good EPISODE. i FORCED my WIFE to listen to THE BIT about BIG LIZ she AGREED it was FUNNY

NTSB sliding in at the buzzer before government shutdown recommending SEPTA sideline all silverliner IVs (2/3rds of the regional rail fleet) until they can stop them from catching fire

There are still tons of people in the industry and around it in North America that will lie to your face or are totally oblivious to anything going on outside of NA and say that double stack trains under wire are impossible while China and India blaze on past us into the future.

The North American rail industry can't just keep acting like what they are doing now is anywhere near enough. They lack the imagination and vision they had just half a century ago. They are no longer ready to meet the demands of modern overland freight transportation without a serious shakeup.

The extent to which China has dramatically shifted over most bulk freight from trucking over to rail in the past 10 years has been dramatically underreported in the West theicct.org/publication/...

An oft-quoted claim about US freight is that it's the best in the world. The trouble is, as soon as you actually look at the data, it isn't by a long measure.

Every 5 to 10 minutes I'm on I-75/I-40 in Tennessee I see a full manifest trains worth of freight, how are NS and CSX just leaving that much on the table?

As Cheeto Benito sends the US into a recession, the cost of infrastructure projects will hurt new transit construction, so it's important to be frugal with how money is allocated. Today, I want to talk about the worst transit project in the US for this reason youtu.be/LZrrtF8Iy8k?...

This is a long shot, but I'm working on something with a friend. dose anyone have any documents on the post-WW2 General Electric proposal to the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad for electrification? I've seen it mentioned in multiple places but never have seen any documents.

Seems really not great when a chunk of the Amtrak coach fleet has become a railcar sized sacrificial electrode.

why are veterans commemoration schemes always *so* bad

now that's the GOOD SHIT

Also hello after being inactive here, trying to work on that.

Half of a million people misinformed about which corridor, which railroad, and the full scope of why it actually happened. I wouldn't be as frustrating if it wasn't essentially trashing the single best piece of freight infrastructure built in California in the past 50+ years.

They really need to make an easier way to know about new features without stumbling on an update post <2 days after each update

It's pretty damning that Alstom was able to do this with a train they didn't even fully design themselves based on an already then 20 years old Bombardier LRC cars redesigned to work with beefed up TGV power cars in 4 years meanwhile the Avelia Liberty is 6 in development hell.

I think it's time for all of my followers to go and check out an episode you probably missed! Eleven to choose from, including the original layout. www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

In July 1925, the Western Pacific ceded all their Marysville freight switching to the Sacramento Northern, inadvertently sowing the seeds for the last bastion of SN electrics. This created SN's most profitable freight venture, which saw steeplecabs switching WP freights all the way until 1965.

This email was designed in a lab to kill anyone with any understanding of engineering manufacturing limitations.

doing cool guy shit* *watching japanese railfan videos about chicago commuter trains

I think it's important that even if you've given up hope on a better future for American cities that you don't use a large platform to essentially doomer post about it. You're making it harder, not easier to fix things at that point.

Also, "I'm not an advocate for change in North America" is a total load of retroactive horseshit. Half of his videos are basically a call to action for crying out loud! Idk how you could interpret it as anything else.

Man found with shovel, still digging an extremely bleak and depressing hole 8 hours later Honestly, I'm not always hopeful about the future of all US cities but god damn I am never this outright cynical about it.

The way the nearly totally grade separated ex-MoPac now Union Pacific route through Austin essentially slices the city in half especially on the north end is pretty cursed. I'm all for grade separation but if your trying to cross it in anything other than a car your boned often.

JUSTIN ROCZNIAK: So what this is called, is a cantilever ALICE CALDWELL-KELLY: OK. JUSTIN ROCZNIAK: And on September 12th, LIAM ANDERSON: oh no

omg this photo of the Sunset Limited at Houston's old Grand Central Station @4ft8n1half.bsky.social @swolecialism.bsky.social

The US has a lot of advantages when it comes to freight rail--long distances, better equipment standards, etc--yet the combination of balkanized private ownership and political disinterest means we're really falling behind peers in leveraging that asset for climate policy.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority is currently trying to widen their highway through Jersey City. It's a really, really bad idea -- and is one not even supported by their own data. https://homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2023/07/08/dont-widen-the-turnpike/

It feels fitting to start this account off with one of my favorite photos I took while working in the industry. Looking forward to talking about rail and transport policy nerd stuff with everyone here.