Commentary
Decision Handed Down in UP-Metra Dispute
Judge pronounces common carrier obligation for “commuter rail” dead.
Judge pronounces common carrier obligation for “commuter rail” dead.
San Francisco’s unique and historic cable cars returned to the streets of the City by the Bay on Sept. 4, but an incident at their barn shut them down six days later.
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) celebrated its centennial on Sept. 1.
This report comes to you from Amtrak Train 49, the Lake Shore Limited, en route from New York to Chicago. While this is an unusual location from which to file a story, it is
Brightline, Florida’s private-sector passenger railroad that is building a line from West Palm Beach to Orlando International Airport (MCO), continuing west to Walt Disney World and Tampa, has been spared from missing a July 31 deadline imposed by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). The project will still take longer to complete than originally projected, but is proceeding.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts on July 13 released a report on work and travel patterns, along with other issues, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 82-page study, “Preparing for the Future of Work,” addresses what work could look like in Massachusetts in both the near term (to 2025) and the longer term (to 2030), as well as “what the implications might be for the Commonwealth and its residents across its regions, economic sectors, commercial centers, local downtowns, transportation, and public spaces.”
Throughout my series about the Gateway Program over the past two years, I have often noted changes in circumstances that could, or at least should, give Gateway proponents reason to consider changing the nature or the magnitude of its component projects. That recently happened with the project to start building two new single-track tunnels under the Hudson River.
For several months, Railway Age has reported extensively on Amtrak’s efforts to begin running two daily round trips between New Orleans and Mobile, and the strong opposition to the plan voiced by CSX and Norfolk Southern (NS). The focus has been on the railroads. But there’s another vital interest at stake: that of the American people to be able to ride new services on “America’s Railroad.”
The COVID-19 virus did not kill all of its victims. Most people who were infected with it recovered. Still, the virus not only wreaked havoc on individuals, but also on communities and the economies of those communities. Transit is no exception. It is recovering slowly, but its long-term future is uncertain.
Historians may look back on the Great Pandemic of 2020-21 and notice that February 2020 was the month in which commuting by train peaked in the United States. Beginning in March 2020, Railway Age has reported the overall decline in service on our local railroads, which came in reaction to the shutdowns that suddenly appeared to sweep the country on Friday the Thirteenth of that month.