Informative and entertaining videos in which I ride trains, buses, and other forms of public transportation.
I made this channel to both encourage myself to go outside and explore different transit systems, and to validate my desire for travel. The channel also acts as a sort of personal time capsule for my adventures so I can reminisce in the future.
New videos on Saturdays every other week and the occasional Short. Constructive feedback is always appreciated!
I've always wondered about the Baltimore light rail, especially after I visited jersey City and saw the NJT light rail at the exchange place station. Almost every minute there is a light rail at the station even at night on a weekend.
Tip for travelers --- a lot of stations are super close together.. - just get a charlie card. like the local do, load on a value like $40 for your trip (just dont lose your card or get the receipt so you can have the staff at the charlie card store downtown reload it for you ) (they can only do this with a receipt). - Second tip: A lot of the lines are walking distance from each other . so if you are at State street and trying to get to South station. You dont have to go one stop on the orange line to change to the red line , its actually only a short walk from Government Center/State to South Station along the parks/greenway about 20 minutes max....depending on how fast you walk...on a nice dayt its worth it. its only a few minutes walk from State down to Downtown Crossing where you can get on the red line as well. Many of the stops are close by. Like Ruggles to Mass ave is only a 10 minute walk through the Northeastern campus. And you can walk between all branches of the green line as long as you pay a second fare. Chesnut HIll (B) line - , Cleveland Circle (C) - end of the C line, and (D) reservoir (with a BC shuttle bus connection during the school year) - are all within a 10 minute walk of each other - 5 minute walk between the D and C line Reservoir/to Cleveland circle as its just down the street. Many of the Silver line stops in the seaport are a short walk away and its about a 10 minute- 20 minute walk from the Childrens museum down the pathway by the Gillette Razor HQ - to Broadway Station in South Boston where you can pick up busses out to Southie or get the red line. it is also a short walk between chinatown (Orange) and Boylston (green) and Chinatown (orange) and South Station (red) or Amtrak/Commuter rail.
The platform on the 1 line was extended as time passed. It is one of the original stations that opened in 1904. That's why some of the platform looks generic with regard to the tiling and columns (the newer part) and some looks very old (it is old. 1904 old.).
First this is not a tram. It’s a rebuilt inter Urban railway. this is also first generation for Maryland light rail. It’s not Boston. So cut Baltimore a break. WB&A was the old system. Look it up.
As someone who has rode the whole line several times, a large chunk of its weirdness is because it has done very quickly to open with Camden Yards as one of the requirements for the stadium i think was to get a mass transit connection and the line gets very busy when the stadiums are in use. Also the Fall Road station acutally leads to a very large park, Lake Roland Park, formerly Robert E Lee park.
3:30 to be completely honest I think the majority of Baltimoreans are actually completely unaware we even have a subway. People know we have the lightrail but not the subway. I rode MARC for years before I knew lol. And I've still never made a useful trip out of it.
4:10 You don't know Maryland drivers lol. The use of guards is one of the only good decisions made. Otherwise drivers would block trams daily. They don't give a frick.
In my (admittedly rare) use-case, the Light Rail is pretty useful for me. I live in Southern PA along I-83 and work in Washington, DC. When I take transit, I park at Timonium Fairgrounds and take light rail to MICA/Mt Royal (which is, as you know, nearly all right-of-way trackage) walk to Penn Station and take the MARC in. I could take a commuter bus from Howard County and park there but, in addition to avoiding the extra mileage, taking the light rail means not having to contend with the ever-awful I-695 Beltway, made worse by the construction and getting worse with the upcoming closure of the I-70 EB/I-695 IL ramp for more construction. Baltimore Light Rail could definitely be better but it definitely has its uses.
Gare du Midi i.e. Midi means noon in French where the sun is located at noon. It's locate in the south direction. Gare du Midi (Noon's Station) = Gare du Sud (South station). In France le Midi is a the region in the south of France.
In Seattle sound transit their light rail has to stop even if it’s out of service. They stop make a whole bunch of announcements begging people to stay away from the train that no one ever listens to then it continues to where it’s trying to go
I’m not sure about the SIR specifically (and if you say SIR around here it’s Seattle international raceway lol) but many transit vehicles have sensors that detect people getting on OR off the train (they’re typically set for one or the other). So it’s likely turnstile activity isn’t the only method they have.
It's pretty useless for short trips in the downtown area. The charm city circulator runs a parallel route (which is also fare-free) that is much better. There are lots of MTA buses on a similar route too.
this seems to carry a lot of the lapses in execution that Light Rail systems built in the 1990's tend to have; no signal priority, built with austerity in mind - they wanted to deliver a transit project on the cheap and ended up building a tram / Light Rail hybrid with street running segments in NIMBY- approved industrial parks on already-owned ROW. It's something that COULD be so much better with some key plans for land-use improvements in the future. It's good that it's there but hopefully one day it can really be improved. Also i really dig the MARC connection at Camden Yards, definitely one of the better elements of the system. Great for getting to the stadiums.
It's like many American cities, between the loss of its manufacturing base, white flight to the suburbs (Baltimore County, primarily, in this case) and chronic underinvestment in the city that led to economic depression bringing about all of the crime and decay that come from it. Baltimore City has the second-largest percentage of Black residents in the state (and poorer, less educated people at that versus the most majority-Black county, Prince George's, which has historically attracted wealthier and more educated people) which has, unfortunately, not exactly put it at the front of the queue in the hearts and minds of Maryland politicians. Yes, Baltimore has had its share of self-inflicted wounds like anywhere else, such as corrupt politicians and money-wasting boondoggles, but a true rebirth of Baltimore City seems to me at least like it will take more money and political will than there may ever be. Maryland is a bit like New York in that many people think of New York (the state) as primarily New York City and its environs but there are huge swaths of exurban and rural parts of the state far away from NYC that don't want "their tax dollars" funding the city. A lot of people think of Maryland as the Baltimore-Washington corridor but there are, again, huge swaths of rural and exurban areas in the western part of the state and on the Eastern Shore that don't want "their" tax dollars going to Baltimore City.
@@davidwolfhudson There has not been chronic underinvestment in Baltimore City. Billions and billions has gone into the city and it disappeared because of crooked politicians.
The park-and-rides, while definitely an eyesore and bad land use, get solid use during baseball and football seasons. They get packed and run pretty frequently before and after O's games. The airport line not running any express service is a major indictment of the system as a whole. All told, the light rail is just a subpar rail line that suburbanites in Anne Arundel, Baltimore County, and Baltimore City neutered.
Baltimore fun facts: Babe Ruth was also born in Baltimore in 1895! In 1774, the first post office in the US was inaugurated in Baltimore, and ten years later in 1884, Baltimore made history again by establishing the first telegraph line in the country, connecting to Washington DC. Composer Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics to the Star-Spangled Banner while witnessing the flag flying over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, set to the tune of a British song called "To Anacreon in Heaven". To honor Fort McHenry's role, it has become national tradition that when a new flag is designed it first flies over Fort McHenry! Baltimore was the site of the first manned balloon launch in the US! Edward Warren, a 13-year-old, flew in the balloon, which had been provided by Peter Carnes, a tavern keeper and lawyer, in a wicker “chariot.” Carnes had wanted to be the one to ride in the basket, however, he was too heavy to do so. Warren’s balloon flight began a balloon craze that swept the country from the late 1700s to the early 1800s. The Camden Line is interesting in that it's one of the US's oldest rail routes still in operation as the B&O began running commuter service from Baltimore to Ellicott City (Ellicott City station closed but is the oldest remaining passenger railway station in the US) over part of the trackage in May 1830! The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States! Not to mention the B&O's Washington Branch Railway, now along the Camden Line, was the first railroad to serve DC!
Can we talk about Westport? It's the FIRST stop on southbound light rail outside of downtown Baltimore, and yet, the neighborhood appears challengin. It is bounded by highway (rt 295), the light rail, and industry. But it also has access to that highway (for cars) and access to the light rail (for walkers). I believe it has access to the river? If you lived there, one could have access to downtown by light rail, to BWI by light rail, and to 295 by car. I'm curious about why there has not been more investment in the neighborhood?
A few notes: -The Penn Branch was shut down during covid, and last I heard is slated to reopen once they finish the project to reconstruct several platforms at Penn Station. -The reason it doesn't go all the way to central Glen Burnie is because there was a ton of pushback from Glen Burnie residents and business owners due to fears of crime 🙄 and the planners had no spine to fight this opposition so they just caved. -This is also why there are no stops between Falls Rd and Lutherville -They used to allow credit cards until very recently, I think there was some technological issue that cropped up from how old the machines are, and the MTA deemed it too difficult to do whatever was needed for the machines to be able to continue accepting credit cards. They plan to one day replace all the machines, but no clue when that will happen. -The trains used to have stop request strips pre-refurbishment, but despite originally planning to use them, they never actually used them in practice and just got rid of them during the refurbishment. -I believe the Howard St section used to have transit priority but is currently tuened off. Oof. -A lot of the weirdness of the light rail can be explained when you realize that it was built as quickly and cheaply as possible in time for the opening of Camden Yards. The goal wasn't to have a useful transit service, the goal was "we want light rail to Camden Yards"
They put a stop in at/near Cherry Hill. At that point no other neighborhood wanted a stop anywhere near them. The route north and south wasn't picked because it was a good idea, it was picked because it had once been used for other small railroads or abandoned routes and so could be purchased and bought quickly. One of the biggest early effects (along with providing criminals a quick route into suburbs they could rob) was to demolish the business/retail corridor on Howard Street in the city by eliminating any place near those businesses to park. Free riding has been a problem since day one and the line has never brought in the revenues it needs to operate so it's a constant money suck, and except on game days at the stadiums is running well below even it's limited capacity. Frankly it's track record as a useless money pit is one of the reasons Larry Hogan, when he was governor, refused to double down on failure when the second "light" rail line, the red line was proposed.Frankly, neither of Baltimore's mass transit lines was well thought out, not accompanied by the king of center city development that would have given them purpose. They were built almost on the hope of "build it and they will come" philosophy or a real cities have subway/mass transit so we need to have one too.
Originally the North Central Rail Line to the northern Baltimore County suburbs and to York, Pa. Nice hiking trail along that abandoned right of way now. Only 7% of the costs are from the fair-box, running a deficit of about $50B's a year in part because students ride for free because the city does not provide school buses and seniors ride for $1 and many others avoid getting a ticket. Now they want to replace the cars for $250-$300M, That plus the deficits would equal around $1B over a decade to run a line that has maybe only 1,000 daily adult paying customers. Each monthly adult ticket holders card is subsidized by thousands of dollars each month.
4 miles between Lutherville and Falls Road stations because the residents of Ruxton and that area didn't wan't city dwellers running through their neighborhood and they were right because at the Lutherville station they were plagued by car break ins on the light rail and adjacent shopping center parking lots and product shrinkage in the stores next to it and eventually the whole shopping center their closed.
1. The lightrail is former PRR and Conrail territory, 2. The light rail is actually a train not a tram hence why there is a standard gauge switch near north avenue, 3. Patapsco and a few industrial switches, Trains used to do alot of switching from Baltimore Penn, the name 4. Lightrail comes from it being able to run down the streets (That is what I was told the name ment) 5. Stations can fit a max of 4 cars in most stations, some are 3 cars max, 6. When leaving North ave The lightrail goes over the CSX Capital sub which CSX crosses over the NEC 7. The bell is alternative for the horn in most populated area, 8. When you arrived to Hamburg street that "Single" track is actually CSX capitol sub that was following under the lightrail from north ave, same with the track at westport 9.Patapsco has a large road as it leads to a highway, has multiple shopping outlets, 10.The horn is used as again mentioned before it is classified as a train, altho cromwell used to be more lively Appoligies if I said alot just wanted to help inform a bit
Trains on the RF&P subdivision run on any track in either direction, it is up to the dispatcher. Certain VRE stations have only one side platform, so during VRE hours, that track will generally have all traffic going in one direction. It flips in the evening. Amtrak has more variation.
The system uses ROW once used by interurban streetcar lines and the commuter rail routes of the Northern Central Railway, Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway, and Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad. It was built quickly and inexpensively without federal funds so it could be built in time for Orioles Park's opening at Camden Yards, thus because of that, to save money, much of the system was built with only a single track. While this allowed the system to be constructed and opened quickly, it limited the system's flexibility, and so federal money was later acquired to double track most of the system. Station placement and design were intended to be flexible and change over time, as stations could be built or closed at low cost. However, they were at times dictated by politics rather planning, as proposed stops in Ruxton, Riderwood, and Cross Keys were not built due to local opposition, while Mt. Royal and Timonium stations were built despite nearly being removed from the plan because the University of Baltimore and a local business group funded them. So yeah, the light-rail goes through the least-densely populated parts for much of the journey, there was a lot of opposition to stations (which is also why they opted not to build one at Glen Burnie town center), and freight right of way limited the connectivity of the stations to the areas where they are located. Compare that with the HBLR in New Jersey which also mainly uses repurposed right-of-way but they go through packed neighborhoods and when in downtown Jersey City, they're grade-separated (except Essex Street) and have priority signals.
Does it appear that anyone coming or going to the Marine base/FBI academy actually use the train station? Otherwise, that seems like a very large station with massive amounts of service for such a small town.
Ainda consigo me chocar com esses suburbios dos states viu? completamente fora da minha realidade. essa cidade ai parece ser tenebrosa pelo que vc mostrou. sobre os trens, aqui no Rio temos light rail tambem, é chamado de VLT e só circula na parte central da cidade + zona portuária. ele usa sinos pra chamar atenção em cruzamentos, não a buzina( mas ele tem buzina para casos de emergência). temos 4 linhas por aqui, e VLT serve como conector pros demais modais que chegam ao centro e as partes turísticas da zona portuária. gostei bastante do vídeo.
I like exchanging bills for the coins, but the businesses along the Lightrail (paricularly Hunt Valley) sometimes straight up refuses to accept them, which is crazy
The four mile no-station space after the Lutherville station was supposed to have a station. However, the light rail passes through one of the richest neighborhoods in Baltimore County (Ruxton) with enough power to not allow a station to be built.
@@qjtvaddictI am sure their logic was that, if the station existed, "those people" (IE, black people) would come and rob all the rich white people that live there. Don't you just love racism?
I enjoy riding Baltimore's light rail for fun. Though not the best, I still enjoy taking trips to BWI or other terminals and hanging around. The trains themselves Ive liked since I was little, and I've seen their rehabbed (current) variants take over the system.
@19:20 That is a UPS operated MD-11F (And yes its actually called a tri-jet) these things were so unsafe in passenger operations for aa while they were barred operating them (Notably DC-10 crisis) the MD-11 is the modernized & rather brilliant fix to the horrendous DC-10: and is now one of the most popular cargo planes ever build: UPS have 100+ of them and Fedex have 223. As an aviation geek, these things are so so fun to watch, climbing almost streight up like a rocket (cause 3 engines=overpowered) and slamming down for landings. fun fact, the reason this airplane has 3 engines, is not because it needs them, it needs 2, but before (ETOPS, or essentially extended twin engine over-water operations) it was not possible or allowed to fly anything with less than 3 engines over long bodies of water, however the demand for a 747 was just not there on most routes, the DC-10 solved this problem by having three engines, allowing it to fly over long distances of water, while having a lower passenger capacity than the 747.
