The sun lit the golden dome of the Massachusetts State House. There was a spangling of tiny red buds on the trees. A soft breeze was blowing. It was a glorious day, just two and a half weeks ago, and I'd spent the afternoon talking to legislators about the Housatonic Line bill. As I drove [...]
February 21, 2020 If you want to kill a good idea, there’s a tried and true formula: Low-ball the benefits and inflate the costs. And so when state transportation officials put out the latest set of numbers on six alternatives for commuter rail service between Boston and Springfield — or possibly as far as Pittsfield [...]
Why The US Has No High-Speed Rail, May 2019, 16 minutes. Full transcript below, made by the Train Campaign. https://youtu.be/Qaf6baEu0_w [Start of video] China has the fastest and largest high-speed rail network in the world. The country has more than 19,000 miles of high-speed rail, the vast majority of which was built in the last [...]
California's plans for high-speed rail is one important aspect of passenger rail revitalization in the United States. Here's architect and planner Peter Calthorpe on why "High-Speed Rail Is a Catalyst for Better Development." "Just as the ’56 highway bill helped spawn the modern suburb, high-speed rail would energize a new generation of community building — one [...]
Here's another of the passenger rail projects being considered, and campaigned for, in the United States. Interest in small-scale passenger rail projects is evolving in Europe, too, where small rail lines closed in the 1960s are being revived. A vision for global rail systems has to include smaller projects as well as major city connectors, [...]
Clean and convenient restrooms are important features of modern train service and are top on the list for the new Berkshire Line. While we may complain about the condition of restrooms on Metro-North trains, here's an article from India about a situation we don't face here in the United States. NEW DELHI: Rail tracks in [...]
The HouBike Committee based in Cornwall, CT , is promoting stations/trails connections for the Housatonic Corridor passenger train line. Rails with trails is a way of attracting tourists and bringing tourism dollars to a region without adding cars. Read more at Rails with Trails or contact Patrick H. Hare, Consultant to the HouBike Committee, hareplanning@yahoo.com, [...]
Our focus is bringing back passenger train service but at the Train Campaign we are interested in other forms of transport, too. And we welcome discussion and debate, so we’re sharing a debate about whether bus service could be a substitute for trains – or, as we believe, an essential adjunct to rail. Please join the [...]
One concern people have about the new passenger service is noise. Fortunately, modern tracks reduce sound and vibration to a minimum. So-called "quiet crossing" reduce the need for train whistles and warning horns.Here are two photos of a "quiet" crossing in Concord, MA. The idea is to create a barrier so that a car waiting for [...]
Thanks to Josef Flaschner for alerting us to this article @WSJ about real estate opportunities connected with the expansion of passenger rail http://ow.ly/zRXMC. We'll be exploring - and explaining - the rural and small-town opportunities created by passenger service from New York to Pittsfield. "Transit agencies in the U.S. looking to expand rail lines are [...]
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