Monthly Archives: July 2011

Quick Note: Barcelona Rail Tunnel

Posted on 2011/07/29 by

Barcelona’s rail tunnel connecting the existing high-speed rail station, Sants, with city center, has just been completed. The tunnel’s total length is 5.8 km. As for cost: The tunnel has cost over €179·3m to build, including extensive measures to protect … Continue reading →

Posted in Construction Costs, Good Transit, Urban Transit | 20 Comments

Tel Aviv Protesters’ Demands

Posted on 2011/07/28 by

The protesters on the ground in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities are often disorganized, and lack coherent goals; many have claimed that the very presence of bottom-up protest is good enough on its own (which Israeli blogger Idan Landau … Continue reading →

Posted in Israel, Politics and Society | 4 Comments

Racism and Accidents

Posted on 2011/07/27 by

As has been widely reported in the news, China had a major rail accident three days ago, killing 43 people. A positive train control system that was supposed to prevent accidents didn’t; it was reportedly shut down due to severe … Continue reading →

Posted in High-Speed Rail, Transportation | 18 Comments

Followup on the FRA and Amtrak

Posted on 2011/07/26 by

My posts about the FRA and American railroad incompetence are getting a lot of traction nowadays, thanks to links from Aaron Renn and Stephen Smith, of which the latter has been relinked by Matt Yglesias. The comments to those posts … Continue reading →

Posted in Amtrak, FRA, Incompetence, Transportation | 19 Comments

Rent Control

Posted on 2011/07/25 by

Tel Aviv’s housing protest grows, and Saturday night tens of thousands of protesters descended on HaBima Square, demanding rent control. Although I have yet to see media heavyweights on the left echo those demands – instead, they view it in … Continue reading →

Posted in Israel, New York, Politics and Society, Urbanism | 19 Comments

Uncompetitive Transit

Posted on 2011/07/22 by

In general, government at all level should be encouraging a mode shift away from cars and toward trains, using legacy lines for regional service outside urban areas. Here is a canonical example of such a proposal, unfortunately completely unofficial, in … Continue reading →

Posted in High-Speed Rail, Regional Rail, Transportation | 42 Comments

Housing Protest Ongoing in Tel Aviv

Posted on 2011/07/21 by

Over the last week or so, protesters have been occupying HaBima Square in central Tel Aviv with tents, demanding cheaper housing. Prices in Israel have been rising sharply over the last ten years, especially urban housing prices, and new urban … Continue reading →

Posted in Israel, Politics and Society, Urbanism | 13 Comments

Quick Note on Food Transportation

Posted on 2011/07/20 by

It’s a commonplace among some environmentalists that an oil- or carbon-constrained world is one where it’s prohibitively expensive to ship food long distances, and therefore people should eat local. For example, James Kunstler argues that cities will shrink and people … Continue reading →

Posted in Freight, Transportation | 59 Comments

Short-Term Versus Long-Term Transit Problems

Posted on 2011/07/19 by

Yonah has a post about the predicament facing US transit agencies in bad times. The standard sources of operating subsidy – state and local government support, dedicated taxes – are cyclical, and although federal funds could in principle bridge the … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Society | 17 Comments

Thoughts on Carmageddon

Posted on 2011/07/18 by

I’m not talking about the controversial computer game of my childhood, but about the closure of the 405 in Los Angeles for 53 hours. The predicted massive traffic jams failed to materialize, just like every time there’s a closure due … Continue reading →

Posted in Cars, Transportation | 6 Comments