Thanks for giving credit to us native NYers, I really love New York, but I do envy the community that other cities like Philly and Chicago have and I’ve been to both and loved them. New York is just a special city to get to actually grow up your entire life in though and I would never trade that. Also I’m so jealous of the Chicago airport connection to the L
Growing up in Chicago I always felt New York was annoyed that we had the tallest building in the world and they didn’t. Chicago is much larger than Philadelphia and New York is not only insanely larger than Philadelphia but a much better city.
Ive long wished there were more overnight intercity trains. Id rather go to bed and be at the next place than drive if i can do it for less than flying costs - i'd rather not lose a whole day to travel when i can lose a morning to be there the same day
Entertainment is its own advocacy. In fact, it’s often the most important advocacy because the people receiving it are exposed to good things-and recognize good things as good things-without being didactically instructed that these are good things should be pursued at the expense of other things. This kind of exposure prepares people to receive advocacy massaging with greater openness at a later time.
I agree to a point. I'm mainly frustrated with how many of these education channels tout themselves as "non-political", but that in itself means that they're ok with the status quo.
@@alanfisherextras I dont think that sam from wendover is only neutral in terms of urbanism and railway stuff. He has its opinions he wants to see more trains, but the message is brought much more suttle viewer than in your videos. Love both of you btw.
I think the trick of it is that entertainment is non-threatening. A strong advocate is good for talking to people who are receptive of it, but for someone who is suspicious of that advocacy, it's like running into a brick wall. But if something is entertaining, it helps the information slip past that barrier. If you don't feel like you have to defend against an argument, you're much more likely to hear it out. In the end, you need both. The advocate to fire up the receptive audience, and the entertainer to soften the more critical audience. It's not an either/or kinda thing.
After college, I will definitely be moving to Chicago. My family moved all around Missouri, and I ended up finishing High School in Saint Louis. The feel of Chicago is just so nice, I love the houses, the density. Housing may be expensive compared to STL, but the quality of life just seems so much greater, and the job market is growing better than STL.
I've read that kerfuffle thread, and am an enjoyer both your content and the content that the person you brushed up against creates. I'm in the same boat as you to where if I were moneyed and had resources, I'd totally be spinning up efforts to help make the changes I want to see in the world. That said, I think there's a level of value that infotainment provides which is above that of pure entertainment even if it's not actively advocating for something. Neutral content creators presenting pure, unbiased facts with a few jokes sprinkled in are great at catching and retaining people who are ignorant of a topic and bringing important things to their attention without possibly putting them off in some way. While advocacy can also great at spreading awareness, I find that it is better at uniting people of common mind and helping them either individually or as a group take action on things. You may also get new people who are ignorant of a topic to come to your side while advocating actively, but uninformed folks could also find advocacy preachy and be turned off by it. In turn, advocates tend to be already preaching to the choir. That's why I believe that neutral content creators are important too. Sometimes the raw facts are truly impactful and people wanting to know more or who feel a certain way about the info they were presented will then find their way to channels like yours and hopefully join the cause.
agree 100% with this, there's absolutely a place for both advocacy for foamers and infotainment for normies. can't have one without the other, every foamer was a normie at some point.
I think it's a "million subs disease"...it seems once creators hit that mark, they have the attention and privilege (and almost the obligation) to keep that audience and status, so they have to make content pipeline go brrr to keep sponsors/algorithm happy. I think advocacy takes a lot of mental work (as you pointed out) and at that level creators are super hyper-focused on their "system" to keep the machine rolling. Hopefully this made sense.
The culture of NYC (particularly with the hustle culture that you were talking about) gets better outside of Manhattan. I love it here in Jersey City + Hoboken (although it's still quite expensive).
I miss the Broadway limited and when they called it the Three Rivers I like that too. I remember briefly from about 1999 until about 2003 or 2004 the Pennsylvania went from Chicago to South bend to Toledo to Cleveland down to Pittsburgh across to Philadelphia. I remember it was a long long day train in each direction. And then somewhere in about 2002 the Chicago to Philadelphia became an overnight train and the westbound train stayed as a day train. I thought that was a neat idea because Chicago to Cleveland it appeared to me was turning into a corridor. You had the Lakeshore limited the capital limited and the Pennsylvania. I thought that was pretty neat for those few years that that ran. And they should have the Broadway limited or Three Rivers. They really need to get Amtrak back into a state of much more usefulness than it is now. While you're at it bring back the desert wind and the pioneer. Those were discontinued in 1997. Bring back a whole bunch of trains including the Chicago to Toronto route which has been truncated to Port Huron. You know Amtrak just needs to get its network back into a decent state of repair.
big ups on the "apolitical" advocacy point. the idea that because "transit is for everyone" means you don't have to talk about politics feels very enlightened centrist to me, as if creators think that political debates are somehow beneath them. But what gets transit built? politics. what decides how and where transit gets built? politics. what keeps transit maintained and funded? not farebox recovery, that's for sure. if someone is going to dive into the world of transit content creation with the goal of making our cities better, making videos (or anything, for that matter) that dodges and weaves around how political action can accomplish these things, it frankly feels uninformative to me
It's very interesting to think about the sleeper problem in America and putting it into the perspective of the UK (hi from London!). The points you raise are ones that I've always considered here, especially on the London - Scotland route. I've done it once, by rail and during the day. It took nearly a day. The plane would have been cheaper but the ideal - the sleeper - was an impossibility due to the INSANE prices Serco wanted for a berth. Fingers crossed the new nationalised operation will bring those down because there's so many people who fly/take the day train that would be better served by the sleeper. Sleepers are such a great way to expand long distance service and they also have that multiplier of you travel while you sleep, making the travel less of a burden on the traveller.
I'm glad to hear you liked the Pennsylvanian. I grew up in NYC and went to college in Huntingdon PA so I rode the Pennsylvanian every time I had a break from school and I've always thought it was one of amtrak's most underrated routes in terms of scenery.
Yes I agree that Amtrak should not have gotten rid of the Broadway Limited aka Three Rivers for those reasons you mentioned. Especially for those of us living in Philadelphia. Although the Cardinal is a one train ride from New York to Chicago, also stopping in Philly, it only runs 3 days a week, & the route is longer. The Broadway Limited went through 6 states. The Cardinal goes through 11 states plus Washington, D.C. Although in Washington I like watching them switch locomotives from electric to diesel. That's just how I feel.
2:30 Did I miss something, I thought that the Cardinal travels between CHI & NYC via WAS & up the NEC. Frustrating that it currently only operating thrice weekly
I really wish you could do a video about Detroit and possible future transit for it or Lansing, and they are so often ignored. Especially cities like Saginaw or Flint. It just sucks when the only time you get talked about is for you to get put down. I know Michigan has bad politics, but the governor and legislature are looking up. Every time I had talked with the governor, she is actually interested in the happenings of the state and function, rather than just the ways to make herself some money.
also MI weed is that gas. one thing that just aint it about the northeast (from a seattle man's perspective) is how wack the dispensary quality to price ratio is... shouldn't have to go on the tinder grey market to find good stuff lmao
Last I checked the 2016 coast to coast rail line got lumped into the 2045 mobility plan, but everything is in place for them to get that done whenever they come up with the money. They're working on A2TC but coast to coast and service to the tri cities from detroit seems like more of a priority to me. Either way, bright future for michigan, just don't know how far in the future 😅
There is a train from Chicago to Flint: Blue Water which it ends at Port Huron. In Michigan, stations are Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, East Lansing, Flint, Port Huron.
“there is a one-seat ride between philly and chicago!” just a statistical error. cardinals georg, whose route takes a day and a half and only runs 3 days a week, is an outlier adn should not have been county
The Capitol limited is fucking terrible between Pittsburgh and Chicago. You couldn't design a worse time to arrive in PGH, the T literally isn't even running. You're basically stuck downtown until someone picks you up or public transit actually starts working. Source: Yinzer living in Chicago
I really appreciate the creators that aren't afraid to speak their mind to avoid alienating an audience. Digging into the comments I see the scuffle was between you and someone I'm a long time fan of. But my biggest critique of them is their lack of advocacy and fear of taking a stance of things in their videos so you never know what their views really are. As someone who's been in the Chicago area for a while Philly really does feel like our sister city and I would love the ability to hop on a train (or two cuz I live in the burbs now) and get there cuz there's no way in hell I'd ever drive there again
I completely agree with your position. Anybody can make content with easy laughs that follow trend lines and monetize quickly. It takes a person with depth and thoughtfulness to actually add value to the world. Like you said, it’s the “quality vs. quantity” paradigm.
I live in metro Boston and both times I've visited Chicago I've taken Amtrak. It's comfortable, I'm lucky enough to be able to take the extra time it takes, and I prefer to keep my travel-related carbon emissions lower. Sadly right now the base coach fare when I have looked for a future trip has consistently been more expensive than flying. I can deal with a 22 hour train trip in coach but that tolerance falls apart if it becomes more expensive than the 3 hour option. I hope the equipment shortages are sorted out so that fares come back down a bit.
Wendover would make a little more sense. I can say that NJB is a little... frustrating at times. Like, the US, people here who care are aware it's not great. But sea change is difficult when it's required on a monumental scale, and I don't think he gets how much time and effort it took to get the Netherlands to where it is today, to say nothing of some of the geographic and institutional advantages Europe had in making better places and infrastructure. It'd be great to talk about some positive changes which do occur in the US as well as how to fix things rather than just saying how terrible it is.
I think a good example of entertainment done good is downie live (I think that's how it's spelled) he's taken sponsor spots from it was either HSR alliance or Rail passenger association. I love when people point others to places where your adovcacy *can* make a difference.
I understand your points on advocacy and agree with your points, but it is kinda difficult to follow what you say because the starting point (the twitter drama) is not given. I get that you probably don't want to (re)start drama (don't know if that's true?), but it is hard to follow because the context is lacking. Anyway, I like your work Alan and always look forward to your videos and opinions. Have a good one from the Netherlands
Amtrak needs to improve its sleeper trains even though they think they’re good, already. What we really need is high speed rail but we don’t have the political will or support to do it. And haters will say it’s not possible but I know you can build high-speed rail between Chicago and New York and other places around the country also, the cardinal train connects Philly with a Chicago three times a week
Funding for highways and roads are 30x as much to railroad funding. Surprised? and Amtrak is paying $140 million/year to freight companies for using their tracks?
I agree Amtrak needs to bring back the Broadway Limited and the Three Rivers I think the only Amtrak service that's available going on the NEC from NYC with a stop in Philly is the cardinal
Amtrak, bring back the Broadway Limited but as a true night train service. The distance is right that it could be late afternoon departure to next morning arrival with limited stops. That would compete with air. Build some new slumbercoaches while you're at it!
I know you're mainly a transit guy, but can you check out Fire Island, NY? It's a small collection of the few car free towns hear in the US and I'd love to see it get an analysis from you.
I know that me and you both have very similar personalities because I often suffer the same issue. I'm nowhere near what you have accomplished but I dream of sometime inspire people to do change, not in a depressing boring way but in a way that they can have a laugh while doing it.
There's technically a one seat ride between Philly and Chicago, the Cardinal, but it only runs 3 times a week and it's the slowest route. NYC still has its direct train, the lake shore limited
I’m there is. Lake Shore Limited. Lol he even said it in the video. Broadway limited and Three Rivers were NYC-Phil- Chicago train that was discontinued in 90s-2004. Oh yeah the Cardinal forgot that one
You actually can by purchasing "Business Class" ticket. And if you purchase Business Class ticket or higher, you will have access to Metropolitan Lounge and free shower where shower is offered: both NYP and CHI Union Station.
@@williamerazo3921 Cardinal stopped offering Business Class ticket after 2019. Cardinal is one of the most beautiful routes in Amtrak, especially in fall.
now you're talking facts, when i'm out not on the record, i always comment on things that bother me, especially in urban planning; things like: urban sprawl, stroads, bike gutters, infrequent buses; this commentary i do privately then fuels a fire in me to put myself on record and post online (: - by: mico st⭐ar holo, a man.
I don't know why you say sleeper train is good option when it costs 4-figures. Yes, they give you own room, you can order from your room, your own shower, your own sink, your own bedroom and your bed (all paid for from your ticket). Sounds good but 4-figures? Have you took shower from Union Station for free? You know you can. Right?
Yeah, I'm not sure I agreed with that point. Maybe if it saves you a night at a hotel somehow but yeah, I can't ever justify the cost of those tickets vs flying (which sucks)
Booking the Lakeshore Limited Alan mentioned here just a week in advance (which is pretty short for a train booking) starts at 173 bucks. Booking the most expensive accommodation they have is expensive (of course) but that's not what most Amtrak passengers are doing and 4-figures are definitely not what most Amtrak passengers are paying. What Amtrak really needs is the equivalent of Russian platskart replacing coach class - an actual place to lie down your head at the price of a Greyhound trip. It's a large part of why Russian overnight trains have such a high modal share despite the country being twice the size of the US and having frequent domestic flights.
I too long for the Broadway limited! Imagine going from Philly to Chicago without setting foot in O'Hare airport or taking an expensive train that goes way out of the way.
4:17 Leaman Place, nice. I would definitely stick to what you believe is the best type of content that best suits your desires, otherwise your channel will feel more like a chore than something that makes you happy. Also, Brightline’s Orlando extension opens tomorrow. Do you have any thoughts? Thanks for sharing.
It’s so slow and infrequent it’s practically useless as a way of getting around and more of a sight-seeing train. If the Chicago-Cincinnati and Charlottesville-DC sections were improved and service was increased to daily then maybe it could be something compelling
@@CreatorPolar well, I guess I know that, but I do feel a little disappointed that he didn't even say something like "and then there's the cardinal, but I wouldn't recommend it for a handful of reasons"
10000% agreed! ZERO excuse WHEN YOU HAVE TONS OF FREE TIME & ENERGY & RESOURCE to push forth JUSTIFIED CAUSES and to DO HARD RESEARCH instead of just entertainment!
"just for entertainment" seems like a somewhat narrow interpretation imo. I think something can also be very informative and educational without necessarily taking a side in a debate. I am very much ok with creators whose goal is to educate and I wouldn't categorize that as "just" entertainment. anyways, that is not to hate on your content, I actually appreciate there being a diversity of channels and that you are one of the creators who takes a stance and is vocal about it.
I agree, but some people take the "neutral" or "non-political" stance to a point where it's obvious that they're avoiding talking about some part of an issue. That's my problem with many of these channels. Saying your "not political" means that you're more ok with the status quo imo.
Love your videos. I do think sometimes "neutrality" is actually effective advocacy. I'm not familiar with the current kerfuffle, but there was a *prior* kerfuffle about advocacy for right-of-way nationalization, and I think the other RU-vidr in that case actually did a really good job even despite not encouraging the solution explicitly, in a "show don't tell" sort of way. A lot of the audience simply wouldn't care what his personal opinion is, and would potentially be turned off by hearing it, but seeing a more "neutral" / less prescriptive video where the viewer can arrive at the solution on their own may have been more effective for swaying people in the position to make change. So I think there's a lot of value in that part of the space. Again, I'm not familiar w/ the current kerfuffle, but that's my 2 cents. Thanks for the videos! @@alanfisherextras
I love Fairmont Park and I like manayunk and I've always enjoyed that. I haven't been to Philadelphia and over 15 years but I just a voice like that big giant huge Fairmont Park area in roxboro. I like the Rocky steps and the Schuylkill River
Love the Pennsylvanian. Just wish every fucking Amtrak train that arrives or leaves Pittsburgh isn't at dumfuck o'clock. I try to time a trip to Philly or NYC right around the leaves change. Not sure I will get a chance this year.
Isn't the Cardinal technically a one seat ride between Chicago and Philly via DC? The Cardinal is a meme for many reasons and I wouldn't be shocked if it's the slowest though.
Chicago-DC-PHL-NYP. Total of 29 hrs. Lake Shore Limited is 19 hrs. Cardinal stop offering Business Class tickets, since 2020. Some shaking in VA due to poor track conditions. It is really beautiful route though, especially in fall.
Cardinal goes around IN, OH, WV, VA, MD, PA. It takes longer. It is good option if the rider doesn't mind longer routes with beautiful scenery. Oh by the way, there is a shaking period in VA due to poor tracks.
It only runs 3 days a week and it takes about 40% longer than the other routes. It's good for the cities and towns in between but for a through sleeper train it's unserious
i agree. I grew up in NYC metro area and lived there until I was 30 yo. I left for the reasons he mentioned. It was too much energy wasted on keeping up with that sh*t.
I have never opened a Twitter account, have never regretted its absence in my life, and have never been more glad of it since its acquisition by our real-life Philip K Dick villain. (And yes, I am deadnaming that corporation, f- 'em.) All that by way of saying, I have no clue who is being referred to here or whether I watch their content. So all I have to offer is very general. But here we go anyway: One the one hand, *"if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."* If you have a public platform, an audience paying attention to what you have to say, then to _not_ use that platform in service of, pardon the cliche, "making the world a better place" is a waste of time and resources. With great power yadda yadda. "The [RU-vidrs] have [presented] the world in various ways; the point, however, is to _change_ it." On the other hand, none of us has the right (or the power) to demand anyone else do what _we_ think they "should." We can criticize others' choices, but in the end, they're going to do what works for them. And tactically, criticism can backfire; if someone feels like demands are being placed on them, they may push back. In the end, everyone has to *"git in where you fit in,"* and it might be more productive to figure out _why_ they're doing this instead of that, and how _their_ needs might be better served by adding some advocacy spice to their, from what I'm gathering here, flat presentation. *"It is not yours to complete the task; neither are you free to desist from it."*
Dear Alan, first of all, I’m not aware about the ‘former twitter’ kerfuffle. Humbly think that transitioning from the informative perspective towards the entertaining side is, at least on this platform, very common. To me it’s the ‘sellout’ for the ‘buck’ RU-vid seems to award for the entertainment aspects of content. My eyes alone have witnessed several channels switch their prerogative over the years and when the quality of information starts to suffer under the prolificacy of amusement I simply unsubscribe. Especially when we’re talking transit, there’s been more than just one example of transitions in which the previous serious work has been discredited by the maker(s) themselves, simply for just bringing in the superficial and well known false arguments against commuter transportation systems in general. This, whilst there’s no indication whatsoever that these ‘creators’ included these ‘narratives’ for their level of absurdity or plain stupidity. History has shown that transit builds well performing and working agglomerations, whereas the car centered way of thinking leads to the inevitable destruction of communities in general, but most definitely enlarges the different footprints of agglomerations, way beyond those cities and boroughs that are accessible through means of public transportation. Nevertheless, I do understand that there are a lot of lost souls who still will remain behind their solitary wheel(s), just for the sheer illusion of their combustible autonomy, in line, with nowhere to go, in the traffic jam. Advocacy indeed, to take a step towards better functioning cities, advocacy is an absolute necessity. If only for high density transit. But also to change our cities from the stone, asphalt, and tar paper deserts, we use to cover up the square footage a city consists of, to the opening up of soils under those covers, to bring back green canopies, to allow raindrops into the soil, to make cities so much more sustainable than they are now. For all those related subjects advocacy is indeed absolutely necessary!
