Line 5 and 6 can be the prime examples of Jumping-out-hole-we-dug-for-oursevles-ism. I still remember the time when I saw the TTC getting award for best transit system in NA (2017-ish). H(C)opium: maybe Line 3 can avoid these pitfalls and try to build a REM-esque service in Toronto.

I wrote a thing. Build trams, but build them well. Understanding what tramways are, what they do best and how to employ them. open.substack.com/pub/marcochi...

Bill C-15 for Toronto-Quebec City High-Speed Rail (TQHSR) has been tabled for first reading in the Canadian Parliament. www.parl.ca/DocumentView...

An update:

It's an honor and pleasure to be named to City & State's "2025" Unsung Heroes" list. I have to also shout out the amazing volunteers at QueensLink who make it look easy when it's not. www.cityandstateny.com/power-lists/...

New Marron survey of 400+ subway lines across the world from London to Paris to Shanghai finds just 6% still use two-person train operation, which would be required by a TWU-backed bill. “It doesn’t really matter to us what the data shows,” says TWU boss Samuelsen www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/n...

We dropped a new report re: train operations, everyone’s favorite topic. There’s some backstory that we will get too. But, the basic takeaway is modern train systems have moved away from two-person train ops. New York should, too! transitcosts.com/Train_Operat...

↓Mood for the rest of the day

@ndhapple.bsky.social Hey look they are looking to make the descendant of the traincar in our acceleration curves tables

If only we have some land-based alternative that can move a lot more people on a dedicated alignment... You know, to compensate for the loss in flying capacity...especially for this route, too.

Scared about kill switches in buses Norway bought from China? How about trains in Poland with something similar but even more malevolent 👇 jonworth.eu/newags-digit... Ah no, not China, so doesn't generate the same fuss 🤷‍♂️

I've done something that I don't do very often. I wrote a short, quick polemic post. It was prompted by a discussion in here. It's about why I'm still skeptical about ALTO's HSR project and why there is no way around transparency in public projects. open.substack.com/pub/marcochi...

The Canadian 2025 budget tabled by the Carney administration, describes the Alto HSR project in a very specific, defined goal. The full budget can be found here budget.canada.ca/2025/home-ac... 1/thread

You know what? A better city is possible.

I finally completed my second long form post dedicated to the problem of High Speed Rail and the city, or "who goes with whom in the puzzle of traffic separation around large urban areas?" I hope you enjoy. open.substack.com/pub/marcochi...

The NEW, interactive website for our NEC report (by @alonlevy.bsky.social) is ready! nec.transitcosts.com

We will discuss free buses for at least the next year! Free buses are okay. Faster, more frequent buses and a more expansive fair fares is better. Let’s translate @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social’s enthusiasm for buses into real change in the next administration: www.npr.org/2025/10/16/n...

“Massive NY tunnel and subway projects still alive,“ “DOT has no plans to end the multibillion-dollar Gateway tunnel and Second Ave Subway projects, an administration official told POLITICO a day after the president said they had been ‘terminated.’” subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025...

Meanwhile in New York City...

I just can't get over the differences in scale between Ballard Link's Westlake Station as proposed and the original Westlake Station, off to the left.

What's the incentive for politicians when they get reflected even if Metrolinx's leadership set money on fire in Dundas Square. Ontarians deserve that because they voted for that.

🚌 Strategies used to turnaround Akron’s bus system: 1. CEO used to be a bus driver, now rides the bus with customers 2. Run buses every 15 minutes, 7 days a week 3. Concentrate on most needed services 4. Reduce job requirements “If we’re not using our product, why should anybody else use it?”

NYC: we need a ventilation building for air intake and smoke extraction, so it's at least 40 feet above street level. Actually, we need two for each station. NFPA 130: extraction/intake should be a couple of feet above street level, so one can't park above it. Copenhagen:

My review of Toronto’s new Mass timber tower: a quiet triumph. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

This concise description is not stressed enough. With urban rail there are more benefit to apply quad tracks instead of continuously adapt bypass track designs on certain high-throughput corridors over longer distances. Even so when commuter rail and urban rail share the same corridor.

Not sure if Transit Bluesky missed this, but the FTA is seeking public comment from all transit stakeholders on streamlining and improving the Capital Investment Grants (CIG) process. Comments are due in 3 days! www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

When I commuted from San Francisco to study at Stanford in the late 1980s, the San Francisco peninsula rail line @caltrain.com was a primary limiting factor on my education. It ran every two hours and stopped at 10 PM. Why? 🧵 1/

House GOP released proposed appropriations for FY 2026 for housing & transportation, proposing: —$2 b increase in highway funds—but a $1.8 b cut in transit spending, essentially eliminating new grants for transit lines. —$900 m decrease in housing funds, including no new funds for the HOME program.

Mamdani, campaigning for bus improvements: "Speeding up buses isn't complicated... all the tools are in the power of City Hall... we just need a mayor who will deliver for the more than one million New Yorkers who ride the bus every day."

Hong Kong announced funding schedules Phase 1 of the MTR Northern Link. By moving to mainland standards, the legislative committee claims the cost has been reduced to 39.1 Billion HKD and a firm opening date no more later than 2034. www.stheadline.com/society/3471...

Bringing in HSR to city centers has always been a touchy subject, even for Chinese cities. Barring Shanghai and Beijing, many other Tier I/II cities first introduces HSR at a location 10-20km from the traditional center and then considers how to introduce it into the city center in the next wave.

If there is one single thing that the R211 series designs have done right, it would be the generous application of exterior and interior LCD displays. Just saw a passenger enthusiastically filming two R211s running between each other with grin on their face.

HTML Post of Momentum is up. Reposting this after a memorable early morning Amtrak trip highlighted by failing Acela I equipement (Ch. 9.1) and ACS64/ Amfleet I intercity cars (Ch. 9.2) that came to the rescue for the stranded passengers. Fleet and route modernization cannot come soon enough!

This reflects my priors re: how Mamdani will actually govern. It’s always nice when history provides some support. New York’s longest serving mayors found a way to build coalitions across divides. I hope we see that again: open.substack.com/pub/culturea...

The informatic system of the Go at union just continue to remind me how sad the current fallout between olde Canafian Railroaders and DB is. Their IT infrastructure is ready for the Go to become a regional system yet the mindset seemingly isn't.

Technical pragmaticism is always easiest to say and hardest to do.

One lesson that man learns from history, is that man seldomly learn from history. Or so I am told.

Only if there is another intercity alternative that gets people where they want to go.

"...describing (and prescribing) its apparent characteristics minutely, as the North American planning practice tends to do as a form of comfort and professional assurance...“ Which ties in nicely with @ndhapple.bsky.social's commentary: 1/3

On the back of further Amtrak fleet deteriorations, United Airlines capitalizes on this opportunity to revise their Newark - Reagan air shuttle service to be 17 daily round trips using the CRJ550 planes. www.aeroroutes.com/eng/250407-u...

この世界は好都合に未完成 だから知りたいんだ

And this is just road construction rising in costs. Imagine what has happened for Rail.

I guess the subway riders who are "the elite few" are not afraid the cold and decided to show up to the Broadway shows en masse.

Add 1 more meter on this particular standard and this platform qualifies as the minimum width for a 4-car Chinese subway platform too. Ontario design stanadards are bonkers.

You love to see it. Transparency in procurement is much needed: www.politico.com/news/2025/01...

The US Department of Transportation is awarding QueensLink $400k as part of the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program! 🥳 We intend to use this funding to perform a study to measure the social, environmental, economic, and equitable impacts of #RailsandTrails on the Rockaway Beach Branch! 🚉🌳

A rather funny example of public transit being a scapegoat of something largely irrlevant, certainly along the weirdest instances this happened yet again

Can't wait to partake in that cross-country train film idea sometime in the very distant future. Also if you feel like the storyboard is a go, let's do it too.

Official Press Release Photos of the CR450 Series. Image Via CCTV News