Extremely unserious politicans I swear believe that transit is not meant for people to go places and is supposed to be a damn ride. Have Atlanta politicans even taken the Marta before like damn why would we want that to be slowr
As a black American mechanical engineer from Columbia, South Carolina, who loves infrastructure, especially train systems in cities I love your channel. Keep up the good work, bro.
You captured my entire emotional roller coaster when I saw the mayor give that crazy speech and then start saying some about pods and slow moving transportation along the beltline. “What in the blue fcsk are you going on about, mfing PODS?! Zero people asked for PODS mang trainsgyattdammit like Portland and LA and San Francisco!” Was the rant that came next. And I’m an old head - 46 - I remember when there was Hightower to Avondale, College Park to Brookhaven when I was a kid. Man they messed this up so bad. 🤬 Bruh, this is the video version of how I’ve been talking to everyone about this since I found out about all the “re-feasibility study” BS. You gonna be 50 something years old I will be dead and gone by the time they build anything.
Mayor Dickens is going to be dead himself by the time they finish 😂. That’s why I was so confused, like he doesn’t care about being able to see the project for himself??? What’s going on???
@@banksrail Maybe we need to teach politicians to put their names on infrastructure projects again. You can be sure that Dwight Eisenhower made sure the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System was done right. (By the standards of the time) Maybe that would motivate them to actually do a good job.
Why do they bother to waste this money on feasibility studies. How much money would auto lobbyists actually lose if this gets built. Pennies! TL;DR build the damn train already
@colinguo5855 They’re saying that this project wouldn’t even effect them, which is true. I don’t think this project is going to automatically pull people out of their cars, but it will be great as the city continues to grow.
For a second I thought he was referring to building an automated light metro like the REM or Vancouver skytrain and I got excited, then he spoke 3 more words and I wanted to die
I think a lot of these choices (slow speed, bad transfers, no seperation from ped trail, etc.) make a lot more sense if you realize they really are treating this like an amusement park attraction.
He must have had a childhood dream of running an amusement park but they were dashed and he went down a different path in life. Now he’s trying to fulfill his fantasies at the people’s expense.
NY is looking at doing a similar thing on its Interborough Express line, most cities would kill for the gift of a fast orbital ROW that connects their transit networks together to build a fast frequent Metro, but no not in good ol' USA.
Thanks for providing another update on this great series. Goes to show how many people in charge make various processes needlessly lengthy and expensive. I just follow the golden rule of train good, build train; it shouldn't take countless million-dollar studies to determine that, especially if other, much more expensive non-rail projects are built with just as little review. I also strongly suggest spamming this video (and this series) to every single MARTA board member and Atlanta politician, so this way they can be better informed about the importance of this project and how it can be improved.
It would be nice if those renderings showed grassy tramways...and even nicer if in actuality they are built grassy. |Grass is also a great old technology!
I think the belt line being a light rail is more politically viable unlike a heavy rail. MARTA only exists because they were given Seattle’s subway money. Also heavy rail is louder, needs more funding, and needs more space. Also someone the plan calls for street running.
@@Force05289 All of that is true, but the benefits of heavy rail would be absolutely worth the extra noise and cost of grade separation. Although there is a risk that heavy rail would never get built...
I’d prefer it to be manned potentially but automated is fine too. It just needs to be more than amusement park ride like some of these goofballs are suggesting it should be.
The metro vs light rail debate really comes down to how the line is expected to be used If the line is expected to be busy or the intended use is for long trips or it is easy to grade-separate then it absolutely makes sense to grade separate it and build a metro (better if it was automated) If the line isn't expected to be too busy or its intended use is short local trips, or it is more difficult to grade separate then a light rail works
This felt very personal. Please whomever is a resident, get in touch with the Mayor's office. Cite some clips and comment about them to educate this disconnected Mayor 🤬
Say what you will about Boston, but we have ancient Sumerian technology known as "wall and fence," which apparently Atlanta's MARTA hasn't unlocked the secrets of.
“nice” and “slow moving” are words that should never be mentioned in a non-sarcastic manner Also, new challenge: get Banks’ YT channel to a higher sub count than MARTA 👀
I’m from outside the Atlanta area, and hearing the mayor of the largest and most powerful city in my state talk about “nice, slow” transportation and “autonomous pods” has me conclude one of two things: 1. He is unaware of how transportation works and the effects it has on his city’s residents (which might be useful to know as their mayor), or 2. He is being more influenced in his transportation planning by the automotive industry, companies selling useless technology, or some combination of the two. As much as we in the rest of the state think Atlanta gets too much attention relative to everything else in Georgia, we still wish better for our state’s capital. I think the next mayoral election is supposed to happen in 2025.
The "nice slow moving people mover" kills me bc doesn't the monorail at Disney World go like 40 mph 😂 Mr. Mayor, how's that different from a streetcar? Disney's trying to get people places at a decent time!
OMG. Non-US resident here... this is crazy. The point of light rail is to separate it, not slow it down to a crawl.... you will forever regret installing light rail that is so encumbered when you have a choice to make it much faster. And the stops being away from streets -- that's a mistake. There's no reason to do it, and it hides the infrastructure so people are less prone to using it, further to walk for no reason, etc. An "nice slow people mover" like in Europe?... what drugs is this guy on?
They already support the Falcons, so they're used to constant disappointment. They're supposed to be a cautionary tale, not something for the city to constantly emulate.
@@banksrail My sincere condolences. If it makes you feel better, I'll send the videos of 30th Street Station and the Acela 2 testing that I meant to send for the Philly to Newark vid
That's awesome. Have you tried Hard mode? Basically makes it impossible to set up a profitable passenger line, so you have to really go crazy with freight lines.
@@banksrail I’m literally failing as it is lol I just started playing the game but that sounds like a fun challenge in making it realistic (I wonder why all the private railroads in the US don’t run passenger services anymore 🤔)
What you said makes perfect sense, ultimately the best use of the right of way would be to have it be a metro but still even with light rail it could be done way better easily like making transit only lanes, Signal priority, more grade separation, and longer trains it could be way more practical. I don't know any urbanist that would disagree with you, if that was the titles intention, but obviously the mayor has no idea how useful practical transit should be built, it doesn't look like that's his priority and is only making process more complicated with redundant feasibility studies.
like, can’t mayors just… visit the cities they want to emulate instead of trying to reinvent the wheel every time? to be evenlazier, send out a DOT employee to find out?
Yeah Marta has a weird history when it comes to this. I say it all started with the Green Line extension not being built due to racism. After that, Marta went downhill.
@@banksrail agreed. Another reason Marta expansion of the gold line keeps being declined because of racism. Honestly, a red line south and a blue line extension east and west would probably be built more quickly, but again, Marta has it's head up it's ass.
@@TheLIRRFrenchie...My aunt’s up in Gwinnett County and probably is complicit in some of this. She opposes Gold Line extension to her town, sometimes citing budgetary concerns, sometimes talking about “neighborhood character”. If her father (my grandfather), a longtime MARTA project manager of Dunwoody, was still alive, he’d probably argue with her on that. He himself was disappointed whenever Gwinnett County voted no on referendum after referendum.
Instead of getting "the private sector involved," we should give public authorities the power to directly develop land around their rapid transit lines to raise funds for new expansions, service improvements, etc.
that probably goes to the car dealers: "Don't worry, it won't hurt your car sales. We will make sure, that even in the most congested city in North America the only users will be the most desperate, who totally out of reach for a car. Also this will serve as a demonstration, how bad trains are."
Here is my take away. Don't vote for this clown for mayor. Vote for someone who at least tries to keep their promises and actually has a backbone (fyi...new sub here. Some great content coming out about ATL transit). Also...we've been paying this "more MARTA" tax for a decade...and where is more MARTA. Sounds like some corruption goin' on
Same thing between Jersey City and Newark and extending north to Bergen County. Also IBX going street running instead of going under a cemetery. And don't get me started with the Queensway vs Queenslink, because eff Buttigieg, Hochul and Adams.😡🐔
I’m pretty sure at this point he sort of knows what he’s doing, but executing it all wrong. He said they would change the zoning in the area, which is good, but still taking away the beltline streetcar, is crazy.
I feel as if they don’t even want to build this project it just keeps getting brought up because it’s midly popular but the political will for it seems nonexistent. I have a feeling the 20 mph speed limit is just to save money in rail construction and pedestrian safety, because in America building it right the first time is a foreign concept.
I'm not sure why you build light rail in the 2020s when automated light metro (e.g. Vancouver, Montreal, Copenhagen) exists and could have 3 minute headways. Oh, and it costs about the same.
Light metro is definitely great, but wayyyy more difficult to build when you think about the political ramifications of such a system. Atlanta residents are complaining about a version of mass transit that barely has any visual impact to their surroundings. Imagine how they’d react with the light metro
@@banksrail sure, but if you want people to actually *use* it, you need to build light metro. Look at the differences between Portland's TriMet and Vancouver Skytrain. Built at the same time, roughly the same length. One gets 75k passengers a day, the other gets almost 500k passengers a day. And they cost about the same to build out.
@@agntdrake it's frustrating seeing this apples-to-oranges comparison being constantly made because it's pretty disingenuous and only makes sense if you completely remove the context each system was built under. The Expo line cost 854.3M CAD in 1986 (about 598M USD, and just for Phase 1- not including the Scott Rd or King George extensions). The Banfield MAX project cost only 214M in the same year, less than half of the cost. Total system buildout costs would've been higher in Portland regardless of mode as all of the tunneling required deep bores (as opposed to Vancouver, which had a legacy tunnel). This also ignores the fact that Vancouver was hosting Expo86, so the project received expedited support (Canadian cities have less competition for Federal funding as well). The Banfield MAX was built with reallocated funds from cancelled freeway projects, so there were more restrictions on costs. I would argue Vancouver's aggressive upzoning around stations had (and continues to have) more of an impact on ridership than the technological choices. Automation absolutely has operational benefits, but it's not as simple as just pushing the "Light Metro button" and calling it a day. Most US municipalities would balk at the capital costs for such a system (Honolulu Skyline being a prime example), and even if Trimet did go with the Light Metro option it likely would have come at the cost of coverage.
@@FerryTerminal68 it's not disingenuous. It's literally the difference between a system like VTA light rail in Santa Clara County (the heart of the Silicon Valley!) which gets 14k riders a day and one (Skytrain) which carries 450k a day. That's the same as carrying VTA's annual passenger count in 10 days with about the same length of track and fewer stations but with a similar population. Actually, let's throw all of the Bay Area's rapid transit into the mix. If you add VTA light rail, Muni Metro, BART, Caltrain, and SMART together Skytrain still carries more than 200,000 passengers more each day. To say that Skytrain would have been as successful if it had been created as light rail is just laughable. Speed and frequency are two of the most important criteria for any transit project. And yes, I agree that US municipalities would balk at the cost (although they seem to be fine with spending billions on building or expanding 10 lane freeways), however, they should also balk at putting in a train that barely gets used.
You could say that, but I haven’t seen many LRT systems in cities run in completely mixed traffic the way these street cars do. There might be some segments, but overall the light rail is separated, not grade separated, which sucks, but separated.
I would like to see a resurgence of streetcars as they used to exist, but with the track separated from the vehicle lanes via a narrow grass median or some other method. If this cannot even be accomplished, just run it in the street, and if a car parks illegally in the streetcar lane some level of immunity is given to the transit company for damages sustained. The driver should have understood that rail vehicles use that lane, and should not have left his vehicle there.
Keep making content so people see the insanity going on. There have been studying since the turn of the century all with the same result, but "let's just check one more time to make sure the last 88754 studies weren't conclusive enough. Hey why have the prices gone up each time we do a study?" Image what we could have achieved if we followed through on our plans with clear vision and oversight.
i uhhh... don't even know what to think abotu this i'm just terrified of the mayor of atlanta and I hope that man never gets near me, my girlfriend, and any cats me and her may adopt in the future. Keep the autonomus pods away from me.
I'm not real big on the whole city living thing and even I find that "nice slow" comment infuriating. I don't wanna smell that stank homeless dude for any longer than I have to.
Ok, I’m one of those “some form of transit is better than no transit” types of people and I’m not a car hater like a lot of pro-transit people tend to be as I’m aware that they have their benefits. But I’ll admit, it’s kinda depressing that after decades of car dependence, there’s no only lawmakers that are not only uneducated to make the right decision for projects like this, but also are IN POWER 💀 I’m sure people in Atlanta will speak out about this and as the mayor, he has to listen and reconsider Also I think you should do a video on why transit infrastructure in the US take so long to get built let alone get studies to begin say construction. I don’t think that’s a topic thats discussed enough
Majority of that is just a lack of political will. I think that’s the reason why the mayor backtracked the way he did only to backtrack again and say he wants transit on the beltline again.
At least then the state government could be persuaded to start funding public transportation for once. I myself endeavor to vote in 2026, as I’ve been a Georgia resident since childhood.
This nitpicking foamer calls out the light/ heavy meme; common misnomer. It breaks down when Cleveland is considered. A "metro" is also "light", as it is lighter and not compatible with the FRA specs. for the national railway system, which is "heavy". So, is electric regional (S-bahan) "heavier rail"? The term was brought into use by those who do not know the difference between direct suspension trolley wire and catenary. and call a bus, a "bus rapid transit vehicle". Needed a euphemism, because tram or trolley carried an innuendo of nostalgia for the obsolete, politically. Support C-FART; Campaign For Accurate Railway Terminology
Well considering one Siemens S700 LRV weighs 102,500lbs and one Kawasaki r211 weighs 82,000lbs you’re not wrong about the weight, until you realize that r211s come as semi-married quintuplets (5 together) and quartets (4 together) making them 420,000lbs and 328,00lbs respectively. Heavy rail vehicles are generally heavier than light rail vehicles. Unless the heavy rail vehicle comes a single car operational car.
Extremely unserious politicans I swear believe that transit is not meant for people to go places and is supposed to be a damn ride. Have Atlanta politicans even taken the Marta before like damn why would we want that to be slowr
I don't think Atlanta politicians take MARTA ever...
Yeah it’s like they’re trying to turn the beltline in six flags 🤦🏾♂️.
@@onetwothreeabc they don't, it will get them too close to humans, revealing their lizard skin
As a black American mechanical engineer from Columbia, South Carolina, who loves infrastructure, especially train systems in cities I love your channel. Keep up the good work, bro.
Thanks 🙏🏾 💪🏾😁
You captured my entire emotional roller coaster when I saw the mayor give that crazy speech and then start saying some about pods and slow moving transportation along the beltline.
“What in the blue fcsk are you going on about, mfing PODS?! Zero people asked for PODS mang trainsgyattdammit like Portland and LA and San Francisco!” Was the rant that came next. And I’m an old head - 46 - I remember when there was Hightower to Avondale, College Park to Brookhaven when I was a kid. Man they messed this up so bad. 🤬
Bruh, this is the video version of how I’ve been talking to everyone about this since I found out about all the “re-feasibility study” BS. You gonna be 50 something years old I will be dead and gone by the time they build anything.
Mayor Dickens is going to be dead himself by the time they finish 😂. That’s why I was so confused, like he doesn’t care about being able to see the project for himself??? What’s going on???
@@banksrail Maybe we need to teach politicians to put their names on infrastructure projects again. You can be sure that Dwight Eisenhower made sure the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System was done right. (By the standards of the time)
Maybe that would motivate them to actually do a good job.
Why do they bother to waste this money on feasibility studies. How much money would auto lobbyists actually lose if this gets built. Pennies!
TL;DR build the damn train already
I know this is a stupid question but, why are car industry lobbyists going to lose pennies?
@colinguo5855 They’re saying that this project wouldn’t even effect them, which is true. I don’t think this project is going to automatically pull people out of their cars, but it will be great as the city continues to grow.
For a second I thought he was referring to building an automated light metro like the REM or Vancouver skytrain and I got excited, then he spoke 3 more words and I wanted to die
He said “automated” then went straight to pods. 🤦🏾♂️
I think a lot of these choices (slow speed, bad transfers, no seperation from ped trail, etc.) make a lot more sense if you realize they really are treating this like an amusement park attraction.
Exactly, he’s not treating this as serious as he needs to be.
He must have had a childhood dream of running an amusement park but they were dashed and he went down a different path in life. Now he’s trying to fulfill his fantasies at the people’s expense.
@@kertchu 😂 why can I see that
NY is looking at doing a similar thing on its Interborough Express line, most cities would kill for the gift of a fast orbital ROW that connects their transit networks together to build a fast frequent Metro, but no not in good ol' USA.
3:30 IT BETTER NOT BE FUCKING PODS
I'm 1000% here for this and your video has be cackling! But damn!!!!!!!!! The editing is giving me UNHhhh Vibes! 🤣😂 LMFAO!
😂
Bro the buildup of the most amazing transport center only to propose PODS got me dying bro lolll
😂
Thanks for providing another update on this great series. Goes to show how many people in charge make various processes needlessly lengthy and expensive. I just follow the golden rule of train good, build train; it shouldn't take countless million-dollar studies to determine that, especially if other, much more expensive non-rail projects are built with just as little review. I also strongly suggest spamming this video (and this series) to every single MARTA board member and Atlanta politician, so this way they can be better informed about the importance of this project and how it can be improved.
💯💯💯
3:17 I love this segment so much lmaooo. the struggle never ends
😭 never ends
It would be nice if those renderings showed grassy tramways...and even nicer if in actuality they are built grassy.
|Grass is also a great old technology!
In the Atlanta BeltLine site they do show grass growing in between a tram.
They’re using a mix of grass and gravel. All sections not shown in the rendering will be grass tramway. The rest is gravel/ballast.
Love your vibe and humour. It started so well, then he said the words "people mover" and "amusement park" and I was like wat.
😂
2056!?!?!, the spectrum of emotions from watching the mayor talk is crazy 😭😭😭
😂
The Belt Line absolutely needs to be an automated light metro or heavy metro like the Montréal REM, Vancouver Skytrain, or the Paris Line 1.
I think the belt line being a light rail is more politically viable unlike a heavy rail. MARTA only exists because they were given Seattle’s subway money. Also heavy rail is louder, needs more funding, and needs more space. Also someone the plan calls for street running.
@@Force05289 All of that is true, but the benefits of heavy rail would be absolutely worth the extra noise and cost of grade separation. Although there is a risk that heavy rail would never get built...
I’d prefer it to be manned potentially but automated is fine too. It just needs to be more than amusement park ride like some of these goofballs are suggesting it should be.
@@the3idiots14 Automation is important to have a high service frequency, but yeah there's no way we can let it stay an amusement park ride.
The metro vs light rail debate really comes down to how the line is expected to be used
If the line is expected to be busy or the intended use is for long trips or it is easy to grade-separate then it absolutely makes sense to grade separate it and build a metro (better if it was automated)
If the line isn't expected to be too busy or its intended use is short local trips, or it is more difficult to grade separate then a light rail works
This felt very personal. Please whomever is a resident, get in touch with the Mayor's office. Cite some clips and comment about them to educate this disconnected Mayor 🤬
oh hey you were in boston! this is the most positively i’ve heard *anyone* talk about the green line. the “2056 people movers” situation is DIRE.
😂 yeah, turns out Marta can make anyone look good
Say what you will about Boston, but we have ancient Sumerian technology known as "wall and fence," which apparently Atlanta's MARTA hasn't unlocked the secrets of.
Halfway through and welp, this is depressing
I'm glad you're finally recognizing the superiority of Bostonian-Sumerian technology.
“nice” and “slow moving” are words that should never be mentioned in a non-sarcastic manner
Also, new challenge: get Banks’ YT channel to a higher sub count than MARTA 👀
Yeah, I gotta pass these clowns 😂. This one is personal
I’m from outside the Atlanta area, and hearing the mayor of the largest and most powerful city in my state talk about “nice, slow” transportation and “autonomous pods” has me conclude one of two things:
1. He is unaware of how transportation works and the effects it has on his city’s residents (which might be useful to know as their mayor), or
2. He is being more influenced in his transportation planning by the automotive industry, companies selling useless technology, or some combination of the two.
As much as we in the rest of the state think Atlanta gets too much attention relative to everything else in Georgia, we still wish better for our state’s capital. I think the next mayoral election is supposed to happen in 2025.
Definitely a combination of the two
Speaking of Boston, the last mixed-traffic section of the Green Line will get its own dedicated ROW by 2027, so it'll finally be true LRT.
I’m hyped
10:00 I just love the sarcasm here
😂
This mayor is 🤦🤦♀️🤦♂️ pls Atlanta get someone who more of Urbanist as mayor.
Hahahahahaha you put down these feelings so well, its been a frustrating few months🤣🤣 great video 🥲
😭🤦🏾♂️yeah the month definitely took a weird turn.
The "nice slow moving people mover" kills me bc doesn't the monorail at Disney World go like 40 mph 😂 Mr. Mayor, how's that different from a streetcar? Disney's trying to get people places at a decent time!
😂 right
OMG. Non-US resident here... this is crazy. The point of light rail is to separate it, not slow it down to a crawl.... you will forever regret installing light rail that is so encumbered when you have a choice to make it much faster. And the stops being away from streets -- that's a mistake. There's no reason to do it, and it hides the infrastructure so people are less prone to using it, further to walk for no reason, etc. An "nice slow people mover" like in Europe?... what drugs is this guy on?
Yeah the problem is that there are a lot of non-transit-understanding people leading the project.
I was in Atlanta earlier today 😱
Great video! Keep up the good work!
Thanks 🙏🏾 😁
They already support the Falcons, so they're used to constant disappointment. They're supposed to be a cautionary tale, not something for the city to constantly emulate.
😂 and I’m a falcons fan so I’m extra disappointed right now
@@banksrail My sincere condolences. If it makes you feel better, I'll send the videos of 30th Street Station and the Acela 2 testing that I meant to send for the Philly to Newark vid
@@SteveGettingAroundPhilly 😂 thanks
Bro I’m so addicted to transport fever 2 rn I’m doing a challenge where I only use trains and trams and no other transport
That's awesome. Have you tried Hard mode? Basically makes it impossible to set up a profitable passenger line, so you have to really go crazy with freight lines.
@@banksrail I’m literally failing as it is lol I just started playing the game but that sounds like a fun challenge in making it realistic (I wonder why all the private railroads in the US don’t run passenger services anymore 🤔)
What you said makes perfect sense, ultimately the best use of the right of way would be to have it be a metro but still even with light rail it could be done way better easily like making transit only lanes, Signal priority, more grade separation, and longer trains it could be way more practical. I don't know any urbanist that would disagree with you, if that was the titles intention, but obviously the mayor has no idea how useful practical transit should be built, it doesn't look like that's his priority and is only making process more complicated with redundant feasibility studies.
...and make the stations in the median so you dont have to deal with the curb foolishness and people illegally parking.
If they made it high floor light rail then it would be easy to make it more like a metro in the future
like, can’t mayors just… visit the cities they want to emulate instead of trying to reinvent the wheel every time? to be evenlazier, send out a DOT employee to find out?
Yeah, this project is a very very very easy project. It was never meant to be as difficult as they want to make it seem.
Couldn't watch past about 4:20. I have no idea why you added a high pitched tone to the video, but it gave me a migraine within about 2 seconds.
Sorry
How lucky for Atlanta to have Mayor Dickens.
The ancient-technology-bit had me laughing so much 😆
lol sometimes these authorities need a healthy reminder.
"a solution called wall and fence" comedy gold
😂
Marta has lost all ambition because we got them old heads in office and the racism.
Yeah Marta has a weird history when it comes to this. I say it all started with the Green Line extension not being built due to racism. After that, Marta went downhill.
@@banksrail agreed. Another reason Marta expansion of the gold line keeps being declined because of racism. Honestly, a red line south and a blue line extension east and west would probably be built more quickly, but again, Marta has it's head up it's ass.
@@TheLIRRFrenchie...My aunt’s up in Gwinnett County and probably is complicit in some of this. She opposes Gold Line extension to her town, sometimes citing budgetary concerns, sometimes talking about “neighborhood character”. If her father (my grandfather), a longtime MARTA project manager of Dunwoody, was still alive, he’d probably argue with her on that. He himself was disappointed whenever Gwinnett County voted no on referendum after referendum.
Instead of getting "the private sector involved," we should give public authorities the power to directly develop land around their rapid transit lines to raise funds for new expansions, service improvements, etc.
"Something like a nice, slow moving people mover"
Is... Is that supposed to be a pro?
that probably goes to the car dealers: "Don't worry, it won't hurt your car sales. We will make sure, that even in the most congested city in North America the only users will be the most desperate, who totally out of reach for a car. Also this will serve as a demonstration, how bad trains are."
Here is my take away. Don't vote for this clown for mayor. Vote for someone who at least tries to keep their promises and actually has a backbone (fyi...new sub here. Some great content coming out about ATL transit).
Also...we've been paying this "more MARTA" tax for a decade...and where is more MARTA. Sounds like some corruption goin' on
Same thing between Jersey City and Newark and extending north to Bergen County. Also IBX going street running instead of going under a cemetery. And don't get me started with the Queensway vs Queenslink, because eff Buttigieg, Hochul and Adams.😡🐔
Shhh shhh, we’ll get there eventually. Those are two of the most triggering projects 🥲
So he wants to make an amusement ride around the beltline?
Pretty much
I'm subbed. If you pass marta in youtube subs you should get to take over the agency
Definitely want to pass them so I can get someone from the agency to tell use what’s really happening with this project
I always feel patronized when RUclips urbanists describe BIPOC/POGMAIP communities as “vibrant” and just highlight the food and corner stores.
Anyway, BLACK TRANSIT POWER
I feel like people get too hung up on private vs public, when really it should be about train people instead of none train people.
Yeah, problem is, everyone always wants the infrastructure, but some people simply don’t want to pay for it.
Ironic to the MBTA
map has gone in bigger and they're not to write home about.
What cracks me up is that that white-suit politician.. wants to put a transit stop.. In the Middle of an Industrial Area LOL.
I’m pretty sure at this point he sort of knows what he’s doing, but executing it all wrong. He said they would change the zoning in the area, which is good, but still taking away the beltline streetcar, is crazy.
I feel as if they don’t even want to build this project it just keeps getting brought up because it’s midly popular but the political will for it seems nonexistent. I have a feeling the 20 mph speed limit is just to save money in rail construction and pedestrian safety, because in America building it right the first time is a foreign concept.
Yup, you said it best
I died when I heard autonomous pods.
😭
I'm not sure why you build light rail in the 2020s when automated light metro (e.g. Vancouver, Montreal, Copenhagen) exists and could have 3 minute headways. Oh, and it costs about the same.
Only way cities would build light metro is to straight up do an Indiana style BAN on light rail.
Light metro is definitely great, but wayyyy more difficult to build when you think about the political ramifications of such a system. Atlanta residents are complaining about a version of mass transit that barely has any visual impact to their surroundings. Imagine how they’d react with the light metro
@@banksrail sure, but if you want people to actually *use* it, you need to build light metro. Look at the differences between Portland's TriMet and Vancouver Skytrain. Built at the same time, roughly the same length. One gets 75k passengers a day, the other gets almost 500k passengers a day. And they cost about the same to build out.
@@agntdrake it's frustrating seeing this apples-to-oranges comparison being constantly made because it's pretty disingenuous and only makes sense if you completely remove the context each system was built under. The Expo line cost 854.3M CAD in 1986 (about 598M USD, and just for Phase 1- not including the Scott Rd or King George extensions). The Banfield MAX project cost only 214M in the same year, less than half of the cost. Total system buildout costs would've been higher in Portland regardless of mode as all of the tunneling required deep bores (as opposed to Vancouver, which had a legacy tunnel). This also ignores the fact that Vancouver was hosting Expo86, so the project received expedited support (Canadian cities have less competition for Federal funding as well). The Banfield MAX was built with reallocated funds from cancelled freeway projects, so there were more restrictions on costs. I would argue Vancouver's aggressive upzoning around stations had (and continues to have) more of an impact on ridership than the technological choices. Automation absolutely has operational benefits, but it's not as simple as just pushing the "Light Metro button" and calling it a day. Most US municipalities would balk at the capital costs for such a system (Honolulu Skyline being a prime example), and even if Trimet did go with the Light Metro option it likely would have come at the cost of coverage.
@@FerryTerminal68 it's not disingenuous. It's literally the difference between a system like VTA light rail in Santa Clara County (the heart of the Silicon Valley!) which gets 14k riders a day and one (Skytrain) which carries 450k a day. That's the same as carrying VTA's annual passenger count in 10 days with about the same length of track and fewer stations but with a similar population. Actually, let's throw all of the Bay Area's rapid transit into the mix. If you add VTA light rail, Muni Metro, BART, Caltrain, and SMART together Skytrain still carries more than 200,000 passengers more each day. To say that Skytrain would have been as successful if it had been created as light rail is just laughable. Speed and frequency are two of the most important criteria for any transit project. And yes, I agree that US municipalities would balk at the cost (although they seem to be fine with spending billions on building or expanding 10 lane freeways), however, they should also balk at putting in a train that barely gets used.
Love the CLR James quote omg
Makes me appreciate even more what Los Angeles has been able to do for the last 33 years and counting.
Oh yeah! Definitely 💯
Slow moving peoplemover 😂😂😂
Expand MARTA outside 285 to the suburbs. 500k vs the other ~6MILL??? What the actual fuck.
My late grandfather, a former project engineer for MARTA, would have liked that.
Not his daughter out in the suburbs, though.
Talk about kicking the can down the road to another lifetime.
😂 he kicked the can so far, he kicked it out his own lifetime. I’ve never seen that lol
To be honest, the difference between a streetcar system and a light rail system is just marketing.
Indiana was kinda BASED when they banned it lol
You could say that, but I haven’t seen many LRT systems in cities run in completely mixed traffic the way these street cars do. There might be some segments, but overall the light rail is separated, not grade separated, which sucks, but separated.
I would like to see a resurgence of streetcars as they used to exist, but with the track separated from the vehicle lanes via a narrow grass median or some other method. If this cannot even be accomplished, just run it in the street, and if a car parks illegally in the streetcar lane some level of immunity is given to the transit company for damages sustained. The driver should have understood that rail vehicles use that lane, and should not have left his vehicle there.
When I first heard those quotes from the mayor I got so god damn upset. Bro was cooking something diabolical
Some absolutely reprehensible.
Keep making content so people see the insanity going on. There have been studying since the turn of the century all with the same result, but "let's just check one more time to make sure the last 88754 studies weren't conclusive enough. Hey why have the prices gone up each time we do a study?" Image what we could have achieved if we followed through on our plans with clear vision and oversight.
yeah, these feasibility studies are the REAL waste of money. A new one every 2 years???? Really?
That quote at the beginning of the video goes hard
CLR James always comes in clutch with the quotes.
Well, this is a bit depressing
Still trying to find out where that illusive european people mover can be found.
I don't know what to tell you, I've been looking for about a month now and still no luck lol.
@@banksrail Heathrow?
i uhhh... don't even know what to think abotu this i'm just terrified of the mayor of atlanta and I hope that man never gets near me, my girlfriend, and any cats me and her may adopt in the future. Keep the autonomus pods away from me.
😂 yeah, “pods” are crazy
I'm not real big on the whole city living thing and even I find that "nice slow" comment infuriating. I don't wanna smell that stank homeless dude for any longer than I have to.
😂
Bruh ☠️
LOL...google offered to translate your comment
That “Bruh” was so real, it transcended the English language 😂
Ok, I’m one of those “some form of transit is better than no transit” types of people and I’m not a car hater like a lot of pro-transit people tend to be as I’m aware that they have their benefits. But I’ll admit, it’s kinda depressing that after decades of car dependence, there’s no only lawmakers that are not only uneducated to make the right decision for projects like this, but also are IN POWER 💀 I’m sure people in Atlanta will speak out about this and as the mayor, he has to listen and reconsider
Also I think you should do a video on why transit infrastructure in the US take so long to get built let alone get studies to begin say construction. I don’t think that’s a topic thats discussed enough
Majority of that is just a lack of political will. I think that’s the reason why the mayor backtracked the way he did only to backtrack again and say he wants transit on the beltline again.
Bro run for office
😂 I mean at this point…
what the dickens
lollllll
EXPAND MARTA
Dude run for governor please
At least then the state government could be persuaded to start funding public transportation for once.
I myself endeavor to vote in 2026, as I’ve been a Georgia resident since childhood.
Marta schou rebind the
CLR James quote to start off this banger. Good lord
😂 CLR James quotes are on point💯
t r e e
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b u s h
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This nitpicking foamer calls out the light/ heavy meme; common misnomer. It breaks down when Cleveland is considered. A "metro" is also "light", as it is lighter and not compatible with the FRA specs. for the national railway system, which is "heavy". So, is electric regional (S-bahan) "heavier rail"? The term was brought into use by those who do not know the difference between direct suspension trolley wire and catenary. and call a bus, a "bus rapid transit vehicle". Needed a euphemism, because tram or trolley carried an innuendo of nostalgia for the obsolete, politically. Support C-FART; Campaign For Accurate Railway Terminology
C-FART needs a new acronym lol 😂
F
Small correction: Light Rail vehicles are much HEAVIER than Heavy Rail vehicles. The terms refer more to ridership levels and maximum passenger flow.
Well considering one Siemens S700 LRV weighs 102,500lbs and one Kawasaki r211 weighs 82,000lbs you’re not wrong about the weight, until you realize that r211s come as semi-married quintuplets (5 together) and quartets (4 together) making them 420,000lbs and 328,00lbs respectively. Heavy rail vehicles are generally heavier than light rail vehicles. Unless the heavy rail vehicle comes a single car operational car.