**Minor Correction Below** Support Transit Tangents in 2025 🎉 www.patreon.com/transittangents CTA Red and Purple Line Improvements created an overpass for brown line trains. It was already quad tracked for the purple line. Apologies for the mistake. Full link to project in the description.
Some more clarification: the Red-Purple Modernization (RPM) is an ongoing project, but the bypass you're talking about opened in 2021. It's the Belmont Flyover, which takes northbound Brown Line trains over the two tracks for the Red and Purple lines and the third track for the southbound Brown Line trains so that the Brown Line can diverge west without affecting capacity and reliability on the Red and Purple Lines. The main RPM improvements finishing in 2025 are the overhauls of Bryn Mawr ("Brin Mar," currently operational but only in one direction), Berwyn, Argyle, and Lawrence stations, along with the track upgrades involved in those station rebuilds and general track and elevated structure improvements along the entire North Side Main Line (the North Side Main line is the elevated track the Purple Line runs on from Howard to the Loop). It's a great project and the new stations are REALLY nice!
What we need now, and will hopefully come next if the CTA doesn't implode because of its budget cliff, is a similar total reconstruction on the Blue Line, which is slower than it has ever been at both of its far ends.
2025 is also the opening of Seattle's east link which is notable for the world's longest floating rail bridge. For the first time ever you'll be able to travel from Redmond WA all the way to Vancouver BC or Portland OR using nothing but trains. It also marks the end of Sound Transit 2's expansion.
The first floating rail bridge Also Federal Way Link which is coming in 2026 will be the last of ST2. Downtown Redmond Link (beginning of 2025) will actually be the first of ST3!
* Very sad PNW noises * Sound Transit has several massive expansions opening in 2025.... but I am happy that at least Hawaii got mentioned... they need a lot of support given the very backwards build out of that line. Regardless, Happy New Year's Transit Tangent's! Keep up the amazing work! : )
Up in the often forgotten northwest corner of the US, Seattle is opening two Link extensions this year. First, a two station, three mile extension of the 2 Line into downtown Redmond. This extension like all other Link extensions going forward is 100% grade separated. Then, at the end of 2025, the 2 Line will be extended for another 7 miles across the world's first rail supporting floating bridge to link Bellevue to Seattle This will bring Link's trackage up to 52 miles, more than double what it had at the beginning of 2024. One final 3 station, 7.8 mile extension to Federal Way will open in 2026 before we have a 5 year gap in extensions before the West Seattle extension opens
Technically, I believe that the Baltimore and Ohio operated a temporary semi-floating bridge across the Potomac in WWII. And of course there are the numerous ice railways.
Kansas City here. Excited about the streetcar extensions. Main Street is done and should open by summer; Riverfront is another year away but already 50% done.
Phoenician here! I'm so grateful for the light rail and I'm always happy for the extensions. I will also mention that the city of Mesa is looking into building a streetcar on the western part of town. It's in early planning and not set in stone yet, but I hope we do see something come to fruition!
Next year is also the opening of the new westlake corridor in Indiana. First expansion of South shore line in 100 years and one of the only brand new electrified heavy rail projects opening in the US next year!
METRO Gold Line in St Paul MN is also opening this March. It is a proper BRT with dedicated right of way ~75% of the route and even a decent amount of grade separation.
The MBTA has been entirely speed restriction free for almost 2 weeks now since Dec 21st. The removal of speed restrictions has been huge for rapid transit in the city. People living on the farthest end of the Red Line in Quincy and Braintree are seeing 25min faster journeys into downtown. Orange Line riders can now utilize the full potential of the newly delivered rolling stock now that they can run trains every 6min during peal periods, with travel times from termini to downtown cut in half. Up next year is to modernize the signal systems to support shorter headways and increase Red Line top speeds to further decrease travel times to those not seen since the 80s.
To be clear, NoLa to Mobile will be 4 trains per day total, so only 2 in each direction. One morning and one afternoon trip. A start, to be sure, but not a ton
I’ve just stumbled across your channel and it’s doing great things promoting public transport in the US. I’m from Australia and I think it would be worth looking at what Perth has done in the last 33 years. They’ve expanded their rail system from three legacy lines with 4 new heavy rail lines over that time period. Perth is like many American cities in that it’s very spread out with low density housing, but they’ve made public transport work by building lines with long station spacing down freeways or in greenfield alignments with each station acting as a hub for local bus services. Perth has truly turned its network around and created an incredible system for such a comparatively small city; I think there are many lessons to learn for American cities.
Back before air travel, many prominent Americans owned second homes in Kansas City. The reason was because the city was within a day's train travel of almost all of the rest of the country.
Great video. We've been waiting for the Mobile to New Orleans route to resume after all these years. Glad to see the many other transit projects around the country.
I wish the Greenville/Spartanburg/Anderson area of South Carolina would start a light rail system of some sort! For some reason people here think that we have to be a huge city to have such a system. (In some ways we are a big city...just spread out over multiple counties.) Interstates 26, 85, and 385 can only be widened so many times before they run out of room.
Phoenix here I'm so thankful for our light rail extensions. We just opened a light rail extension this year to a former mall that will be become a mixed-used development. There are also two extensions after the South Central Extension. The Capitol Extension that will extend the light rail west to 15th Avenue and loop around. The I-10 West Extension that will extend the light rail west to the Desert Sky Transit Center. Also the current light rail line will split next year.
I haven't been to Boston since my sister lived there in 2016, but I'm so glad that the MBTA finally got rid of all the slow zones! It would be really great if the MBTA could build a perimeter subway train that would start near/at the airport, and connect with every T line at stops such as Sullivan Square, East Sommerville, Harvard, Packard's Corner, etc., all the way around to JFK/UMass. True, it would be a huge capital project, but it still probably wouldn't be as bad as The Big Dig.
I'm biased because 1. I live in a major city and 2. I absolutely hate driving, but I think a city's public transit says a lot about the city itself. I've been to cities that I otherwise loved, but not being able to get around efficiently affected my overall opinion. I've accepted that I likely won't see a generational shift in attitude when it comes to the attention that public transit infrastructure deserves in *my* lifetime, but it does make me happy seeing cities slowly make progress.
Something not really mentioned when talking about the silver line is that Dallas (and DFW in general) is incredibly multi-nodal. 2 of the suburbs (Irving and Plano) have more office space than downtown Dallas and are major employment centers (although the suburban parts of Dallas mean that Dallas still has more overall than either city), and would both be mid sized cities in their own right at over 250k each. Not to mention theres Fort Worth at just under 1 million. In addition, there are 7 suburban cities between 200-400k with Arlington being the largest, and another 6 cities between 100-200k. The pure urban area is roughly the size of Connecticut, but the actual size of the metro area is roughly the same as New Jersey. Its an incredibly large metro area that now reaches as far north as the Oklahoma border. Its wild how far the region has sprawled.
SUPER excited for the eventual completion of Honolulu's Skyline. Honolulu is a sleeper transit-oriented city (by US standards), with a better 2023 commute modal split (around 7%) than Pittsburgh, Baltimore, or Portland, and that's pretty much just with buses! It's also quite dense by US standards, and fairly linear, so a moderrn high-frequency metro line should hit it out of the park in Honolulu.
Also should mention that it is a fully grade separated and automated light metro. So even though the project phasing is flawed, when done it will arguably be the most modern system in the US with the ability to achieve massive frequency and capacity improvements at much smaller operational costs than other systems.
Our transit wish list might be too long! Lol. Two that come to mind right away are real regional rail between Austin and San Antonio, and Project Connect actually happening here in Austin. Both local project for us! Thanks for the support. -Louis
For some context on the South Central extension, in 2015, city voters approved Proposition 104, a tax to help fund transportation projects throughout the city. Light rail extensions were the big ticket items, and the South Central project was one of them. That’s how they were able to move the project 10 years ahead of its initial schedule. Also, even after the schedule was moved ahead by 10 years, it almost didn’t happen, and had other issues along the way. In 2019, some South Phoenix residents tried to sue the city over broken promises (4 lanes or no train), which led to a city ballot proposition that if it was passed, would’ve banned the city from building any new light rail tracks. Once construction started, there were also some serious cost overruns, and it was supposed to open this year, from what I’ve heard, though the opening date now is sometime in 2025. Also, it seemed like a lot of Urbanist RUclipsrs visited Phoenix back in January/February to see the Metrocenter extension open. I didn’t know there were city council members from cities in other states that visited.
Good thing we didn't let the NIMBYs get their way. Yeah the South Central Extension will open in Mid-2025. The cost was increased because of the addition of the Downtown Hub in Downtown Phoenix.
Talking about being able to take a train away from your hometown ❤ Growing up in Springfield, Missouri, the third largest city in the state, we have had zero train service in the area since the 1960s.. Happy to live in Kansas City today next to the new streetcar line that's just about to open with plenty of Amtrak service from Union Station..
Here's a project to keep an eye on: Roosevelt Boulevard Subway in NE Philadelphia. A subway line under this road is planned to meet the existing Broad Street Subway in the middle part of North Philadelphia, and currently proposed to run to either the Neshaminy Mall or to Parx Casino/Race Track. It's scheduled to run from these points to City Hall, Philadelphia in 30 minutes, with special trains on this line to the South Philadelphia Sports Complex in 40 minutes(using the existing subway line).
You guys would be welcome to check out the recent rail additions to the Helsinki area. You could also talk to the planners see how much quicker and at less cost transit RoWs are built here.
Looks like there's some confusion on the CTA red-purple bypass. This added an overpass for the brown line so that northbound brown line trains no longer help up red and purple trains when crossing over. The red-purple line is already quad-tracked so that the purple line can run express without any interruption from stopping red line trains
@@TransitTangents More precisely, the red/purple WAS quad-tracked. The Lawrence-Bryn Mawr modernization is about replacing a century-old embankment that is crumbling with a new viaduct that will enable higher clearances underneath, faster running due to new track and more stable roadbed, and handicapped-accessible stations with much wider platforms. To do this without utterly obliterating neighborhoods, it is being done one half at a time, so that section has been operating as double-track while construction progresses. Thankfully, things are going well, and the first half is complete, with trains moved onto the new viaduct and using temporary stations, and the second half is well under way, with the old embankment largely gone. The Lawrence bypass for the Brown line is now operational, but as part of an associated project, a tight S-bend just north of the junction is being straightened. In order to do this, they had to move the Vautravers Building, which the original private company wasn't able to buy out when they built the El over 100 years ago. However, this has also resulted in a stretch of double-track as they rebuild and realign everything. These two projects are just part of a much larger plan to completely reconstruct the whole line. Once Lawrence-Bryn Mawr is finished, the plan is to advance to the next section North. One of the major issues there is the poor location of Loyola station on a curve, and it's local-only status. It will be interesting to see what they do there. Other areas of interest as the project progresses are Addison station, which is a cramped local stop next to Wrigley Field, and the many ultra-tight curves on the southern end of the route.
@@00Zy99 Thank you for this because I am 2:47 mins into the video, and I was already about to correct these guys. Also, I think you mean the "Belmont flyover" instead of "Lawrence bypass" since the Brown Line splits off at Belmont.
Y’all should definitely take the River Runner to St Louis while you’re in Kansas. Then you’ll be able to see what an actually good urbanists city in MO looks like. ;] ⚜️👍
St. Louis Metrolink will open an extension to Mid-America Airport next year as well. Once this opens the Metrolink will connect the two airports in St. Louis with rail.
Oh wow I din't know about the Amtrak service between NOLA and Mobile. If it's up, incredibly valuable for the upcoming Super Bowl as well as what looks to be next year's WrestleMania.
I look forward to knowing more about DFW Silver Line, especially with Plano seeming to cool on DART. On the one hand Plano-Addison-Carrollton-DFW is a great way to funnel people who fly a lot. However I’m not convinced people want a slow and infrequent train that stops mostly at car-dependent stations. It only runs hourly and takes an hour to travel 29 miles, which is far far worse than traffic most of the time.
There will also be costal rail in Boston on a new Commuter rail line (South Cost rail) The Twin Cities Metro Transit, B, E and Yellow BRT Lines will also open this year and the new South Shore Line West Lake Corridor.
Looking forward to the new routes in Texas. Pondering trying to make it to the inaugural run of CapMetro's new Rapid routes and the DART Silver Line. Also worth noting CapMetro's new Decker pickup zone (which is at the far end of the Expo line) opens in a few weeks.
It’s crazy there’s no mention of Seattle on here…between 2024 & 2026 the light rail expansion is one of the best & most ambitious in the country. Missed the mark on this one.
About the MBTA slow zones, they were actually completely removed over a week ago i believe on the 21st of December, nonetheless it has been a monumental effort across the past year and a half by Phil Eng, so looking forward to the next stages of repairing and improving the T
Minneapolis and St. Paul are getting 3 new transit projects, the gold line, the E Line and B Line. The Gold Line is BRT that will run in a busway with its own right of way I’m pretty sure and goes along i94 from downtown St. Paul to Woodbury and I think there is going to be bus lanes in downtown on 5th and 6th street, not sure if 6th will get any but 5th street already has some bus lanes. The E line will run along where route 6 goes. It will be a combination of 6U, 6F and 6C it will use Hennepin Avenue and then go down Sheridan like the 6C does but then turn onto 44th and get on France like the 6F and go to outtake. It will also go down 4th/university my Avenue like the U but unlike the 6U it doesn’t stop at stadium village and I’m pretty sure it goes all the way to west gate, really hope this gets bus lanes on all of Hennepin and university and 4th street. The B Line will go where route 21 goes but it doesn’t make an annoying detour to university and instead goes straight down selby to snelling. It uses lake street, Marshall Avenue and selby Avenue from France Avenue to downtown St. Paul and lake street will have bus lanes. Both directions from Lyndale to France. Eastbound bus lanes from i35W to Lyndale and westbound bus lanes from i35W to the river and I’m pretty sure buses on Marshall can use the right turn lane to go straight and bypass traffic and I think there will be bus lanes downtown
the thing about transit is the ability to provide an alternative for transportation. I live by the expo center and received flyers from cap metro about 6 months ago regarding the new rapid bus line that is starting in march. the reason for expanding cap metro now is to be ready for when Austin becomes much larger down the road as we do not want to repeat the mistakes of houston, phoenix or los angeles. I am from denver and their transit system is one of the tops in the nation with 10 rail lines, three large transit centers, over 100 bus lines that expand out to the exsurbs including a ski area as well as the airport and moves around 300,000 commuters daily. I believe it is also the first in the world to provide handicap accessible buses. denver built their system based off of chicagos and spent nearly 20 billion in doing so. I believe fares support around 70% of their annual budget. I believe this is one of the systems that austin is looking at. btw I've been told that chicago has offered to modernize their system many times over the years but the voters turned it down due to its vintage aspiration. those L trains are very bouncy if you have ever ridden one. yes, chicago is a very nice city.
Dallas and Austin opening new projects and extensions, meanwhile Houston's new administration scrapped almost the entirety of our transit plans right before federal funding 💔
Of course no mention of my state FL :( Only good thing we are doing is converting old train lines right of way into bike paths. And while good for riding a bike is essentially killing any future possibility for light rail by eliminating the last few available locations for future routes And about Kansas City, yes they are hosting the World Cup next year but games will be played at Arrowhead Stadium so the very good Streetcar is out of the picture
Life in the greater Phoenix area is so much better, now that the Valley Metro Light Rail system connects to the airport. I can walk from my house in Tempe to a local bus to get on the light rail to the free Sky Train to the airport terminals and back.
So the red and purple bypass (the Belmont Flyover) in Chicago is actually not so much a result of conflict between red and purple, but with those two lines and the brown line. The three lines are interlined for a while on the north side before the brown line cuts west after Belmont St. in Lakeview/Boystown/Wrigleyville. The brown line now flies over the red and purple line tracks. The flyover has already opened and is in use, updates on the red and purple lines north of this are still being worked on.
The Denver Area is building a new BRT line along a really long street there. I don't think its going to be operational in 2025, but we're working on it.
Thanks for your recent Houston episode, things definitely seem better than when I tepidly used METRO in the late 1990s...it could be hit or miss, all you had were paper schedules, busses would sometimes just not show up, etc. The train's still pretty cool, I need to try riding it to UH someday for a football game because on-campus/near campus parking on game day is impossible/expensive. Would love to see a video of you guys riding around DFW on public transit....I'm glad that it's theoretically possible to ride DART all the way from Denton to DFW Airport, but disappointed the trip takes just under 3 hours per Google Maps. Would increasing frequency of service make this route faster, more feasible?
Honolulu checking in! I'm really excited for the Skyline Airport segment to open up, being able to take the train to/from the West side of the island to the Airport along with not having to deal with the peak hour traffic when taking the A Route is game changing. However, from my understanding train testing will finish near the end of 2025, so I'm holding my breath that Phase 2 will be in revenue service by the end of the year. To add, construction on the Downtown section is starting next month.
@@TransitTangents Thanks for including the next phase of Skyline (not "Skyway") in your video! With respect to the project phasing, yes it is unconventional and yes it has been a huge impediment to establishing a solid ridership base since the system's initial opening. The transit authority's explanation is that the first phase needed to be built in conjunction with and directly connected to the system operations and maintenance center and train storage railyard, and there was no parcel of available land closer to downtown Honolulu that was large enough to accommodate those facilities than the one that was chosen out beyond Pearl City. If you look at a satellite map of the city and trace the planned rail route all the way into downtown you'll see that's true. The urban core is already quite dense, and putting those facilities in or near the city center would have required exercising eminent domain to acquire and remove substantial existing development or repurposing valuable park land. Understandably there was no appetite for either of those alternatives. So, for now, those of us who support Skyline just put up with the complaints of transit opponents who say the system is a white elephant, knowing that when Skyline is finally done it will take its place alongside all the other transit projects around the country that were bitterly criticized until they were finally completed and their full value was recognized.
I've often wondered if the way the US funds their infrastructure maybe the reason why public transport is so poor. In most countries the central government funds either the entire project or enters in agreements with state/local government.
I hope the city center phase of the honolulu metro gets built quickly so they can start building extensions. A 6 km (ish) eastwards extensions and another 6 km extensions down Kapolei Parkway to the west would have the line extend the entire southern coast of the island. You could add a branch that runs down the kamehameha highway to serve the inland areas, and another down to Ewa beach. At that point, the metro would serve the entire island south of the mountains. I'm not hawaiian, but honolulu is only 70ish kilometers in length at most, which is shorter than the LA metro A line. The state and city should have ambitions long-term plans like these and beyond, as honolulu is not that big, and could built an island wide metro network like Singapore or hong kong.
Really hoping Hawaii is taking the route Chinese rail route. Develop transit along areas with little development then develop the area with medium and heavy density areas.
i think they opened this part of the existing honolulu skyway first because the rail yard is in the suburbs, you can't open without a yard! Also you can see the full extent of the huuuge TOD projects around these "rural" stations on google maps: isn't the line funded by these TODs?
just great, ten interesting projects. have information about the independent train corporations competing with amtrak in florida, texas and california? thanks, so many people writing about seattles transit, and so many variations in presentation. one well done presentation by an expert in the area would be good. a longitudinal study, this presentation must identify the introduction of each improvement and its affect/effect on other variables as they are altered. there are many thoughts and alternatives to discuss as this transit system develops. the exemplar is minneapolis/st. paul. the system and its affect/effect on enhancing the cities economic and social wealth and the amazing concurrent housing initiatives the system has facilitated.
It appears that the DART train shown there is not electrified as it should be. Many folks don't know that Congresswoman Ann Northrup made sure that Louisville, KY did not get light rail. Too bad, was going to serve U of L Cardinal stadium, Muhammad Ali airport, downtown, then cross over to S. Indiana. Too bad many Amtrak has to share tracks with freight trains with their slow trains. Being from MA originally I could be wrong about this. The Big Dig was supposed to include subway service to include going from South to North Stations. Now there's talk about extending the Blue line to the Red line/MGH station, but too bad somehow that it could then go to Park or Washington St station so one seat travel would be a reality. Also should be extended from I believe the terminus of Wonderland to Lynn. Also my gripe (last one) that the Blue line should @ Logan be reconfigured to actually go into the terminal vs taking a bus from the station to the terminals. Happy New Year!!
Thanks for watching! Happy to see some of the progress there, as well as the lawsuits dwindling in numbers. Cautiously optimistic.... For this episode though we were moreso focused on things opening to the public this year. We did an entire episode on Project Connect a few months back though here: ruclips.net/video/IzSIGpSriGM/видео.htmlsi=4RVeT173CrA12_dY
How much has the Texas state government been an obstacle to funding Austin’s transit ambitions? CapMetro has had its missteps, but overall seems to serve riders relatively well. (Back when I lived there 15 years ago, it was maddening to see how rustic/rural some of the service area appeared as far as bus stop infrastructure was concerned - too many stops without even the decency of a sidewalk. I hope Austin & Travis County have seen fit to address these islands of urban neglect.)
State government doesn’t need to intervene when Austin’s own residents regularly vote against transit projects. I lived there for nearly 20 years and saw very little progress, despite rapid population growth and the obvious need to reduce car traffic. The fact that a city of that size still doesn’t have a train to their *international airport* just shows how far behind they are compared to other cities around the world.
Los Angeles does so much right, yet does so much that’s just a few meters short of useful. For example, LAX is no longer tenable to ask 88 million passengers a year to share a single roadway, so the people mover is long overdue. Yet, extending the people mover 2 miles would’ve connected it to 3 major sports venues, which as of now are all a mild from metro stations, which on game days mean an hour-long shuttle bus ride. Since those connections haftb. Even started EIR, there’s 0 chance of it being ready by 2028. A line to Pomona is interesting, but metro through Sepulveda Pass between UCLA and Ssn Fernando or K Line to Hollywood would get 10 times the ridership. Yet neither will likely open before 2045. Absolutely backwards priority.
16:20 Bus and rail lines are supposed to go direct, not take goofy routes that takes passengers a mile out of the way! Goofy routes = longer distances and more stops = longer time = bigger incentive to drive! 😠😡😡🤬
Generally agree, but sometimes routes that look goofy actually connect between places people want to go. For example, the 300 bus route in Austin looks like a goofy bus route, but it among the highest ridership in the city.
As someone who is a republican this is one thing among a few others I disagree with them on and I hope trump decides to fund more public transit in this country.
Why would you EVER think the convicted felon cares at all about public transit? He didn't do it the first time even though he TALKED about it. Don't hold your breath.
Please don’t bring up these trumped up charges because if it was a democrat they never would have brought these to court. Public transit is more than just a president states and local governments need to be involved and seriously so which they aren’t.
@pattycarljackson The convicted felon did it all himself. It's long past due he takes responsibility for his disgusting behavior. The courts held up the sexual assault charges, and he owes millions to the victim. Of course, federal funding is critical to get local public transit built. That is what the Biden transportation bill does. It helps fund public transit projects at different levels. It's been long overdue. Public transit in the USA lags far behind other countries.
Fascinating but I had to drop out when you started all that animation around 7:00-8:00. Listening as a podcast, but missing having the maps and other visuals, and can only pay half attention while I read other sites.
Thanks for the feedback. On screen visuals are there if you want them, but are not crucial to understand the discussion. If they ever are crucial, we'll either describe it better, or say it's worth looking at, etc....
I’m definitely really nervous about the future of public transit with Trump being elected president. Republicans have a history of being anti-public transit, which is one of the main reasons I vote democrat.
Great Video to end the year and a happy New Year to all. Just wanted to repeat again the facts about a better connection between Austin and San Antonio. You keep complaining about this, and rightfully so, but every time you make it sound like Amtrak is the one not doing anything when the only to blame is your state. Amtrak cannot operate long distance lines that are longer than 750 mi. For shorter line the state must participate and finance the service and the state of Texas won't do it. The renewal of the Mobile-New Orleans is supported and was financed by the state of Alabama and Louisiana and the city of Mobile, that contributed the $3m dollar that was needed to fully finance this line (that also received federal funding). Also, it's great that Kansas City is one of the host of the World Cup but it's a horrible hosting scheme. FIFA keeps stretching this multiple countries hosting thing and the 20260 one is too extreme. Spreading the games over 3 countries, two of them are the 2nd an 3rd largest in the world by size is just stupid. The distances between the venues are huge (they tried to group them but it's still horrible) and the amount of money fans will need to spend and the number of flight they'll need to take is illogical. UEFA (the European association) did the same in 2020 (which took place in 2021 due to the pandemic) with hosting cities all over Europe, but they were closer to each other and there are alternatives to flights in Europe. in 2030 they did the same with Spain, Portugal and Morocco but distances here are shorter, all have good rail system and high speed trains (Portugal does not have full high speed, they plan do build one but probably not all the line will be operational). Two or three reasonably sized countries can be OK but the 2026 one should have been in either Mexico, the US or Canada, not all three.= together.
Honolulu's transit is terrible. Even when completed in 2032, it still will not make money because it misses the most important place: Waikiki. I am very skeptical if it will quell down traffic problems, as originally intended.
An extension to Waikiki would be very good but Downtown is the most important destination no? (at least that is where the greatest concentration of jobs is). As for traffic, it is great if transit quells it but the more important objective is getting people out of cars imo
Maybe in a hundred years more American cities will have transit systems as great as European cities.... Maybe....But by that time we will be transporting everywhere anyway....
Im extremely hopeful for cahsr & brightlight west. I work at the Honda Center across the street from the Artic in Anaheim & would love to be able to get to vegas & sf. The Artic is beautiful & we need to utilize it.
**Minor Correction Below**
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CTA Red and Purple Line Improvements created an overpass for brown line trains. It was already quad tracked for the purple line. Apologies for the mistake. Full link to project in the description.
Some more clarification: the Red-Purple Modernization (RPM) is an ongoing project, but the bypass you're talking about opened in 2021. It's the Belmont Flyover, which takes northbound Brown Line trains over the two tracks for the Red and Purple lines and the third track for the southbound Brown Line trains so that the Brown Line can diverge west without affecting capacity and reliability on the Red and Purple Lines.
The main RPM improvements finishing in 2025 are the overhauls of Bryn Mawr ("Brin Mar," currently operational but only in one direction), Berwyn, Argyle, and Lawrence stations, along with the track upgrades involved in those station rebuilds and general track and elevated structure improvements along the entire North Side Main Line (the North Side Main line is the elevated track the Purple Line runs on from Howard to the Loop).
It's a great project and the new stations are REALLY nice!
What we need now, and will hopefully come next if the CTA doesn't implode because of its budget cliff, is a similar total reconstruction on the Blue Line, which is slower than it has ever been at both of its far ends.
2025 is also the opening of Seattle's east link which is notable for the world's longest floating rail bridge. For the first time ever you'll be able to travel from Redmond WA all the way to Vancouver BC or Portland OR using nothing but trains. It also marks the end of Sound Transit 2's expansion.
The first floating rail bridge
Also Federal Way Link which is coming in 2026 will be the last of ST2. Downtown Redmond Link (beginning of 2025) will actually be the first of ST3!
We just posted a video specifically about Seattle today to make up for not including it here lol. Check it out!
* Very sad PNW noises * Sound Transit has several massive expansions opening in 2025.... but I am happy that at least Hawaii got mentioned... they need a lot of support given the very backwards build out of that line. Regardless, Happy New Year's Transit Tangent's! Keep up the amazing work! : )
Lol- I think we owe Seattle it's own episode after all of the comments saying the same thing you did! haha... Thanks for watching! -Louis
@@TransitTangents Thank you for the reply! And as a proud PNW resident and transit enthusiast I would love that! 🥺
@@cobaltblue42 Keep an eye out next week 👀
@TransitTangents thanks for the follow up and I'm now very excited. 😊
Up in the often forgotten northwest corner of the US, Seattle is opening two Link extensions this year.
First, a two station, three mile extension of the 2 Line into downtown Redmond. This extension like all other Link extensions going forward is 100% grade separated.
Then, at the end of 2025, the 2 Line will be extended for another 7 miles across the world's first rail supporting floating bridge to link Bellevue to Seattle
This will bring Link's trackage up to 52 miles, more than double what it had at the beginning of 2024. One final 3 station, 7.8 mile extension to Federal Way will open in 2026 before we have a 5 year gap in extensions before the West Seattle extension opens
Technically, I believe that the Baltimore and Ohio operated a temporary semi-floating bridge across the Potomac in WWII. And of course there are the numerous ice railways.
Idk if you guys know RMtransit, but i have a feeling your channel will be filling that void for me!
We're big fans! Happy for him but sad to see no more new regular content 😭. We hope to fill even a small bit of the void!
Kansas City here. Excited about the streetcar extensions. Main Street is done and should open by summer; Riverfront is another year away but already 50% done.
Main Street is BRUTAL on your tires and suspension still, south of Linwood.
@@turbojon8117All of Main St. will be repaved
We have 3 Bus Rapid Transit Routes opening in Minneapolis/St. Paul in 2025.
Gold Line - March
B Line - June
E Line - December
I was hoping someone would mention the MSP area
A few folks have mentioned this in the comments and we'll likely give it it's own episode soon!
Phoenician here! I'm so grateful for the light rail and I'm always happy for the extensions. I will also mention that the city of Mesa is looking into building a streetcar on the western part of town. It's in early planning and not set in stone yet, but I hope we do see something come to fruition!
Phoenician here also, I am also excited for the future light rail extensions especially the I-10 West Extension here in Maryvale.
The vocal fry + haircut host combo is insane
I swear I don’t hate them btw I just noticed it and then I couldn’t unnotice
Next year is also the opening of the new westlake corridor in Indiana. First expansion of South shore line in 100 years and one of the only brand new electrified heavy rail projects opening in the US next year!
METRO Gold Line in St Paul MN is also opening this March. It is a proper BRT with dedicated right of way ~75% of the route and even a decent amount of grade separation.
The MBTA has been entirely speed restriction free for almost 2 weeks now since Dec 21st. The removal of speed restrictions has been huge for rapid transit in the city. People living on the farthest end of the Red Line in Quincy and Braintree are seeing 25min faster journeys into downtown. Orange Line riders can now utilize the full potential of the newly delivered rolling stock now that they can run trains every 6min during peal periods, with travel times from termini to downtown cut in half. Up next year is to modernize the signal systems to support shorter headways and increase Red Line top speeds to further decrease travel times to those not seen since the 80s.
To be clear, NoLa to Mobile will be 4 trains per day total, so only 2 in each direction. One morning and one afternoon trip. A start, to be sure, but not a ton
OC Streetcar is opening in 2025, the first modern streetcar in Orange County, CA!
Indeed. When they visit LA, they should definitely visit Santa Ana and the new streetcar, too.
I’ve just stumbled across your channel and it’s doing great things promoting public transport in the US. I’m from Australia and I think it would be worth looking at what Perth has done in the last 33 years. They’ve expanded their rail system from three legacy lines with 4 new heavy rail lines over that time period. Perth is like many American cities in that it’s very spread out with low density housing, but they’ve made public transport work by building lines with long station spacing down freeways or in greenfield alignments with each station acting as a hub for local bus services. Perth has truly turned its network around and created an incredible system for such a comparatively small city; I think there are many lessons to learn for American cities.
Thanks for sharing! We'll have to look into it!
Back before air travel, many prominent Americans owned second homes in Kansas City. The reason was because the city was within a day's train travel of almost all of the rest of the country.
Great video. We've been waiting for the Mobile to New Orleans route to resume after all these years. Glad to see the many other transit projects around the country.
Thanks for watching! Chris has been very excited for that one to reopen!
Thanks!
Thanks for the support!
13 to 19 average mph is nearly a 50% increase in speed
I wish the Greenville/Spartanburg/Anderson area of South Carolina would start a light rail system of some sort! For some reason people here think that we have to be a huge city to have such a system. (In some ways we are a big city...just spread out over multiple counties.) Interstates 26, 85, and 385 can only be widened so many times before they run out of room.
Just one more lane bro, bro, bro
I recently visited Spartanburg and thought this same thing!
Guys! This gets me so excited. Thank you so much for the work you've done on your channel and on this video to spread the news!
Thanks for watching! Also just highlighted what is being done in Seattle this year in today's episode (we missed it on this list)!
Phoenix here as well. It’ll be split into the A line, B line and S line! I’m excited for the future of Phoenix.
Same here!
We may make it out to Phoenix this year! Still working on timing/if we can swing it budget wise!
Phoenix here I'm so thankful for our light rail extensions. We just opened a light rail extension this year to a former mall that will be become a mixed-used development. There are also two extensions after the South Central Extension. The Capitol Extension that will extend the light rail west to 15th Avenue and loop around. The I-10 West Extension that will extend the light rail west to the Desert Sky Transit Center. Also the current light rail line will split next year.
Thanks for the extra context in Phoenix! We may make it out this year if timing/budgets allow!
@@TransitTangents You're welcome! The South Central Extension will open in Mid-2025.
WE LOVE THE KC STREETCAR
I haven't been to Boston since my sister lived there in 2016, but I'm so glad that the MBTA finally got rid of all the slow zones! It would be really great if the MBTA could build a perimeter subway train that would start near/at the airport, and connect with every T line at stops such as Sullivan Square, East Sommerville, Harvard, Packard's Corner, etc., all the way around to JFK/UMass. True, it would be a huge capital project, but it still probably wouldn't be as bad as The Big Dig.
Great video! Let's hope these projects make transit better for everyone. I'm really happy I found your channel.
I was in Honolulu in 2021 and I'm glad they're FINALLY opening to the airport
Oh yuh Ima sub forsure!
I'm biased because 1. I live in a major city and 2. I absolutely hate driving, but I think a city's public transit says a lot about the city itself. I've been to cities that I otherwise loved, but not being able to get around efficiently affected my overall opinion. I've accepted that I likely won't see a generational shift in attitude when it comes to the attention that public transit infrastructure deserves in *my* lifetime, but it does make me happy seeing cities slowly make progress.
Something not really mentioned when talking about the silver line is that Dallas (and DFW in general) is incredibly multi-nodal. 2 of the suburbs (Irving and Plano) have more office space than downtown Dallas and are major employment centers (although the suburban parts of Dallas mean that Dallas still has more overall than either city), and would both be mid sized cities in their own right at over 250k each. Not to mention theres Fort Worth at just under 1 million.
In addition, there are 7 suburban cities between 200-400k with Arlington being the largest, and another 6 cities between 100-200k. The pure urban area is roughly the size of Connecticut, but the actual size of the metro area is roughly the same as New Jersey. Its an incredibly large metro area that now reaches as far north as the Oklahoma border. Its wild how far the region has sprawled.
We'll be in Dallas in early February! Dallas Using ONLY Public Transit video will come a few weeks after that.
Sweet, I actually didn't know about the BRT 800/837 in Austin tbh!
SUPER excited for the eventual completion of Honolulu's Skyline. Honolulu is a sleeper transit-oriented city (by US standards), with a better 2023 commute modal split (around 7%) than Pittsburgh, Baltimore, or Portland, and that's pretty much just with buses! It's also quite dense by US standards, and fairly linear, so a moderrn high-frequency metro line should hit it out of the park in Honolulu.
Also should mention that it is a fully grade separated and automated light metro. So even though the project phasing is flawed, when done it will arguably be the most modern system in the US with the ability to achieve massive frequency and capacity improvements at much smaller operational costs than other systems.
They should have not cut the ala Moana portion
@@Planettransit Ohhh I didn't realized it was cut from the next phase. Hopefully they still do it eventually.
seattle is opening 2 new extensions next year what about us :((
People always forget about us
We will do some Seattle content soon! I agree it should have been on this list! -Louis
@@harlander-harpy HARPER?????
Thanks for the update and Happy New Year! What's next on your transit wish list?
Our transit wish list might be too long! Lol. Two that come to mind right away are real regional rail between Austin and San Antonio, and Project Connect actually happening here in Austin. Both local project for us! Thanks for the support. -Louis
For some context on the South Central extension, in 2015, city voters approved Proposition 104, a tax to help fund transportation projects throughout the city. Light rail extensions were the big ticket items, and the South Central project was one of them. That’s how they were able to move the project 10 years ahead of its initial schedule. Also, even after the schedule was moved ahead by 10 years, it almost didn’t happen, and had other issues along the way. In 2019, some South Phoenix residents tried to sue the city over broken promises (4 lanes or no train), which led to a city ballot proposition that if it was passed, would’ve banned the city from building any new light rail tracks. Once construction started, there were also some serious cost overruns, and it was supposed to open this year, from what I’ve heard, though the opening date now is sometime in 2025.
Also, it seemed like a lot of Urbanist RUclipsrs visited Phoenix back in January/February to see the Metrocenter extension open. I didn’t know there were city council members from cities in other states that visited.
Good thing we didn't let the NIMBYs get their way. Yeah the South Central Extension will open in Mid-2025. The cost was increased because of the addition of the Downtown Hub in Downtown Phoenix.
Talking about being able to take a train away from your hometown ❤ Growing up in Springfield, Missouri, the third largest city in the state, we have had zero train service in the area since the 1960s.. Happy to live in Kansas City today next to the new streetcar line that's just about to open with plenty of Amtrak service from Union Station..
Here's a project to keep an eye on: Roosevelt Boulevard Subway in NE Philadelphia. A subway line under this road is planned to meet the existing Broad Street Subway in the middle part of North Philadelphia, and currently proposed to run to either the Neshaminy Mall or to Parx Casino/Race Track. It's scheduled to run from these points to City Hall, Philadelphia in 30 minutes, with special trains on this line to the South Philadelphia Sports Complex in 40 minutes(using the existing subway line).
"The Best Little DART Line in Texas"
You guys would be welcome to check out the recent rail additions to the Helsinki area. You could also talk to the planners see how much quicker and at less cost transit RoWs are built here.
Looks like there's some confusion on the CTA red-purple bypass. This added an overpass for the brown line so that northbound brown line trains no longer help up red and purple trains when crossing over. The red-purple line is already quad-tracked so that the purple line can run express without any interruption from stopping red line trains
You are correct! Thanks for catching that. We will correct it in the description!
@@TransitTangents More precisely, the red/purple WAS quad-tracked. The Lawrence-Bryn Mawr modernization is about replacing a century-old embankment that is crumbling with a new viaduct that will enable higher clearances underneath, faster running due to new track and more stable roadbed, and handicapped-accessible stations with much wider platforms. To do this without utterly obliterating neighborhoods, it is being done one half at a time, so that section has been operating as double-track while construction progresses. Thankfully, things are going well, and the first half is complete, with trains moved onto the new viaduct and using temporary stations, and the second half is well under way, with the old embankment largely gone.
The Lawrence bypass for the Brown line is now operational, but as part of an associated project, a tight S-bend just north of the junction is being straightened. In order to do this, they had to move the Vautravers Building, which the original private company wasn't able to buy out when they built the El over 100 years ago. However, this has also resulted in a stretch of double-track as they rebuild and realign everything.
These two projects are just part of a much larger plan to completely reconstruct the whole line. Once Lawrence-Bryn Mawr is finished, the plan is to advance to the next section North. One of the major issues there is the poor location of Loyola station on a curve, and it's local-only status. It will be interesting to see what they do there. Other areas of interest as the project progresses are Addison station, which is a cramped local stop next to Wrigley Field, and the many ultra-tight curves on the southern end of the route.
@@00Zy99 Thank you for this because I am 2:47 mins into the video, and I was already about to correct these guys. Also, I think you mean the "Belmont flyover" instead of "Lawrence bypass" since the Brown Line splits off at Belmont.
South Shore Line Monon Corridor also opens in Chicagoland in May 2025, connecting Dyer, IN to Chicago with electrified regional rail service!
Y’all should definitely take the River Runner to St Louis while you’re in Kansas. Then you’ll be able to see what an actually good urbanists city in MO looks like. ;] ⚜️👍
You mean nothing but sprawl with little metro area growth. StL has that. Won't be long and most of the metro will live west of St Charles!
St. Louis Metrolink will open an extension to Mid-America Airport next year as well. Once this opens the Metrolink will connect the two airports in St. Louis with rail.
looking forward to the new year!
Oh wow I din't know about the Amtrak service between NOLA and Mobile. If it's up, incredibly valuable for the upcoming Super Bowl as well as what looks to be next year's WrestleMania.
I look forward to knowing more about DFW Silver Line, especially with Plano seeming to cool on DART. On the one hand Plano-Addison-Carrollton-DFW is a great way to funnel people who fly a lot. However I’m not convinced people want a slow and infrequent train that stops mostly at car-dependent stations. It only runs hourly and takes an hour to travel 29 miles, which is far far worse than traffic most of the time.
Marylander here, wishing news of the Purple Line opening was in this vid ahaha
Hurry up 2027!
Stay tuned.......
Y'all going to Ottawa next week for the opening of O-train lines 2 and 4?
We won't be, but we'll keep an eye on it!
There will also be costal rail in Boston on a new Commuter rail line (South Cost rail) The Twin Cities Metro Transit, B, E and Yellow BRT Lines will also open this year and the new South Shore Line West Lake Corridor.
19:40 The only other subway being built I can think of is the BART extension to San Jose, but they are still in pre-construction.
Looking forward to the new routes in Texas. Pondering trying to make it to the inaugural run of CapMetro's new Rapid routes and the DART Silver Line. Also worth noting CapMetro's new Decker pickup zone (which is at the far end of the Expo line) opens in a few weeks.
Waiting to hear when the new cap metro routes will begin! I know sometime late winter/early spring, but no dates yet...
Ravi de découvrir votre chaîne RUclips ! Abonnement et pouce en l'air 👍
Great video
Thanks for watching!
It’s crazy there’s no mention of Seattle on here…between 2024 & 2026 the light rail expansion is one of the best & most ambitious in the country. Missed the mark on this one.
Seattle specific episode coming next week 👀
About the MBTA slow zones, they were actually completely removed over a week ago i believe on the 21st of December, nonetheless it has been a monumental effort across the past year and a half by Phil Eng, so looking forward to the next stages of repairing and improving the T
Minneapolis and St. Paul are getting 3 new transit projects, the gold line, the E Line and B Line. The Gold Line is BRT that will run in a busway with its own right of way I’m pretty sure and goes along i94 from downtown St. Paul to Woodbury and I think there is going to be bus lanes in downtown on 5th and 6th street, not sure if 6th will get any but 5th street already has some bus lanes. The E line will run along where route 6 goes. It will be a combination of 6U, 6F and 6C it will use Hennepin Avenue and then go down Sheridan like the 6C does but then turn onto 44th and get on France like the 6F and go to outtake. It will also go down 4th/university my Avenue like the U but unlike the 6U it doesn’t stop at stadium village and I’m pretty sure it goes all the way to west gate, really hope this gets bus lanes on all of Hennepin and university and 4th street. The B Line will go where route 21 goes but it doesn’t make an annoying detour to university and instead goes straight down selby to snelling. It uses lake street, Marshall Avenue and selby Avenue from France Avenue to downtown St. Paul and lake street will have bus lanes. Both directions from Lyndale to France. Eastbound bus lanes from i35W to Lyndale and westbound bus lanes from i35W to the river and I’m pretty sure buses on Marshall can use the right turn lane to go straight and bypass traffic and I think there will be bus lanes downtown
We're looking into this and considering giving it it's own episode!
the thing about transit is the ability to provide an alternative for transportation. I live by the expo center and received flyers from cap metro about 6 months ago regarding the new rapid bus line that is starting in march. the reason for expanding cap metro now is to be ready for when Austin becomes much larger down the road as we do not want to repeat the mistakes of houston, phoenix or los angeles. I am from denver and their transit system is one of the tops in the nation with 10 rail lines, three large transit centers, over 100 bus lines that expand out to the exsurbs including a ski area as well as the airport and moves around 300,000 commuters daily. I believe it is also the first in the world to provide handicap accessible buses. denver built their system based off of chicagos and spent nearly 20 billion in doing so. I believe fares support around 70% of their annual budget. I believe this is one of the systems that austin is looking at. btw I've been told that chicago has offered to modernize their system many times over the years but the voters turned it down due to its vintage aspiration. those L trains are very bouncy if you have ever ridden one. yes, chicago is a very nice city.
That will be nice when the expo line opens! It will be the 837 I believe. Should be coming soon this spring! Thanks for watching.
Hopefully, the Toronto Crosstown LRT and Finch West LRT open this year.
Dallas and Austin opening new projects and extensions, meanwhile Houston's new administration scrapped almost the entirety of our transit plans right before federal funding 💔
Of course no mention of my state FL :(
Only good thing we are doing is converting old train lines right of way into bike paths. And while good for riding a bike is essentially killing any future possibility for light rail by eliminating the last few available locations for future routes
And about Kansas City, yes they are hosting the World Cup next year but games will be played at Arrowhead Stadium so the very good Streetcar is out of the picture
Make sure you attend S.W. Rail. It is a good conference.
great content, check the metrorail extension in the south florida area..
Thanks for the suggestion! We'll definitely look into it.
Life in the greater Phoenix area is so much better, now that the Valley Metro Light Rail system connects to the airport. I can walk from my house in Tempe to a local bus to get on the light rail to the free Sky Train to the airport terminals and back.
Love to hear it and thanks for watching!
Congrats to a successful year! Best of luck in 2025!
Thanks for watching! A lot planned for 2025!
I hope to see Nashville on this list in the future with upcoming BRT lines funded by the recent ballot measure that passed in November.
So the red and purple bypass (the Belmont Flyover) in Chicago is actually not so much a result of conflict between red and purple, but with those two lines and the brown line. The three lines are interlined for a while on the north side before the brown line cuts west after Belmont St. in Lakeview/Boystown/Wrigleyville. The brown line now flies over the red and purple line tracks. The flyover has already opened and is in use, updates on the red and purple lines north of this are still being worked on.
Thanks- we updated it in the pinned comment after someone else mentioned as well! Happy New Year!
The Denver Area is building a new BRT line along a really long street there. I don't think its going to be operational in 2025, but we're working on it.
Thanks for your recent Houston episode, things definitely seem better than when I tepidly used METRO in the late 1990s...it could be hit or miss, all you had were paper schedules, busses would sometimes just not show up, etc. The train's still pretty cool, I need to try riding it to UH someday for a football game because on-campus/near campus parking on game day is impossible/expensive. Would love to see a video of you guys riding around DFW on public transit....I'm glad that it's theoretically possible to ride DART all the way from Denton to DFW Airport, but disappointed the trip takes just under 3 hours per Google Maps. Would increasing frequency of service make this route faster, more feasible?
We are recording that in Dallas in early February! Stay tuned!
Honolulu checking in! I'm really excited for the Skyline Airport segment to open up, being able to take the train to/from the West side of the island to the Airport along with not having to deal with the peak hour traffic when taking the A Route is game changing. However, from my understanding train testing will finish near the end of 2025, so I'm holding my breath that Phase 2 will be in revenue service by the end of the year. To add, construction on the Downtown section is starting next month.
Thanks for sharing! Fingers crossed they make it for 2025! Happy New Year!
@@TransitTangents Thanks for including the next phase of Skyline (not "Skyway") in your video! With respect to the project phasing, yes it is unconventional and yes it has been a huge impediment to establishing a solid ridership base since the system's initial opening. The transit authority's explanation is that the first phase needed to be built in conjunction with and directly connected to the system operations and maintenance center and train storage railyard, and there was no parcel of available land closer to downtown Honolulu that was large enough to accommodate those facilities than the one that was chosen out beyond Pearl City. If you look at a satellite map of the city and trace the planned rail route all the way into downtown you'll see that's true. The urban core is already quite dense, and putting those facilities in or near the city center would have required exercising eminent domain to acquire and remove substantial existing development or repurposing valuable park land. Understandably there was no appetite for either of those alternatives. So, for now, those of us who support Skyline just put up with the complaints of transit opponents who say the system is a white elephant, knowing that when Skyline is finally done it will take its place alongside all the other transit projects around the country that were bitterly criticized until they were finally completed and their full value was recognized.
There's some expected openings in Toronto, Canada too, would love to see you do a video of Canadian transit and compare to US systems!
And the opening of new branches of the REM in Montréal! Bonne Année!
not in the us but nearby, there is ottawas south and east extensions. aswell as potentially 2 lines in toronto
I've often wondered if the way the US funds their infrastructure maybe the reason why public transport is so poor. In most countries the central government funds either the entire project or enters in agreements with state/local government.
It is not only bad but unjust. Many are funded through sales tax, which is extremely regressive.
I hope the city center phase of the honolulu metro gets built quickly so they can start building extensions.
A 6 km (ish) eastwards extensions and another 6 km extensions down Kapolei Parkway to the west would have the line extend the entire southern coast of the island. You could add a branch that runs down the kamehameha highway to serve the inland areas, and another down to Ewa beach. At that point, the metro would serve the entire island south of the mountains.
I'm not hawaiian, but honolulu is only 70ish kilometers in length at most, which is shorter than the LA metro A line. The state and city should have ambitions long-term plans like these and beyond, as honolulu is not that big, and could built an island wide metro network like Singapore or hong kong.
They currently don’t even have plans to have mass transit to Waikiki. Until that happens, HART won’t be useful.
Really hoping Hawaii is taking the route Chinese rail route. Develop transit along areas with little development then develop the area with medium and heavy density areas.
i think they opened this part of the existing honolulu skyway first because the rail yard is in the suburbs, you can't open without a yard! Also you can see the full extent of the huuuge TOD projects around these "rural" stations on google maps: isn't the line funded by these TODs?
just great, ten interesting projects. have information about the independent train corporations competing with amtrak in florida, texas and california? thanks, so many people writing about seattles transit, and so many variations in presentation. one well done presentation by an expert in the area would be good. a longitudinal study, this presentation must identify the introduction of each improvement and its affect/effect on other variables as they are altered. there are many thoughts and alternatives to discuss as this transit system develops. the exemplar is minneapolis/st. paul. the system and its affect/effect on enhancing the cities economic and social wealth and the amazing concurrent housing initiatives the system has facilitated.
Once they connect the Honolulu Elevated Train to the Military Bases and Airport, the ridership will go through the roof
Once they connect the Honolulu El Train to the Military bases and the Airport, the ridership will go through the roof.
No it is not doing that much to connect from NO to Mobile to say you have undone Katrina. It needs to go to Jacksonville as it did before Katrina.
It appears that the DART train shown there is not electrified as it should be. Many folks don't know that Congresswoman Ann Northrup made sure that Louisville, KY did not get light rail. Too bad, was going to serve U of L Cardinal stadium, Muhammad Ali airport, downtown, then cross over to S. Indiana. Too bad many Amtrak has to share tracks with freight trains with their slow trains. Being from MA originally I could be wrong about this. The Big Dig was supposed to include subway service to include going from South to North Stations. Now there's talk about extending the Blue line to the Red line/MGH station, but too bad somehow that it could then go to Park or Washington St station so one seat travel would be a reality. Also should be extended from I believe the terminus of Wonderland to Lynn. Also my gripe (last one) that the Blue line should @ Logan be reconfigured to actually go into the terminal vs taking a bus from the station to the terminals. Happy New Year!!
Surprised y'all didn't have a section for austin's new light rail that's moving along. AECOM just got like $98 million from ATP to being designing
Thanks for watching! Happy to see some of the progress there, as well as the lawsuits dwindling in numbers. Cautiously optimistic.... For this episode though we were moreso focused on things opening to the public this year. We did an entire episode on Project Connect a few months back though here: ruclips.net/video/IzSIGpSriGM/видео.htmlsi=4RVeT173CrA12_dY
Check out Seattle expansion in 2025 - 2026.
We missed Seattle in this video, but just released a Seattle specific video today! Check it out!
Why are lines have to be c.lored ? Why can't lines be numbered 1,2, 3, and 4 and so on ?
It depends on where you are! In some places they are colored, numbered, lettered, etc... Thanks for watching!
It's more visual. Works well for a system with less than 8 or so lines
How much has the Texas state government been an obstacle to funding Austin’s transit ambitions? CapMetro has had its missteps, but overall seems to serve riders relatively well.
(Back when I lived there 15 years ago, it was maddening to see how rustic/rural some of the service area appeared as far as bus stop infrastructure was concerned - too many stops without even the decency of a sidewalk. I hope Austin & Travis County have seen fit to address these islands of urban neglect.)
State government doesn’t need to intervene when Austin’s own residents regularly vote against transit projects. I lived there for nearly 20 years and saw very little progress, despite rapid population growth and the obvious need to reduce car traffic. The fact that a city of that size still doesn’t have a train to their *international airport* just shows how far behind they are compared to other cities around the world.
What about central Florida?
Los Angeles does so much right, yet does so much that’s just a few meters short of useful. For example, LAX is no longer tenable to ask 88 million passengers a year to share a single roadway, so the people mover is long overdue. Yet, extending the people mover 2 miles would’ve connected it to 3 major sports venues, which as of now are all a mild from metro stations, which on game days mean an hour-long shuttle bus ride. Since those connections haftb. Even started EIR, there’s 0 chance of it being ready by 2028.
A line to Pomona is interesting, but metro through Sepulveda Pass between UCLA and Ssn Fernando or K Line to Hollywood would get 10 times the ridership. Yet neither will likely open before 2045. Absolutely backwards priority.
Really wondering how that congestion pricing is going to work out for NYC.
We'll know soon! Thanks for watching.
16:20 Bus and rail lines are supposed to go direct, not take goofy routes that takes passengers a mile out of the way! Goofy routes = longer distances and more stops = longer time = bigger incentive to drive! 😠😡😡🤬
Generally agree, but sometimes routes that look goofy actually connect between places people want to go. For example, the 300 bus route in Austin looks like a goofy bus route, but it among the highest ridership in the city.
As someone who is a republican this is one thing among a few others I disagree with them on and I hope trump decides to fund more public transit in this country.
Why would you EVER think the convicted felon cares at all about public transit? He didn't do it the first time even though he TALKED about it. Don't hold your breath.
@@mrxman581 If Trump is a "convicted felon". then Kamala would be Satan itself walking among us.
Please don’t bring up these trumped up charges because if it was a democrat they never would have brought these to court. Public transit is more than just a president states and local governments need to be involved and seriously so which they aren’t.
@pattycarljackson The convicted felon did it all himself. It's long past due he takes responsibility for his disgusting behavior. The courts held up the sexual assault charges, and he owes millions to the victim.
Of course, federal funding is critical to get local public transit built. That is what the Biden transportation bill does. It helps fund public transit projects at different levels. It's been long overdue. Public transit in the USA lags far behind other countries.
Fascinating but I had to drop out when you started all that animation around 7:00-8:00. Listening as a podcast, but missing having the maps and other visuals, and can only pay half attention while I read other sites.
Thanks for the feedback. On screen visuals are there if you want them, but are not crucial to understand the discussion. If they ever are crucial, we'll either describe it better, or say it's worth looking at, etc....
@@TransitTangents Thank you and noted. Also, please consider wipe, dissolve, or fade-in transitions as opposed to slide-in.
You forgot Seattle.
Just posted a Seattle specific video today to make up for not including it here lol. Check it out!
I’m definitely really nervous about the future of public transit with Trump being elected president.
Republicans have a history of being anti-public transit, which is one of the main reasons I vote democrat.
Hope Chicago can fix this awful cross on their metro
Great Video to end the year and a happy New Year to all.
Just wanted to repeat again the facts about a better connection between Austin and San Antonio. You keep complaining about this, and rightfully so, but every time you make it sound like Amtrak is the one not doing anything when the only to blame is your state.
Amtrak cannot operate long distance lines that are longer than 750 mi. For shorter line the state must participate and finance the service and the state of Texas won't do it. The renewal of the Mobile-New Orleans is supported and was financed by the state of Alabama and Louisiana and the city of Mobile, that contributed the $3m dollar that was needed to fully finance this line (that also received federal funding).
Also, it's great that Kansas City is one of the host of the World Cup but it's a horrible hosting scheme. FIFA keeps stretching this multiple countries hosting thing and the 20260 one is too extreme. Spreading the games over 3 countries, two of them are the 2nd an 3rd largest in the world by size is just stupid. The distances between the venues are huge (they tried to group them but it's still horrible) and the amount of money fans will need to spend and the number of flight they'll need to take is illogical.
UEFA (the European association) did the same in 2020 (which took place in 2021 due to the pandemic) with hosting cities all over Europe, but they were closer to each other and there are alternatives to flights in Europe.
in 2030 they did the same with Spain, Portugal and Morocco but distances here are shorter, all have good rail system and high speed trains (Portugal does not have full high speed, they plan do build one but probably not all the line will be operational).
Two or three reasonably sized countries can be OK but the 2026 one should have been in either Mexico, the US or Canada, not all three.= together.
Honolulu's transit is terrible. Even when completed in 2032, it still will not make money because it misses the most important place: Waikiki.
I am very skeptical if it will quell down traffic problems, as originally intended.
Transit isn’t supposed to “make money.”
An extension to Waikiki would be very good but Downtown is the most important destination no? (at least that is where the greatest concentration of jobs is). As for traffic, it is great if transit quells it but the more important objective is getting people out of cars imo
Maybe in a hundred years more American cities will have transit systems as great as European cities.... Maybe....But by that time we will be transporting everywhere anyway....
Congestion pricing is a failure of the Democrats. Where is all this money going. Tax the poor more
Im extremely hopeful for cahsr & brightlight west. I work at the Honda Center across the street from the Artic in Anaheim & would love to be able to get to vegas & sf. The Artic is beautiful & we need to utilize it.