This is a very useful type of urbanist content. Just a weekly roundup of what's going on across the country and how people can get involved. I would love to see more of this.
100% would love for these to be a call to action for subscribers to get involved and be louder than the 5 NIMBYs at the town council meeting that prefer parking lots to parks.
Could be worth mentioning next week the successful push back by the Portland bike community on PBOT trying to unilaterally pull up a very popular protected bike lane
I'm still figuring out how this series will be formatting so it's a little rough around the edges. But let me know what you think 🤙 I was also debating putting this on the main channel or second channel, but yet here it is.
Wait what, I am quite surprised that you made a news show out of all things That being said even as someone who personally follows Pennsyfan19's Pennsy Periodical and WorldwideRailfan's This Month on the Railroad (both monthly and usually released at the start of the month), I am someone who thinks the more the merrier. I do hope that you would cover and emphasise more on the urban planning and zoning side of news in later videos, since that side is had much less news coverage made by RU-vidrs. P/s:Now I am just waiting for both David Frankal's The David Frankal Show and Yawwie's Yawwie News to be out of hiatus (both of them covering UK rail news in particular and are on hiatus since both of them are university students) since there is a lot of news coming from the UK. Edit: As for the Septa new payment system, kinda weird that they have the opposite problem as TfL when they are introducing contactless payment a few years ago, where it is cheaper to use credit and debit cards instead of (normal, non-discount)Oyster cards for multiple journeys ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1w95ULafeSY.htmlsi=OwcaoB3AKHk111I- I think TfL has fixed this now, although I could misremebering things.
Big fan of this approach to urbanist content, it helps contextualize exactly how much there actually is going on (and could help likeminded viewers get involved in real time)! Only point of critique might be to organize the news by region, as jumping back and forth from one part of the U.S. to another might be confusing to some. Plus, it could be an interesting way to see how urbanist projects that overlap in time differ across of the the country
I really hope the Florida Brightline route continues to do well. Ideally, it’ll get more people excited about HSR while also noticing some of the flaws that private funding brings along so they push harder for government funded projects to blow through their obstacles. *cough* CA HSR *cough*
@@TwoAcresandaMule you’re right. We SHOULD fund these projects well enough that they limit at-grade crossings and the ability for people to trespass on the tracks.
@@TwoAcresandaMulePrecisely one of the biggest flaws with private funding. No way Virgin or whomever is behind Brightline would spend the major cash thats needed for grade separation involving bridges and fills, ESPECIALLY in Florida where its like 300x harder because 1. the whole state is a swamp and 2. the sea will see no obstacle unable to be overcome to flood and turn to dust
Brightline appears to have a reality distortion field, at least in Florida. They have had (from the outside) such an easy time getting to construction start for their different segments. I hope they can do the same for Brightline West, but think it will be more challenging based on how many headwinds CAHSR/LA Metro/Caltrain have experienced this decade.
It came out yesterday that Brightline will be increasing the number of trains to orlando to 15 daily roundtrips starting next week, and in a few weeks they'll start running at 110mph on the FEC north of West Palm Beach
Increasing the number of trains already! Great then maybe I can find room on one for next month !!! I can’t drive the toll road, so I’m glad I have another choice to get down south
I am honestly fairly impressed with Brightline, it seems pretty good. 3.5h for a 380km trip with 6 stops is decent, assuming they are somewhat punctual I will even call it good. Personally I think for these kinds of distance there is no immediate need for much higher speeds as ling as the trains are reliable and punctual, you can totally plan a 4h trip into a day, no problem. That is about the same distance as the Genève to St. Gallen train in Switzerland (south-west to north-east, you can‘t really do longer in Switzerland). We also have one direct connection per hour (IC1), so about 15 per day. Sure we also have two more per hour if you are willing to change trains once (it only takes minutes longer) but I would expect Brightlines service to increase from here anyway. We also have more stops but thats just Switzerland for you. So this line actually compares favorably against SBB lines, neat.
This is probably the most important news in transit of the year, Brightline went from being an uncertain venture to showing that building trains can be extremely profitable, venture money as well as pension funds will understand that message very well, I wouldn't be surprised if we soon see a lot of private money show up in all the hanging fruits corridors of NA
@@booketoiles1600If enough private companies are interested in providing fast, reliable, and comfortable train service, we could see a return to how train travel in the US used to be (at least the good elements of it; not saying it was perfect). I would like to see some company negotiate with Norfolk Southern over adding passenger trains between Atlanta and Savannah via Macon. That could open up numerous opportunities for a system throughout my home state, perhaps even building a new Columbus-Atlanta route; we abandoned both the old ones. Then maybe in collaboration with Amtrak we get a comprehensive system of through car service that seamlessly transfers equipment between trains for very long single-seat journeys. We used to have that. Barring any freight train interference, we could have it again.
As a Floridian I really hope Bright Line continues to succeed, and they open up more stations (especially one in my city) because I hate driving in Florida😅
I don’t mind driving the county roads in Florida but the toll road is too stressful for me and I’m not gonna take an airplane just to go from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale. So so very happy about it. !!!! !!!!!
As someone living in Florida (and from a midwestern family that *loves* roadtrips loo, or at least uses them as a way to get from point a to b) Having a line go from Jacksonville to Orlando would be HUGE. Being able to bypass all that driving at a near constant high speed would be amazing! Could also interconnect those major Airports.
This is series is incredible! So concise and to the point. Obviously there might be some weeks with not so much, but that's okay. Really appreciate the efforts Alan
Hey Alan, I'm really liking this new weekly format as someone who doesn't like using social media except for RU-vid, but who wants to know about new transit and urban planning news. Love to see more of this content
The Red line not wasting a huge part of its walk shed on water in East Baltimore would be a huge improvement over the original alignment choice - Could be Baltimore's first fixed transit actually untilized
Great to see you're starting a news series! It's always great to cover various topics in transit, since other series might not always catch them. I would suggest writing more of a script and using more footage so that you can read off of the script and have a better time explaining what you're trying to say. I tried covering the news without a script for my first two episodes, but I felt they were sloppy and I didn't remember everything I was going to say for each article. Best of luck for future episodes.
I'm very familiar with the Baltimore Red Line project since 1967 and I've studied at Mineta Transportation Institute. As nearby West Baltimore children, we were shown a model of the Freeway to Nowhere with space reserved for Heavy Rail. It was one of the 7 corridors depicted on the Metro Heavy Rail Plan Map. First, I'd settle for 3-Car Light Rail for lower station costs, but substantial subway & aerial components. A larger station, however, is needed for Light Rail & MARC Commuter Rail connections at Franklin & Smallwood Sts as promised over 50 years ago. BRT would be disrespectful to corridor residents and not connect well underground at Charles Center Station in Baltimore CBD. Second, Baltimore needs to extend its Heavy Rail from Johns Hopkins Med Center to Morgan State U-Loch Raven-Northern Parkway. Third, Baltimore needs Light Rail with lots of subway & aerial components in Timonium-Towson CBD-Towson State U-Loyola U-Johns Hopkins U-Penn Station-Mount Vernon Arts Dist-Charles Center-Camden Station corridor. From there it can use the existing Light Rail corridor to BWI Airport and Glen Burnie. The existing Light Rail in Baltimore CBD having Streetcar track on Howard Street should be re-purposed into a circular CBD Streetcar route for Howard St-Chase St-Calvert St-Lombard or Baltimore St. By 2035, these projects can drive Baltimore Metro Rail ridership to at least 400K per day and relieve CBD traffic jams.
I suggest starting bi-weekly and then working toward weekly if you have the content. The news is not consistent(e.g. FRA grants wont drop every week), so it takes a while to gauge(railroad pun intended) how much will come in at a regular clip. At ~9 minutes you have a good, bite-sized grouping here. On production process, sounds like you could use additional rehearsal run-throughs on the audio portion to get your thoughts aligned with what I assume are note cards or a tablet. Maybe hang those/that next to the camera so you don't have to keep looking down and trying to find your place. I like the format. This is a good start.
Like the format! It seems like a positive news source for urbanism in North America. It’s usually all doom and gloom, nice to see something focused on the real progress that is being done.
The LA Metrolink Antelope Line clockface service is a big deal because DB Consulting identified a massive improvement of the LA-Bakersfield bus connection of the Amtrak San Joaquin trains (and first phase CAHSR) by running connecting buses from Bakersfield to the Santa Clarita Metrolink station. This allows the buses to stay out of LA traffic. Currently, there's huge padding on the bus connection, due to the syrupy traffic on I-5 through the San Fernando Valley. By connecting to a reliable train, the sometimes 1-hour wait in Bakersfield after an early bus arrive can be tightened up. As runs are added in the Central Valley, this becomes a cost-saver, too.
All this just makes me frustrated that BNSF can’t open up the Tehachapi Loop to passenger trains due to the high volume of freight traffic on it, thus necessitating the busses to begin with.
The speed of the freights and the geometry of the track would make it a very slow journey even if there was capacity for passengers. The fastest trip on rail from San Francisco to LA is the San Joaquins with the bus connection. I've done it many times. Bus isn't that bad and faster than any existing rail could be. @@DiamondKingStudios
@@michaelkiesling8148 there’s probably some potential route that could bypass the Loop, but I doubt funding/environmental protection would allow it to go through; besides the whole high speed rail thing makes any mainline Tehachapi bypass superfluous anyhow.
@@DiamondKingStudiosThe Tehachapi Loop is owned by UP. BNSF, despite operating more trains over it, only has trackage rights. Blame Amtrak. When they started on May 1, 1971, they opted for keep SP's Coast Daylight, and not the San Joaquin Daylight. One wonders how things would be today, if they had opted for the San Joaquin Daylight. The closest conventional rail we may ever see over Tehachapi Summit is to extend some of the Pacific Surliners to Mojave. Then a bus bridge to Bakersfield. In the '90's Caltrans Division of Rail actually studied building a passenger only rail to Gorman at the foot of the Grapevine. Then a bus shorter bus bridge to LA. Over ten years ago I suggested extending all of the Surliners that to not continue on to Santa Barbara, or San Luis Obispo up to Santa Clarita to then put the San Joaquin bound passengers on buses and bypassing the worst freeway traffic out of LA and through the San Fernando Valley. Now they are finally doing it, but with Metrolink. I wonder whether this portion of the Antelope Valley line trains are included in the Rail to Rail fare/ticket exchange program with Amtrak?
This is fantastic, really excited for this to be an ongoing series! I love short-form update videos like this, they're incredibly helpful for staying informed.
This all feels very positive, which it is, but I'm sure there's some bad news at the same time. Also an international perspective would be useful too. E.g. HS2 in the UK is at serious risk of being reduced or cancelled entirely right now, and I think needs more coverage amongst this community
I love all the urbanist news updates that happen across a bunch of transit channels, it’s great content because it’s very optimistic and good-news centric. Keep funding transit!!
I'm actually very positive about the coverage. Honestly, your channel isn't as negative as some of the other channels that grace RU-vid. I'm glad that you just stated what's positive with regards to the slow, steady upgrades to the various transit systems around the country!
Love this series. It would be nice to have a fan submission section with transit related content like dream transit maps for cities and fan art for the channel or for foamer memes.
Oh, Penn-Camden & VRE both got funded, EXCELLENT! Been waiting to see updates on the former for a while, & didn't even know about the latter. Thanks for producing this.
I like this format and new series. It was a little rough at some parts (a lot of ums and uhhs) but im sure youll figure it out as you go along. Its great to get a round up of major urbanist news from one place. I think even biweekly is totally fine when there arent a lot of news. Looking forward to more eps!
Keep the energy going guys. This type of weekly wrap up is just the type of organization and information spread Urbanists need to become a political force to reckon with. Unfortunately most issues urbanists want needs to be done through government so we need to make our voice heard. Organize!
woah, this was such an informational update. first time watching one of these and as someone who doesnt really know all the ins and outs and logistics of rail, but loves trains and good urban planning, this is a godsend. overall, im pretty optimistic about this news. it's incremental but it's still positive change and that's what matters. i can't wait to ride brightline as someone who will be making constant trips between orlando and Miami.
I love the periodic update format. My regional transit advocacy group does them (took a break for the summer and wow did I miss them) and it's how I keep up to date on everything here
The UTA and UDOT recently did a presentation to the Utah Legislature about the Frontrunner Forward Program that detailed a 6 phase plan to end with some quad track, electrification, and speeds upwards of 110 mph between Payson and Brigham City (basically the entire N-S length of the Wasatch Front minus Cache Valley and Nephi)
As someone who is a semi-frequent rider of both Capitol Corridor and Caltrain, I’m definitely psyched about the Roseville trackage and the EMU’s working at operational speeds. My only nitpick is that I think they also should’ve tried to at least finagle something out of UP for the Blossom Hill to Gilroy corridor for double tracking, if not electrification all the way down but I guess that’s what the NorCal HSR stretch will cover.
I live in Hollister, I've only had the chance to take Cal train from San Jose to Gilroy once and it was an absolute blast. I know Caltrain is going to be extending the service down to Salinas in about two years. It's possible Caltrain might also extend to Hollister but that's at least another decade off. My hope is that once the high speed rail is Built they will be able to electrify all the way down to Gilroy because they will be running the same tracks from my understanding.
@@brandenkhan15 I hope both Capitol Corridor and Caltrain both extend down to Salinas. I mean, Amtrak technically already serves the area with the Coast Starlight but a more frequent round trip would be way more beneficial, and the option to go via the east bay or peninsula to get to the Bay Area from both systems would be even better
Finally, more service for Springfield!! I hope this keeps happening as a few months ago we got more Northeast Regional service. I can’t wait for more to come
Good excellent news content thank you! I feel like the reason I never keep up with transit news is simply because of the effort I would need to put in so I appreciated you creating a space for lazy people like me to stay up to date :)
You might want to check out what is going on with the Black River and Western Railroad in Flemington and how they might be moving the station because of new housing.
Kinda sucks that it's not a commuter rail extension to Springfield, it'd be awesome to transfer between the MBTA and CTrail someday, but two new Amtrak trains is a great start.
If New London to Providence was part of a commuter line, one would be able to travel solely via commuter train between Newark, DE, and Haverhill, MA, north of Boston. Either that or extend the Worcester Line to Springfield like you said.
@@DiamondKingStudios Both would be awesome. Either by CTrail and the MBTA extending to Kingston, or by Rhode Island making its own commuter rail network, that gap of the Northeast Corridor would be filled in finally.
@@ninyaninjabrifsanovichthes45 That still leaves the Perryville-Newark gap. If MARC wants to run trains to Newark or Wilmington, DE, it would mean that one could ride commuter trains all the way from Spotsylvania, VA, to Haverhill, MA. Just like how in 1901 one could travel between Elkhart Lake, WI, and Little Falls, NY, solely via interurban. Wouldn't be surprised if people claimed to have gone all the way to Maine from Minnesota on those things.
This is a good idea. Definitely make it a weekly or biweekly, but as you said, quality over quantity. I'm looking forward to your Brightline trip video, so much so that I turned my notifications for you to all. Also, I think this is my first comment on here, so to close out, I'm a long time fan and this is (probably) my first time commenting on your channel
Alan. Love you, love your content. Love this news format. And also. During the segment on SEPTA you said "the city" (I'm Canadian; is that a common nickname for Philadelphia?) a handful of times without actually mentioning where this transit system is. I had to look it up! Not a big inconvenience or anything but something to maybe keep in mind for future urbanist update videos. Just as easy to say the actual name of the city lol.
Brightline is definitely a good proof of concept that intercity trains can be done well America. Sure it may have some issues but no railroad can be entirely perfect.
The Sacramento-Roseville third track is so desperately needed. Sac and Davis (70k pop) to the west are 13 miles apart and connected by hourly train service in both directions across most of the day with some additional peak trains, but Sac and Roseville (140k pop) to the east are 16 miles apart and have 1 train per day in each direction. SacRT only goes about 8 of the miles towards Roseville, meaning that without additional service, there isn't really a good transit link between Sac and its second largest suburb (the first being Elk Grove, which is slated for eventual SacRT service as well as future ACE and San Joaquins service).
The 'windows Wraps' is for FL weather... It is HOT in FLORIDA and future 'Advertising'. Advertising = lower fares. Wraps, can see out but not see in = Uses LESS Air Conditioning,, less power. These wraps will also be used in LA/LV Brightline West. Wraps are Common in Europe and Asia. Credit/Debit card use is called using NFC. (Near Field Communications... in most phones and current account and credit cards). Anyone who lives in a city with a population over a million... completely understand how Metropolitan City Government functions. :)
Whats the climate overall on american rail, seems like its slooooowly turning around and the system is being improved/build. Is this a correct assumption or is that just lowest possible maintenance?
Brightline will at some point electrify. We just don't know how and when. This could also push for the FEC to electrify their freight. This preference for electrification is seen with Brightline West.
You could talk about the absolute disaster that the current government of the UK's decision making on everything, but especially HS2. As a Brit it just hurts to have suffered under this shittt government for a decade and a half nearly.
This format I like a lot personally, puts everything into a quick, digestible video. Honestly on the Massachusetts end, the East West (the corridor that got the CRISI grant) could potentially be a whole episode in itself, there’s been a lot of things going on with it, especially with the sketchy background things going on at the state level from a particular private bus operator.
Love the format! It's great that you can have something to upload regularly to feed the algorithm The abundance of "um"s kinda took me out of it, but I enjoyed the video nonetheless! Keep up the good work!
Live in Maryland. Wish the East West line would connect further down to DC. I know the Marc train from Penn station goes to Union. But those would allow commuters living between the cities have an option for public transit
great job will be very excited to follow this now! I was really hoping Madison would be on your Amtrack list, we had talked about bringing in a station and were listening about where to put it but I wonder what the status of that is. also a small note, the audio was a little rough on this one, I think you may need to mess with the mic settings to get fewer breaths and generally clean up the final a little :)
