Tag: mass transit

  • Tarnished Linings

    Tarnished Linings

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last month the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) ordered Philadelphia’s public transit system, SEPTA, to inspect the backbone of its commuter rail service, Regional Rail: all 225 Silverliner IV railcars. The Silverliner IV fleet, aged over 50 years, suffered a series of fires this summer and the NTSB investigators wanted them inspected by the end…

  • What Is Infrastructure?

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    Brendan Barry
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    This morning I read a piece in Politico Playbook that broke down President Biden’s $2.25 trillion proposal for infrastructure spending. A thing generally regarded as the United States sorely needs. $2.25 trillion is a lot of money and it’s a fair question to ask whether all that money is really money for infrastructure. Because, it…

  • Baby You Can Drive My Non-automobile Personal Mode of Transportation

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    Brendan Barry
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    Last week was the climate summit in New York, and the science continues to get worse. Any real substantive progress in fighting climate change will require sacrifices and changes to the way our societies function and are organised, including spatially. Because one area that needs to be addressed is the use of personal automobiles that consume oil…

  • A Very Loud Tube

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    Brendan Barry
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    As all my readers probably know, I love London. And in loving London, I love the Tube and the Oyster Card and all that goes along with Transport for London. But, I have noticed that sometimes when I take the Underground, there are segments where it gets a bit loud, especially with the windows open.…

  • Baby, It’s Hot Outside

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    Brendan Barry
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    Those of you living on the East Coast, specifically the Mid-Atlantic, know that presently the weather is quite warm outside. As in levels of dangerous heat and humidity. Personally, your author has not left his flat in a few days now because it is so bad. Alas, not everyone has access to air conditioning in…

  • Public Transit of Yesteryear

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    Brendan Barry
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    For my frequent readers, it will be no big surprise that I am avid supporter of public transit, especially the railways. Consequently I was delighted when I read a non-Brexit piece in the Guardian yesterday that looked at public transit systems in several cities. But it did so by comparing earlier plans or systems to…

  • Bus Transit in Philadelphia

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    Brendan Barry
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    I have lived in Philadelphia for almost ten months now and that time can be split into two different residences. For the first, I took the El to and from Centre City. For the second, I walk to and from work. I look for living spaces near transit lines. In Chicago I took the El…

  • Septa’s Silverliner Service Shutdown

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    Brendan Barry
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    Two weeks ago Philadelphia regional rail commuters, a large group to which I belonged for a number of years, experienced a week from hell. On 2 July a yard inspector for Septa, the Philadelphia region’s transit agency, discovered a Silverliner V railcar tilting. For those not familiar with Septa, the Silverliner Vs have been in…

  • Hudson River Tunnels

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    Brendan Barry
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    Readers of this blog know that I am a fan of rail travel. And in particular, how the rail system on the East Coast is brilliant when compared to anywhere else in the States. Unfortunately, the railway system on the East Coast is also old and in need of serious capital investment. The tunnels linking…

  • The Link Between Work and Transit

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    Brendan Barry
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    The Wall Street Journal recently published an interesting article about the link between work and access to transit. They included a graphic that looked at the link between the two. Credit for the piece goes to the Wall Street Journal graphics department.