Two massive metal cans are currently being assembled deep under west London to allow HS2’s tunnel boring machines to drill through water-saturated ground. HS2 is using four Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) to dig two train …
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Friday Reads – 26 July 2024
• Libraries in stations and on public transport vehicles (Straphanger) • America’s Transit Exceptionalism: The US has pretty much given up building subways (BenjaminSchneider) • The Truth About Harry Beck: The Play, starting in September …
Continue readingAll Aboard the Bureaucracy Train to High Transit Costs (Asterisk)
The United States has the most expensive transportation infrastructure in the world. That’s because we refuse to learn from experts, other countries, and our own history. Asterisk: The overarching question in your transit policy career has …
Continue readingAnglosphere Costs and Inequality (PedestrianObservations)
After my last post detailing how high American subway construction costs cannot be attributed to high incomes, people in comments were talking about inequality instead. Matt was talking about lack of union power, calling high US …
Continue readingReports on High-Speed Rail & the Northeast Corridor (PedObservations)
Two reports that I’ve collaborated on are out now, one about high-speed rail planning for Marron and one about Northeast Corridor maintenance for ETA. A third piece is out, not by me but by Nolan Hicks, about constant-tension catenary …
Continue readingUS Government invests record €12 billion in New York rail infrastructure (RailTechnology)
The Gateway Development Commission (GDC) has secured €16 billion dollars in funding to complete the Hudson Tunnel Project (HTP) in New York and New Jersey. This includes €12 billion in funding from the Federal Government, marking the largest-ever federal …
Continue readingJapanese railway introduces giant infrastructure robot (RailwayTechnology)
West Japan Railways (West JR), one of six companies that make up Japan Railways Group, has unveiled a giant “humanoid robot” to work on heavy machinery on its lines. The as yet unnamed tool is described …
Continue readingNetwork Rail’s Eye in the Sky: Podcast (RailTechnology)
Head of Air Operations at Network Rail, Bradley Sparkes, and National Aerial Survey Specialist, Sean Leahy offer some fascinating insight into how Network Rail patrols the British railway from the sky, identifying faults on helicopter …
Continue reading“Huge Milestone” for California High Speed Rail (HighSpeedRailAlliance)
Three key developments emerged from the California High Speed Rail Authority‘s extended board meeting this week. First, the California HSR Authority’s board of directors green lighted the environmental impact statement for the Palmdale to Burbank segment. The …
Continue readingUS FTA Updates on New Start Rapid Transit Project Data (EnoTrans)
As part of the rollout of President Biden’s fiscal 2025 budget request, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has updated the summary data for many of the projects in the Capital Investment Grant (CIG) program “pipeline,” …
Continue readingWhat is Incrementalism in Railway Infrastructure? (PedObservations)
The American conversation about high-speed rail has an internal debate that greatly bothers me, about whether investments should be incremental or not. An interview with the author of a new book about the Northeast Corridor reminded me …
Continue readingA Visual Survey of North American Elevated Rail Viaducts, from the elegant to the grotesque (CityBlock)
Elevated rail has a bad name; urban rapid transit requires full grade separation. These two facts are inconveniently opposed to one another. Is there a future for elevated rail in urban and suburban areas? Cheaper …
Continue readingSan Jose’s Single Bore Tunnel & Station Costs rise billions (PedObservations)
The BART to San Jose extension always had problems, but somehow things are getting worse. A month and a half ago, it was revealed that the projected cost of the 9.6-kilometer line had risen to $12.2 …
Continue readingFriday Reads – 3 May 2024
• ‘Nervous of its own boldness’: the (almost) radical rebirth of King’s Cross lands (The Guardian) • This TfL AI experiment reveals how Tube station capacity could be increased – without building anything new (James …
Continue readingOptimism about New York Subway Construction Costs? (PedObservations)
This year, there have been some positive signs about things changing in New York on subway construction – and yet, I’m uncertain about them. There are some signs that construction costs for Second Avenue Subway …
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