Transit

What do you all think about this article?

I will agree the A line isn’t exactly amazing, but I also don’t completely agree with some assertions and experiences from the author. The author mentions how long it takes to get to the extremes of the A line, but the A line isn’t exactly meant to travel across vast distances quickly, its meant to provide connections along its routes. I do agree it would be nice to go from Pasadena to long beach very quickly, (in the same way with the E line being able to get to santa monica from East LA quicker), but we’d need to develop an additional tracks to allow faster service and/or priority to the line. Those can be done later. It feels like for a lot of LA’s history, creating train lines is important because of how hard it is to do, and how much harder it will be in the future.

I don’t quite agree with the author’s bad experiences on the A line. Yeah there are definitely bad times where the train smells horrible, or weird alarm things happen, but it is extremely rare in my experience and hasn’t dissuaded me from using it.

Paris continues to rock it on transit construction. It takes decades to modernize and refurbish a tier 1 city's infrastructure and they're well ahead of schedule on supporting the city's needs with new metros, trams, biking, and pedestrianized infrastructure.

Viva la France!

https://web.archive.org/save/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.webuildvalue.com%2Fen%2Finfrastructure%2Fmetro-paris-subway.html

Granted they've not been able to completely get around short-haul flights just yet, but they're getting there.

It has 10-minute headway!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/30206481

As it turns out it doesn't actually cost that much on regular transit, there's an AIRPORT SURCHARGE because it's an "airport train".

No wonder Americans don't use public transit, even when the system exists it's ridiculously difficult and expensive to use.

Source

Yes, I know I'm inviting controversy with that title -- but the fact remains that Brightline has problems that make it very far from ideal. Criticism is warranted if the US is to have solid HSR at the level that Europe or Asia do.

Its about systematic underfunding of transit in big cities, especially by the trump admin.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/23394148

...

Travel for this past Sunday’s rout of the New York Giants looked a bit different for Jackson and the Ravens, who improved to 9-5 on the season before returning to Baltimore ahead of Saturday’s marquee rematch with the Pittsburgh Steelers that could decide the division. They chartered a private Amtrak train out of Baltimore’s historic Penn Station. Turns out a lot of the players prefer it to flying — at least for shorter trips.

Moving trucks, likely carrying equipment, still left the team’s Owings Mills practice facility Friday afternoon. But the whole team, including trainers and staff, made the roughly two-hour-and-change train ride north, according to a team spokesman. Some players said that train travel is physically less demanding on the body, while others like that it’s easier to hang out with each other in a train car than in a plane cabin.

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Beyond the route: Introducing granular MTA bus speed data

https://new.mta.info/article/beyond-route-introducing-granular-mta-bus-speed-data

@transit

The MTA is expanding its automated camera enforcement of bus stops and double parking to 20 more bus routes across the five boroughs this month.

The rollout is happening in two phases, with 10 routes being added to the program at a time. Starting Monday, vehicles blocking bus stops or illegally double parked on 10 new routes will receive warning notices for a 60-day period. After that, violators will receive summonses starting at $50, with fines increasing to $250 for repeat offenders. Ten more routes will be added two weeks later on Monday, Sept. 30.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19378278

There’s a new train pulling into the station in San Bernardino, a southern California city about 60 miles from Los Angeles. From the outside, it looks like any other commuter train, with three passenger carriages, blocky windows and a colourful blue exterior.

But inside, it’s unlike anything the region – or the country – has seen before. The $20m Zero-Emission Multiple Unit, known as Zemu, uses a hybrid hydrogen fuel cell and battery system to propel the train and run other onboard electrical systems. The only byproduct of the fuel cell is water vapour, a welcome change in an area known as the Inland Empire that suffers from some of the worst air quality rates in the country.

The new technology will make Zemu the first hydrogen-powered, zero-emissions passenger train in North America to meet Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) requirements when it goes into service early next year.

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Many transit agencies have started to push for battery-powered transit as a way to advertise their "eco-friendly" public transit offerings, but this is a misguided way of thinking and a bad way to spend capital — let's talk about why.

In June, Governor Kathy Hochul made the bombshell announcement that she had ordered the MTA to indefinitely pause New York City’s congestion-pricing program, just weeks before it was set to begin. The governor had once been a major proponent of the first-in-the-nation plan to charge fees to drivers traveling at or below 60th Street, but when she announced the pause, she cited concerns about the $15 toll being too much of a financial burden for everyday New Yorkers. This week, Hochul is indicating that a replacement plan could soon be on the horizon.

The New York Post reported on Sunday that Hochul is mulling significant changes to congestion pricing, including a lower toll and potentially adding new exemptions to the fee. A source told the outlet that the governor is considering excluding teachers, police officers, and firefighters who commute from paying the toll. In July, the New York Times reported that state lawmakers, who would have to sign off on a new plan, were pushing for Hochul to consider a lower toll

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At one point beginning in 1901, a traveler could easily ride via interurban rail from Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin to Little Falls, NY

https://www.sheboyganpress.com/story/news/local/2016/11/04/interurbans-meteoric-rise-then-fall/93291360/

@transit