Category Archives: Incompetence

Infrastructure and Democracy

Posted on 2013/05/07 by

Two stories, one recent and one older, have made me think about the undemocratic way the US builds infrastructure. The older story is California HSR’s cost overrun coming from scope creep; the biggest overruns were in the Bay Area, where … Continue reading →

Posted in High-Speed Rail, Incompetence, New York, Politics and Society, Regional Rail, Transportation | 44 Comments

The Magic Triangle: Infrastructure-Timetable-Rolling Stock

Posted on 2013/01/21 by

In the last month, Amtrak decided not to purchase additional Acela cars, but instead replace the Acela fleet ahead of time, and try to buy trains that aren’t compliant with FRA regulations. More recently, Amtrak and the California HSR Authority … Continue reading →

Posted in Amtrak, FRA, High-Speed Rail, Incompetence, Transportation | 109 Comments

Nobody Likes Riding North American Commuter Rail

Posted on 2012/09/14 by

In New York, two neighborhoods at the edge of the city have both subway and commuter rail service: Wakefield and Far Rockaway. Wakefield has 392 inbound weekday Metro-North boardings, and 4,955 weekday subway boardings. Far Rockaway has 158 riders (an … Continue reading →

Posted in Incompetence, New York, Regional Rail, Transportation, Urban Transit, Vancouver | 170 Comments

Washington Union Station

Posted on 2012/07/28 by

Amtrak’s announcement that it needs $7 billion to improve Union Station, in a way that is tangential to train or passenger capacity, has gotten some deserved flak already on other blogs. What I want to discuss instead is a pair … Continue reading →

Posted in Amtrak, High-Speed Rail, Incompetence, Regional Rail, Transportation | 65 Comments

Surreptitious Cost Escalations and Spurious Cost Savings

Posted on 2012/07/12 by

In response to my previous post regarding the extreme cost of Amtrak’s new Northeast Corridor Vision plan, people both on forums and on blogs have said that it’s actually a cost saving coming from bundling the Vision with the earlier … Continue reading →

Posted in Amtrak, Construction Costs, High-Speed Rail, Incompetence, Transportation | 13 Comments

The CAHSR-SNCF Bombshell

Posted on 2012/07/11 by

The most important HSR news right now is the recent revelation on the LA Times, strategically made immediately after the state legislature had voted to appropriate the required money to begin construction, that the California HSR Authority had brushed off … Continue reading →

Posted in Construction Costs, High-Speed Rail, Incompetence, Transportation | 108 Comments

Northeast Corridor HSR, 90% Cheaper

Posted on 2012/07/10 by

Amtrak’s latest Next-Generation High-Speed Rail plan is now up to $151 billion, from a prior cost of $117 billion. This is partially a small cost escalation, but mostly including Master Plan upgrades to the legacy line. Per kilometer of route … Continue reading →

Posted in Amtrak, High-Speed Rail, Incompetence, Transportation | 130 Comments

The Recession Won’t Last Forever

Posted on 2012/07/03 by

The article about New York State’s decision to discontinue studying high-speed rail between New York and Buffalo is by itself not terribly surprising. Although Andrew Cuomo likes flashy public works projects, of which HSR is one, he is consistently pro-road … Continue reading →

Posted in High-Speed Rail, Incompetence, New York, Politics and Society, Shoddy Studies | 34 Comments

Core Connectors and In-Between Neighborhoods

Posted on 2012/06/27 by

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 →

Posted in Incompetence, Politics and Society, Providence, Transportation, Urban Transit, Urbanism | 35 Comments

Providence: Busy Versus Frequent Buses

Posted on 2012/06/20 by

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