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Category Archives: Providence
Can HSR Connect Hartford and Providence?
If new high-speed rail construction has to largely follow Interstate corridors, then a new line from New Haven to Boston can serve either Providence on I-95 or Hartford on I-91/84/90, but not both. However, there’s still the possibility of building … Continue reading
Posted in High-Speed Rail, Providence, Transportation
101 Comments
The Different Cities We Inhabit
I do not know many people who live in Boston proper. I know about a hundred who live in the Greater Boston area, but only a small minority lives in the city proper, as is of course true in general. … Continue reading
Posted in Personal/Admin, Politics and Society, Providence, Urbanism
13 Comments
Troll Rail Projects
In lieu of a real post, I want to discuss a few possible rail projects that are not completely thought-out. By this I mean rail projects that probably have critical constructibility and cost problems, but not obvious ones. They lie … Continue reading
Posted in High-Speed Rail, New York, Providence, Regional Rail, Transportation
83 Comments
Core Connectors and In-Between Neighborhoods
In some American cities, new or proposed transit lines are either core connectors, i.e. city-center circulator streetcars built for development purposes, or far-flung commuter rail extensions with few urban stops. Both are present in Providence, with the South County extension … Continue reading
Providence: Busy Versus Frequent Buses
While trying to come up with a good proposal for upgraded buses or streetcars in Providence, I tried to base route decisions on RIPTA’s most frequent buses. But as it turns out, there’s a substantial difference between the most frequent … Continue reading
Posted in Incompetence, Providence, Transportation, Urban Transit
12 Comments
Followup on the Providence Regional Rail Shuttle
Peter Brassard’s proposal for a very frequent-stop mainline train in Rhode Island received comments both here and on Greater City, dealing with issues from rolling stock to station choice to scheduling. Some are fairly trivial, some aren’t. The upshot is … Continue reading
Posted in Freight, Providence, Regional Rail, Transportation
9 Comments
Commuter Rail, Urban Infill Stations, and Shuttle Train Rapid Transit
This is a proposal by Peter Brassard, who comments here and on Greater City: Providence. It was published on Greater City first, and is mirrored here as the site is experiencing server problems. Rhode Island’s commuter rail service as currently … Continue reading
Posted in Providence, Regional Rail, Transportation
61 Comments
Quick Note: 77 Cents on the Dollar
The headline numbers for how much federal spending each state gets per federal tax dollar it sends to Washington come from the Tax Foundation and are almost a decade out of date. However, using IRS numbers for tax receipts per … Continue reading
Posted in Politics and Society, Providence
7 Comments
Where Should Streetcar Corridors Be?
At a meeting of some of the Greater City people about the Providence streetcar proposal, many of us had severe criticism of the current plan. The line is too short; it is S-shaped; it detours to serve a hospital that’s … Continue reading
Posted in Providence, Transportation, Urban Transit
41 Comments
Transportation-Development Symbiosis
The RPA’s Regional Assembly has included the following idea submission: expand reverse-commuter rail service. The proposal calls for surveying city residents to look for the main available reverse-commuter markets, and for expanding reverse-peak service on the model of Metro-North. It … Continue reading
Posted in Development, Good Transit, New York, Providence, Regional Rail, Transportation, Urban Design, Urbanism
36 Comments
