flying Nicosia-Lisbon without flying Boston-DC by local buses Berlin-Chisinau via Kyiv Austin-Quebec City without flying Berlin-Sicily by local/regional trains Berlin-Lagos without flying Berlin-Tromsø without flying

At Eidsvoll you can transfer directly from a 200km/h electric train to the 169-year-old paddle steamboat Skibladner en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skiblad..., the world's oldest operating public transport vehicle.

This time I'm heading north, starting with the slow trains from Berlin to Hamburg (since they're free with Deutschlandticket and it turned out a hostel bed in Hamburg tonight was cheaper than an early fast train to Hamburg tomorrow morning).

Apparently it's hotter than usual in Hell right now?

It's currently difficult to get very far from Europe in most directions without flying (especially with a US passport). But one path remains open, so today I'm heading southwest from Berlin towards Tangier, Dakar, and beyond.

If you see this post, quote with a bridge from your gallery.

What are the furthest points from Berlin/Europe currently reachable via publicly-available not-airplane-or-cruise-ship transport, and how would you go about reaching them?

Me at 21

What's the most underrated city in the EU?

⚠️ Achtung! Have a nice day.

What do STEM PhD dropouts do now that bigtech hiring is so much weaker than in the 2010s?

== Berlin to Pozzallo by local/regional trains == Vehicles: 32 trains, 1 ferry, 1 rail-replacement bus Distance: 2755km by train, 7km foot, 8km ferry, 100km bus In-vehicle time: ~40hr train, 20min ferry, 2hr bus Map: google.com/maps/d/edit?... Thread starts: staging.bsky.app/profile/lexa...

Enabled by Deutschlandticket (€49/month unlimited local/regional transit in Germany) & the Italia In Tour ticket (€29/3days unlimited Trenitalia regional trains), I'm planning to spend the next few days traveling from Berlin to Southern Italy entirely on local & regional trains.

we're so back

Berlin's Gärten der Welt has gardens in the style of places all over the world and... the USA garden has a parking lot with US cars. But nature is healing, wasps have infested the cars.

goblin mode

Labor productivity fell in 2023Q1 https://www.bls.gov/news.release/prod2.nr0.htm; 2022 was also negative for the year, lowest since at least the 80s. I think this is mostly lower-productivity workers rejoining the workforce but I wonder how much is attributable to the Adderall shortage?

Which North American urban areas have multiple unconnected mainline rail termini/central stations? - NYC (Penn, GCT, Atlantic, Hoboken, LIC, St George) - Chicago (Union, Oglivie, Millennium, LaSalle) - Miami (Central, Airport, Amtrak) - Dallas (Union, Trinity Mills) - Philadelphia (30th, WRTC)

Is this the worst light rail line in North America, or merely a mediocre commuter rail line?

Is this a T stop? 🦋

The original route of the Northeast Corridor (NJRR) ran alongside this canal until 1863.

It's surprising to me that (if I understand correctly) voluntarily unemployed people in Germany have to pay €210/month for mandatory health insurance, while healthcare for voluntarily unemployed people in most US states is free.

Considering travel plans for the next two months, do I know anybody who would like to meet up in any of Austin, Toronto, or Philadelphia?

Anybody want to come ride https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tshiuetin_Rail_Transportation with me sometime in the next two months?

Today I learned that since 2021 Dakar has had an electrified suburban rail line with trains every 10 minutes all day. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_express_r%C3%A9gional_Dakar-AIBD

What's going on here? Penn Station didn't exist in 1908 and I'm pretty sure no part of it ever looked like this.

Boston transit history question: when was the last time before today that an in-service train ran through from the Tremont Street (Green Line) Subway to Medford?

So what's everybody's plan for getting to Medford at 4:30am?

Is Park Street the only subway station in the world where you are allowed to walk across (one of) the tracks?

BRB&L and B6

TIL that the Berlin transit system includes a rowboat. Standard public transport tickets are accepted. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A4hrverkehr_in_Berlin#Ruderf%C3%A4hre_(F24)

"stopped" = left the airport/station at all "visited" = did things that were part of the trip purpose/not purely incidental to onward travel "stayed" = more than 10 days cumulative and 4 continuous "lived" = at least 90 days within a 180 day period https://t.co/fgBWbssifw

The Penn Station Hudson tunnel was really underused until around 2000. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gjQ0eGFmgd7MXMLBYypezH3PJmnO2SRStcvC-PQHa-8/edit#gid=2009565902

Apparently in 1925 buses on Fifth Ave in NYC ran significantly more frequently than the city's trolley lines (average headways of ~22 seconds vs ~109 seconds) & this was considered something of a point in favour of buses over trolleys. https://t.co/aUA2F4hRdw

The pandemic drove US transit ridership down to levels not seen since the 19th century. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1E_H9-4yuMO2RyJpF6noYIkHv10PMGRm5fXEdrQGMoDo/edit#gid=536731106

S-Bahns of Europe, coloured by frequency (red at least every 20 minutes all day weekdays, orange at least every 60, yellow less frequent or peak-only). Systems included if they call themselves "S-" & use S[number] line designations, regardless of operating characteristics.

Airports with direct trolleybus service: CLJ GVA HRK IEV KIV MEX SIP SZG and probably others. Also LWO and ODS but those are currently suspended.

After spending the past month in Germany I'm heading east for a few days.

Given some of the other things US rail regulators are strict about, I'm surprised by the willingness to have a station stop on a superelevated curve with the train just leaning over sharply. (e.g. SEPTA at Claymont, NJT at Walnut Street)

Checking out some of the Philadelphia rail transit I missed on my local-bus-only journey south.

The @SEPTA fare chart implies that with a Key card Wilmington-Trenton via Center City costs less ($6.50) than Center City-Trenton ($8.25)? (My guess is that in fact they both cost $8.25.)