Throughout its three decades of existence, Chicagoland’s Metra regional rail service has resisted the widespread adaptation of “fixed-seat” consists by other North American transit agencies, arguing that its customers prefer the choice of facing forward (or backward) on rides and, as well, that such choice poses little danger to riders obeying railroad safety rules.
Nov. 4, 2014 (U.S. national election day) was bad news for some important transit ballot measures, but in Austin, Tex., voters’ rejection of a seriously flawed “urban rail” (light rail) plan — by nixing a $600 million General Obligation bonds measure — was a major victory for rail transit.
I never thought I would find myself in the position of defending the Federal Railroad Administration, at least from anyone other than the Ayn Rand-Alan Greenspan-Phil Gramm-Rush Limbaugh types out there, but life is a funny thing.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and other elected officials announced plans for Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Fairmount Line, linking Boston’s South Station with Boston’s Readville neighborhood, to become a more efficient “commuter rail” line byemploying diesel multiple-unit (DMU) equipment.