Category Archives: Regional Rail

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

C-Shaped Lines

Posted on 2012/12/19 by

The ideal rapid transit line looks something like a straight line. It can have deviations, but on a map it will be more or less a line with a definitive direction. Most rapid transit lines are indeed linear, or failing … Continue reading →

Posted in New York, Regional Rail, Transportation, Urban Transit | 36 Comments

Construction Costs and Perceptions

Posted on 2012/10/28 by

While looking for South Korean cost data for a major update of my construction costs posts, I stumbled upon a newspaper article excoriating Seoul’s extravagant construction, comparing it unfavorably with the US. Per Joong-Ang, the US neglect of infrastructure is … Continue reading →

Posted in Construction Costs, Regional Rail, Transportation, Urban Transit | 25 Comments

Branching

Posted on 2012/10/24 by

S-Bahns and similar systems have two defining features. One has been hashed to death on this blog: they reuse legacy rail lines, allowing urban rapid transit to extend arbitrarily deep into suburbia. The other, common also to many other transit … Continue reading →

Posted in New York, Regional Rail, Transportation, Urban Transit | 43 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

Are Forecasts Improving?

Posted on 2012/08/28 by

In response to my takedown of Reason, specifically my puzzlement at the estimates of inaccuracy in traffic forecasts, alert reader Morten Skou Nicolaisen sent me several papers on the subject. While there is past research about traffic shortfalls, for example … Continue reading →

Posted in Construction Costs, Good/Interesting Studies, High-Speed Rail, Regional Rail, Studies, Transportation, Urban Transit | 15 Comments

Peak Factors and Intercity Trains

Posted on 2012/08/27 by

In contrast with Reason’s fraud, CARRD’s Elizabeth Alexis makes a more serious criticism of the XpressWest plan: there is a prominent peak in travel from Southern California to Las Vegas on Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon, and this means that … Continue reading →

Posted in High-Speed Rail, Regional Rail, Transportation, Urban Transit | 31 Comments

Connecting New Jersey to Manhattan, Redux

Posted on 2012/08/09 by

This post responds to arguments made by Brian in comments regarding how to connect New Jersey regional trains to Manhattan, in addition to the present tunnels to Penn Station; Brian argues for leveraging the Staten Island Railway, including the North … Continue reading →

Posted in New York, Regional Rail, Transportation | 19 Comments

Troll Rail Projects

Posted on 2012/07/31 by

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

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