Washington DC area railroad commuting schedules: July 1972

 A two page newsletter from the Maryland organization, Rail Ways of America, promoting passenger railroad service, with a focus on commuting.  Probably the organization ended up becoming Rail Passengers Maryland, affiliated with the National Association of Rail Passengers.

Commuting services existed from West Virginia to DC and between Baltimore and Washington.  Non-commuting rail service did connect Richmond and Charlottesville to DC.  The association called on Northern Virginia to advocate for commuter service, to not give into "automobile masochism."

About 20 years later, the Virginia Railway Express launched service on June 22nd, 1992.

-- History of commuter rail in Northern Virginia, 1964-present, VRE

State-based inter city bus services

Needless to say, Iowa's Burlington Trailways bus services are much truncated compared to this 1940s route map.

The Des Moines Register reports, "Iowa-based Burlington Trailways to end intercity bus service and lay off 79 workers," that the state-based Burlington Trailways inter city bus line is ceasing transit services.  According to the article:

Iowa-based Burlington Trailways is ending its intercity bus routes, resulting in 79 layoffs across six locations. The company cited rising insurance costs and inconsistent federal grants as reasons for the service cuts. Burlington Trailways will continue to operate its tour and charter bus services.

I guess it's not a priority for Iowa to plan for inter city bus services on a regional and statewide basis.

Same with Michigan, decades ago I needed to get to my parents house in Oakland County from Ann Arbor, to borrow a car, because mine was out of service.  To make it happen I had to take an airport shuttle bus from Ann Arbor to the airport and from the airport to Birmingham.  

(There had been off and on bus service from Ann Arbor and other major university towns in the state, but I guess around this time those services had been abandoned.)  Today, more coordinated inter city bus service is present in the state through Michigan Trailways, and Greyhound.  Maybe some service from Coach/Flix

A long time ago when I was opining about transportation planning at multiple scales ("Reprint (with editing): The Meta-Regional Transit Network," [2009]), a commenter made the point that I didn't include inter city bus service.  

She was right.  It was a big omission.  Sadly, transportation planning across the US often ignores this mode, as it is privately provided--although in some states services have some state funding, and there is the complementary Amtrak Thruway bus service operative in many areas.  

Stations, stops and services can be abysmal, especially since in the bankruptcy takeover of Greyhound they separated the bus lines from the bus terminals.

A bus stop for the San Joaquins Amtrak service in Claremont, California.

A few years ago, when Greyhound was up for sale, I suggested that Amtrak buy it, and create a national-regional rail and inter-city bus system.  

I based it on Japan's organization of its railway services into 7 regionally-based Japan Railway (JR) companies.  They don't do bus too, but in the US context I think it makes sense.

-- "Two train/regional transit ideas: Part 1 | Amtrak should acquire Greyhound," (2021)

-- "Megabus bankruptcy: merge inter-city bus services with Amtrak," (2024)

-- "Regional and multi-state inter city bus transportation. Thanksgiving is a time of big travel," (2023)

A lot of states provide some funding but it can be hit or miss.  Colorado takes it to another level with statewide planned, funded and branded service called Bustang.  

I think Virginia Tech started a service called Breeze providing service from its campus to major destinations in certain parts of the state, but now it's run by the state.

I was just on the Oregon Coast for a vacation and was surprised to find out that the state (not surprisingly as Oregon is a transportation practice and planning leader) funds a bunch of services across the state, many focused on providing access to Portland.

-- NW Connector
-- Point
-- Columbia Area Transit

Airports.  Another scale and need for inter city bus service that I've written about is for airports.  Some do it in a more systematic way--LAX, Boston, O'Hare--but not many.  

This is an area that MPOs should address when planning transit access at a wide scale.

The entry, "Las Cruces (NM) Airport Master Plan | Airport Master Planning," has a pretty comprehensive list of links to past blog entries on the topic.

Los Angeles Union Station Train Festival: September 20-21

In the 2000s Amtrak used to sponsor a Trains Day at some of their stations.  It was held in May, because that is the anniversary of the Golden Spike Celebration, commemorating the creation in 1869 of a transcontinental railroad system.

Amtrak stopped doing it, for budget reasons.

I've written a few blog entries suggesting that the US have a National Trains Month in May, which could include passenger and freight railroads, and not just Amtrak but regional commuter rail systems also.

-- "Modern railroad tourism promotion," 2018
-- "May should be National Train Month as a way to market and promote passenger rail," 2021
-- "Two train/regional transit ideas: Part 2 | Running tourist trains from Union Station," 2021

-- "May should be National Train Month: Rethinking promoting more comprehensively travel by train in the US," 2022

A number of railroad museums and transit agencies do hold similar kinds of events, not in May, and not coordinated into a national calendar.

Union Station in Los Angeles holds one such event, involving Amtrak, the regional Metrolink commuter rail service, and the LA Metro transit system.

-- Union Station Train Festival

(Similarly, I suggested DC's Union Station could be a focal point for rail transit promotion and marketing, in my submission on the DC State Rail Plan.)

LA's Union Station is pretty amazing, Spanish style colonial architecture on the outside, amazing art deco on the inside.

Coast-to-Coast High-Speed Rail Route Proposed Between Los Angeles and New York

 

Newsweek reports on the above proposal, submitted as a letter of inquiry to Amtrak by:

AmeriStarRail, a startup specializing in high-speed and intermodal passenger rail, pitched a partnership with Amtrak to launch the "Transcontinental Chief," a high-speed rail route that would run between Los Angeles and New York in under 72 hours.

I have written up similar ideas in the past.  

The thing is now I am convinced, from the 'why can't we have nice things' department that because Republicans don't believe in the concepts of public goods, public investment, and climate change, that something like this won't ever happen in my lifetime ("Trump administration pulls billions in funding for high-speed rail project; state leaders call decision ‘illegal’," Los Angeles Times, "Train linking Twin Cities, Duluth in doubt as D.C. Republicans try to yank money for passenger rail," Minneapolis Star-Tribune, "'Derailed' tells the story of the Wisconsin high-speed rail line that wasn't," The Capital Times).

Plus, HSR makes more sense for shorter trips, like DC to Boston, not New York City to Los Angeles.  There are other issues too ("Whither (wither) high-speed rail?," "California HSR: Seven Deadly Mistake," Railway Age).

Plus I think we need to think about this in terms of the major nodes on this line in turn supporting the development of robust regional rail services, along the lines of what I suggested here:

-- "Two train/regional transit ideas: Part 1 | Amtrak should acquire Greyhound," (2021), based on the organization and delivery of railroad passenger services in Japan.  And it should further include inter-city bus services where rail service is hindered.

That's in keeping with Amtrak ridership being focused in major corridors like DC to Boston or San Diego to Los Angeles.

Note that some people suggest that AmeriStarRail is merely an attempt to privatize Amtrak.

The new route would replace Amtrak's Southwest Chief and Pennsylvanian lines and rely on existing infrastructure from host railroads, including BNSF, Norfolk Southern and New Jersey Transit. 

Unlike past rail startups that have required federal funding, AmeriStarRail says its model is entirely privately funded. The company has presented the proposal to President Donald Trump, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy and members of Congress.

Note that a study of VIA Rail passenger services suggest that transcontinental trips by rail produce more GHG than air travel ("Why the train may not be the greenest way to travel across Canada," CBC-TV).  

So the focus in the US should be on replacing shorter distance air travel with the train.  Except competition and lobbying from airlines and airports--most publicly owned anyway.

Under the Biden Administration Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration produced a master plan for developing a more robust passenger system (MORE TRAINS. MORE CITIES. Better Service), based on the concept of focusing on regional/multi-state services.

=====

-- "Moving Forward—At Restricted Speed," Railway Age

20th anniversary of the blog| Urban revitalization systems thinking's greatest hits: Part three -- transportation

This entry became very long, so I broke it up.

-- "20th anniversary of the blog|  Urban revitalization systems thinking's greatest hits: Part one -- my influences"
-- "20th anniversary of the blog| Urban revitalization systems thinking's greatest hits: Part two -- not transportation," (2025)
-- "20th anniversary of the blog| Urban revitalization systems thinking's greatest hits: Part three -- transportation," (2025)

======

Bicycle Planning

I started bicycling for transportation in 1990, so biking as an element of transportation planning was always something I thought about but not always systematically.  This is a great explication of the  network concept applied to biking.  

From the c. 2000 National Bicycle Plan for Germany

But in a socio-economy designed to privilege the car ("Should law subsidize driving?," NYU Law Review, accessible from scholar.google.com), people need to be provided assistance in making the transition from car to bike.

-- "Revisiting assistance programs to get people biking: 26 programs," (2024)

In 2008, the DC Bicycle Advisory Committee asked me to write a paper in response to a Rails to Trails Conservancy funding project directed toward Congress.  I made the point that city biking has different issues from a suburban or rural trail.  That paper was distributed within Maryland State Highway Administration a few years later and helped shape the development of a parallel bike trail for the Purple Line light rail in Suburban Maryland.

-- "Making cycling irresistable in DC," (2008)

Then I got a short term job as a bicycle planner for Baltimore County and I realized that suburban bicycling issues could be different from the city, but were pretty much similar.  What differs the most are the spatial conditions.

-- "Best practice bicycle planning for suburban settings using the "action planning" method," (2010). 

My work in Baltimore County also led to the development of my "Signature Streets" concept, as a way of unifying thinking about streets, mobility, and aesthetics, not just in counties but in cities too.  I mention it because it lists the spatial typology I laid out for integrating bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in communities, which isn't mentioned in the 2010 piece.

-- "Extending the "Signature Streets" concept to "Signature Streets and Spaces," (2020, originally 2015)

These pieces build on the concepts laid out in the entries above.

-- "Bike to Work Day as an opportunity to assess the state of bicycle planning: Part 1," (2017)

-- "Bike to Work Day as an opportunity to assess the state of bicycle planning: Part 2, building a network of bike facilities at the regional scale," (2017)

-- "Why not a bicycle hub at National Airport?, focused on capturing worker trips but open to all," (2017)

-- "Revisiting assistance programs to get people biking: 26 programs," (2024, original 2015, updated 2020)
-- "Repeating b.s. about everything being about race and class: bike infrastructure in Washington, DC," (2024, earlier entries cited within)

This is on what I think are more complete treatments for trails.

-- "Denver and Rio Grande Rail Trail in Davis County, Utah: a great foundation, full of (missed) opportunity," (2022)

Evaluation of transit centers

-- "Takoma Langley Crossroads Transit Center: A Critical Evaluation," (2016)

-- "Updating my review of the Silver Spring Transit Center: a few things I missed in 2015," (2018)

-- "Multiple missed opportunities in the creation of the Silver Spring Transit Center," (2015)

Mobility and Transportation/Transit

Listing key articles is hard.  I have more than 1,000 entries on this topic.  By focusing on key concepts that "I've developed" here's a list.  Railroad passenger services and the Purple Line are separated out.

1. Mobility shed/transit shed:  This builds off Robert Cervero's concept of the commutershed, which I call the transit shed, or the area served by rail transit in those communities with fixed rail transit.  Other people refer to their explication of this concept as a "mobility hub."  I think I was ahead of many of those scholars.

-- "Updating the mobilityshed / mobility shed concept," (2008, originally 2006)

2.  Transit/transportation as a set of networks operating at different scales: this extends the argument laid out in the 2006 Arlington County Master Transportation Plan, where they defined their primary and secondary transit networks.  (I see they're updating their plan.)

I extended this to the multi-state, regional, metropolitan, and sub-city scales.

-- "Reprint (with editing): The Meta-Regional Transit Network," (2009)
-- "Without the right transportation planning framework, metropolitan areas are screwed, and that includes the DC area," (2011)
-- "Transportation network service interruptions part 3: corridor/commute shed management for Northwest DC and Montgomery County, Maryland," (2016) 
-- "The answer is: Create a single multi-state/regional multi-modal transit planning, management, and operations authority association"," (2017) (how to manage a multi-network transportation system, a key element is splitting planning from operating)
-- "Manhattan Institute misses the point about the value of light rail transit connections to airports | Utility and the network effect: the transit network as a platform," (2020)
-- "More remonstration about the molasses of change: Transit planning, Baltimore County, Maryland and Towson," (2022, key earlier citations within)

3.  Including the concept of the tertiary network as intra-district transportation (it's also updated in the piece on transportation management districts), influenced by the Tempe Orbit bus service at first, but by various other shuttle type services after.  The problem is it hasn't been effectuated very much at the neighborhood scale:

-- "Intra-neighborhood (tertiary) transit revisited because of new San Diego service," (2016)

4.  Transit stations as marketing touchpoints and as a design product: this line of inquiry started when DC let a new bus shelter contract in 2005. At a planning meeting in 2006, I made the point that bus shelters are key marketing touchpoints for the transit system, that their design and upkeep defines the system.  It's further influenced by how transit is conceptualized and operated in London, wayfinding, and in response to a blog entry that said branding is the most important element of transit:

-- "Transit, stations, and placemaking: stations as entrypoints into neighborhoods," (2013)
-- "Branding's (NOT) all you need for transit," (2018)
-- "World Usability Day," (2017)
-- "Desperate times sometimes lead to a more marketing-oriented guise: WMATA/Metrorail | Bonus: WMATA's financial crisis," (2023)
-- "Design forward trains and streetcars: Haga-Utsunomiya Light Rail and Brightline (plus bonus)," (2023)

5.  Transit station typology and TOD: this entry is in response to the belief that any rail transit station is a miraculous opportunity for transit oriented development.  That's not the case.  It depends on their location within the landscape of the "Metropolitan City."

-- "Transit oriented development station typology revisited," (2024, originally 2021)

6.  Transportation management districts: in 2006 I suggested that DC create "transportation management districts" to coordinate modes within subdistricts of the city.  Arlington and Montgomery Counties have them.  There is a sub-variant called parking management districts.  DC has a form of a TMD around parking, but they are very idiosyncratic, not much overall structure and coordination.  This recent piece tries to include everything including the kitchen sink.  But since it's focused on subdistricts, it doesn't focus on a transit system overall.  This is probably the most comprehensive proposal for a TMD ever.

-- "What should the program for a Transportation Management District look like?," (2024)

7.  Sustainable mobility platform: this builds off transit to include urban design and multiple modes.  It's due for a re-codification, as the comments are replete with additions.

-- "Further updates to the Sustainable Mobility Platform Framework," (2018)

8.  Intra-district versus inter-district mobility: the impetus for this concept is how lots of transit advocates whine about streetcars not having dedicated right of way.  I make the point that it is the difference between intra-district mobility and inter-district.  A streetcar serves a sub-district of a city, usually.  While dedicated ROW would be nice, it's not required.  And such modes are often as much about economic development as they are about transit.  The intra-district element undergirds my thinking about how to define the sustainable mobility platform.

-- "Making the case for intra-city (vs. inter-city) transit planning," (2011)
-- "The argument that streetcars are "good enough" but "imperfect transit" is flawed," (2014)
-- "DC and streetcars #4: from the standpoint of stoking real estate development, the line is incredibly successful and it isn't even in service yet, and now that development is extending eastward past 15th Street," (2015)
-- "Modern streetcars are transportation projects,not merely economic development augurs: but intra-district not inter-city services," (2017)
-- "Brief follow up to intra-district transit proposal for Tysons: Toyama City Compact City initiative (Japan)," (2020)
-- "Revisiting: a proposal for heritage streetcar service on the National Mall | adding service to the DC waterfront," (2022, original 2013)

9.  Bus service: bus service is the stepchild in transit systems with a foundation in rail transit.  But they serve millions of people, and people deserve high quality service.

-- "Making bus service sexy and more equitable," (2012)
-- "Will buses ever be cool? Boston versus the Raleigh-Durham's GoTransit Model," (2017)
-- "Exemplary bus livery design: Multiplicity, Luxembourg," (2020)
-- "Bus shelters as social spaces, as potential vectors for virus: Seoul's new anti-covid bus shelter," (2020)
-- "Pathetic not revelatory: Quality of bus stop study in San Francisco," (2021)
-- "Route 7 BRT proposal communicates the reality that the DC area doesn't adequately conduct transportation planning at the metropolitan-scale," 2016
-- "Reviving DC area bus service: and a counterpoint to the recent Washington City Paper article," 2019
-- "Bus stops as neighborhood focal points and opportunities for placemaking," (2023)

Metro (WMATA) Owner's Manual: Your Metro...How to Use It, cover. Advertising supplement to the Washington Star, 1975.  

10.  WMATA: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.  I have tons of articles about WMATA's continuing financial crises. This piece has a good set of links to past writings.

-- "WMATA and MWCOG announce new joint transit initiative | Could a regional "transport association" be on the horizon, or just a transit bailout?," (2024)

-- "WMATA Chief says it’s time to talk about a regional tax to help fund Metro (DC area)," (2023)
-- "DC area transit commission board member thinks he has a brilliant idea on how to fund Metrorail: sales taxes," (2022)

-- "Redundancy, engineered resilience, and subway systems: Metrorail failures will increase without adding capacity in the core," (2016)

11.  Maintenance of Way: maintaining sidewalks, transit shelters, trails, etc., in all seasons.    Minneapolis' bike plan was one of the first to include maintenance as an element.  And the issue of trail maintenance in winter is ongoing.

-- "Winter snow clearance in the Walking City," (2025)

Purple Line light rail, Suburban Maryland

-- Purple Line concept.  By Sierra Club Metro DC chapter, c. 2000

While the writings on leveraging the Purple Line light rail program are about mobility, they are distinct enough to be treated as a separate entry.  The basis of inquiry was how can you use new transit infrastructure to build the transit network, to spread necessary improvements across the system, and to transform communities?  I first read about the PL concept in a Washington City Paper 1987 cover story.  It will open about 40 years later.

The broader concept in this series was spurred by Silver Spring resident Ed Drodz, in response to an entry that proposed certain streets served by the light rail to be treated as "mobility corridors."  He asked if I could flesh it out.  I spent about three months off and on doing so.

-- "Codifying the complementary transit network improvements and planning initiatives recommended in the Purple Line writings," (2022) (This includes follow up recommendations not included in the original series.)

-- Setting the stage for the Purple Line light rail line to be an overwhelming success: Part 1 | simultaneously introduce improvements to other elements of the transit network (2017)
-- Part 2 |   the program (macro changes) (2017)
-- Part 3 |   influences (2017)
-- Part 4 |   Making over New Carrollton as a transit-centric urban center and Prince George's County's "New Downtown" (2017, originally 2014)
-- PL #5: Creating a Silver Spring "Sustainable Mobility District"
-- Part 6 |  Creating a transportation development authority in Montgomery and Prince George's County to effectuate placemaking, retail development, and housing programs in association with the Purple Line (2017)
-- Part 7 | Using the Purple Line to rebrand Montgomery and Prince George's Counties as Design Forward (2017)
-- Revisiting the Purple Line article series after one year: Part 1 | a couple of baby steps (2018)
-- Revisiting the Purple Line (series) and a more complete program of complementary improvements to the transit network (2019)

These are the articles specifically on Silver Spring.

-- PL #5: Creating a Silver Spring "Sustainable Mobility District"
- Part 1: Setting the stage (2017)
- Part 2: Program items 1- 9 (2017)
- Part 3: Program items 10-18  (2017)
- Part 4: Conclusion (2017)
- Map for the Silver Spring Sustainable Mobility District (2017)
- (Big Hairy) Projects Action Plan(s) as an element of Comprehensive/Master Plans
- Creating the Silver Spring/Montgomery County Arena and Recreation Center (2017)

And additional follow ups

-- "Purple Line Corridor Coalition study: Same Old, Same Old | Gentrification will result from investment in transit infrastructure," (2022)
-- "Revisiting the Purple Line light rail project in Suburban Maryland | the tunnel in Bethesda for the Capital Crescent Trail," (2022)
-- "Making "Downtown Silver Spring" a true open air shopping district by adding department stores, 2018"

Railroad passenger services (mostly in the DC region)

Around 2006, I was exposed to thinking of DC's Virginia Railway Express and Maryland Rail Commuter lines as a network by the writings of Dan Malouff in his blog, BeyondDC.  

He proposed integration and expansion, including to Pennsylvania and Delaware.  

-- "One big idea: Getting MARC and Metrorail to integrate fares, stations, and marketing systems, using London Overground as an example," (2015)
-- "DC State Rail Planning initiative, "(2015) (a primary focus on Union Station
-- "A new backbone for the regional transit system: merging the MARC Penn and VRE Fredericksburg Lines," (2017)

Other writings extend the Transformational Projects Action Planning approach to railroad services in other communities and states.

-- "A "Transformational Projects Action Plan" for a statewide passenger railroad program in Maryland," 2019

-- "Massachusetts rail planning," (2019)

-- "DC, Transformational Projects Action Planning, and the Baltimore-Washington Maglev project ," 2021

-- "Building a statewide rail passenger program for Ilinois," (2023)

The Brightline service in South Florida is interesting as transit advocates use it as an example for why there is a great future for HSR connecting pairs of cities,  They fail to recognize that both Brightline proposals rely on tourists who don't need a car at their destination.

-- "Florida's Brightline passenger rail as an opportunity to rearticulate and extend transit service in cities like Orlando," (2023)

-- "Brightline West should also be used to transform public transit service in Las Vegas," (2023)

And of course, Amtrak.  While the title refers to Greyhound, it's a two-part entry.  The first part suggests the US organize rail services into seven districts, modeled after the privatization and reorganization of Japan Railways and rail services in Japan.  The second part suggests integrating inter-city transit services, that is, Amtrak passenger service and inter-city bus service.  The other set of articles outlines a better marketing approach.

-- "Two train/regional transit ideas: Part 1 | Amtrak should acquire Greyhound," (2021)

-- "Two train/regional transit ideas: Part 2 | Running tourist trains from Union Station," (2021)

-- "May should be National Train Month: Rethinking promoting more comprehensively travel by train in the US," (2022)

-- "May should be National Train Month as a way to market and promote passenger rail," (2021)

-- "Megabus bankruptcy: merge inter-city bus services with Amtrak," (2024)

-- "Regional and multi-state inter city bus transportation. Thanksgiving is a time of big travel," (2023)

*  A third "train/regional transit idea" to come is on night train and night/luxury bus proposals

Street pavements and local land use context.  Also, for a long time I've argued that street pavements should be variable, made congruent with land use context.  Instead all roads are engineered to enable fast driving.  And most cars are engineered to go fast.  Reckless driving in cities, abetted by road engineering, is the reason for many road deaths.  

First Street SE, Washington, DC

So I say use asphalt (Belgian) block and other pavement types to provide visual, aural, and physical cues to drive more slowly.  At the very least, streets around schools, parks, libraries, traditional commercial districts, and transit stations should have such paving.

-- "National Engineering Week and sustainable mobility and urban design/placemaking" (2016)
-- "Pedestrian fatalities and street redesign" (2019)

Monument Avenue in Richmond is a great example, but DC still has a number of asphalt block streets, although they are not major arterials.

Traffic safety/Vision Zero

This omnibus entry includes discussion of Safe Routes to School, Vision Zero, street design, and reckless driving with many links to past entries.

-- "The Road Not Taken | a response to a letter to the editor in the Washington Post about DC, traffic deaths and traffic safety," (2024)

Transformational Projects Action Planning applied to Transit

-- "More on Redundancy, engineered resilience, and subway systems: Metrorail failures will increase without adding capacity in the core," (2016)
-- "Codifying the complementary transit network improvements and planning initiatives recommended in the Purple Line writingsransit-network.html," (2022)
-- "Using the Silver Line as the priming event, what would a transit network improvement program look like for NoVA?," (2017)
-- "Crystal City Arlington as Amazon one-half of HQ2 | Part 4: Pie in the Sky transit improvements," (2018)
-- "Prince George's County's newly announced transit oriented development program for the Blue Line," (2022)
-- "Seattle Kraken expansion hockey team sets new standard for transit benefits in transportation demand management: free transit with ticket," (2021)
-- "A "Transformational Projects Action Plan" for the Metrorail Blue Line," (2020)

Urban design/walkable community plans at the neighborhood scale. 

A key piece starts with what I called the "Signature Streets" approach that I came up with in Baltimore County:

-- "Extending the "Signature Streets" concept to "Signature Streets and Spaces," (2020, originally 2015, concept devised, 2010)

Regardless, urban design is a key element of transportation planning.

Out of the Silver Spring Purple Line writings, I then realized that most neighborhoods need their own urban design plans, sparked by more detailed exploration of Dupont Circle, community organizing in the Bloomingdale neighborhood about decking over North Capitol Street, and the opening of the Wharf development in SW DC.

-- "Planning urban design improvements at the neighborhood scale: Dupont Circle, DC," (2019)
-- "More about making 17th Street between P and R a pedestrian space on weekends," (2019)

Later I realized it's not so much about the mode--creating a pedestrian plan--but creating broader walkable community plans.

-- "Planning for place/urban design/neighborhoods versus planning for transportation modes: new 17th Street NW bike lanes | Walkable community planning versus "pedestrian" planning," (2021)

And way before these posts, about the value of programming public spaces:

-- "Now I know why Boulder's Pearl Street Mall is the exception that proves the rule about the failures of pedestrian malls," (2005)

An early point was advocating for transportation agencies to have "Chief Thoroughfare Architects" in charge of urban design units, just as agencies have "Chief Engineers" focused on maximizing traffic throughput.

-- "DC's bad urban design as it relates to new transportation infrastructure" (2013)
-- "Lies, damn lies, and obfuscations: placemaking, place qualities, historic preservation and transportation infrastructure" (2014)

Semi-relatedly, but also more broadly, for a time, Los Angeles had a "Chief Design Officer."

-- "Christopher Hawthorne, LA Times architecture critic to become Chief Design Officer for the City of Los Angeles" (2018)

Current Affairs Magazine: US Transit is Abysmal and Unacceptable

The article, "US Transit is Abysmal and Unacceptable," isn't particularly scintillating.  But it has tons of great links, so it's worth mentioning.

US land use development and planning after 1920 favors the car.  Transit is abysmal because after the era of the transit city (1890-1920, see "Transportation and Urban Form: Stages in the Spatial Evolution of the American Metropolis,") cities have been built to optimize and depend upon the automobile.  

There are many reasons for this, but mostly because at that time "planning" was done by the private sector for both residential development and transportation--by default private sector transit organizations were the planners for transit.  And people enjoyed the expansion of personal mobility through car ownership.  

Plus, the car and freedom were seen as "better" than mass transit.  Certainly, the automobile manufacturing industry including parts like tires, oil companies, and residential housing builders, financiers, etc., liked sprawl because it was more profitable that a more centralized land use paradigm that favored transit.

Homogeneous versus heterogenous mobility systems.  I call our mobility system homogeneous, because it was set up to optimize the car.  92% of all trips in the US involve a car.  But Germany shows us you can have an economy with a heterogeneous mobility system, promoting cars--they have a great automobile industry, and transit, because they recognized that transit was the best way to get around major cities.  Same with Japan.

Bahn (trains) and Autobahn (motor vehicles) in Germany.

In metropolitan areas, the reality is that there is only so much land that can be dedicated to roads.  The more you can shift trips to transit, biking, and walking, the better.

Streetcar conspiracy fact or fiction..  While lots of people blame "GM, Firestone, and Standard Oil." for the destruction of rail transit through their program of buying streetcar systems and converting them to buses, that's somewhat facile.  Even though a court case found them guilty of such, but awarded minimal fines.

Elevated terminal station, Dudley Square, Boston.

Without the boost from WW2's gasoline rationing, transit use--including passenger railroads, had been trending downward for decades.  Increasingly, cities began subsidizing transit, including passenger railroads, as the private firms said they were losing money providing the service--abetted by a refusal to raise fares.

Cities owning their own.  Some cities, like NYC had already been developing public transit services.  San Francisco started in 1912, with the MUNI-municipal system. In the 1890s, Boston was involved in subway planning, but still expected the private sector to carry it out.  

Cities buying/taking over declining systems.  Later, as private sector operations went bankrupt, cities like Chicago and Detroit stepped in and bought the systems, to be able to maintain service.

Interestingly, one of the few streetcar systems the GM group didn't totally eradicate was Philadelphia's, because it's set of underground tunnels serving downtown was unbeatable by surface transit (or automobiles).

By extension, that's the case too for transit cities in the US.  The big ones are NYC, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, which are legacy cities with legacy transit systems that optimized mobility, in a manner analogous to Philly's Downtown streetcar tunnels.  

In fact, NYC especially for Manhattan, would be impossible to get around if it were motor vehicle dependent.  There just isn't enough road capacity.

Modern heavy rail transit (1950s-1990s).  And DC.  DC lost its streetcars gradually during the postwar period until 1962, when because Congress refused to renew the streetcar franchise in the mid-1950s, forced a shutdown and replacement with buses.  But the city still had the transit city urban form, which was perfect for the introduction of a subway system, starting with planning beginning in the 1960s. (Ephemera-wise, I just got a copy of the initial transit study for the city, published in 1965 during the Johnson Administration.)

DC's system is more a commuter rail, focused on moving commuters from the suburbs to their once held jobs in the city center.  The system wasn't designed to improve DC neighborhoods, but it did by default, although it took a few decades to see the results.

Other systems from this era: Atlanta MARTA, Baltimore's single line subway, BART in SF, and Miami didn't have the same impact.  Baltimore because they were late to the game, and could only build one line, even though its urban form is transit city, and Atlanta, Miami and SF not so much.  BART was good for extending the range of transit, especially in SF which already had a great city-serving system, but it's best ridership was about 5/8 of DC's.

Atlanta keeps trying to expand their system, but are stymied by suburban anti-transit interests.  Miami too, sort of, but the problem with that system is that it was designed "to help declining areas" and they didn't think to provide service to high in demand healthy areas as well, which would have led to a much greater ridership.  Its ridership pre-covid was less than 10% of DC.  Although Miami created a people mover system to complement the commuter rail like Metrorail, and that adds about 18,000 daily riders.

Light rail.  After this period, transit planning and funding shifted to light rail.  Generally, heavy rail subway service is for places that can deliver multiple hours of 30,000 or so riders.  So few if any light rail systems would be better as heavy rail.  People say Seattle, which is developing one of the more successful LR systems,, because it more compactly services the center city, should be heavy rail but they don't meet the criteria really.  LA has a mix of heavy and light rail.  Other cities like San Diego have pretty good systems, for the area's they cover.  Denver, Dallas, and Houston are pretty "sprawl-y.  

Portland was really the first modern LR system with a lot of forethought and complementary to land use planning which focused development on the central business district.

Other lines like Buffalo, Charlotte, Norfolk, New Jersey, etc., have pretty paltry ridership considering.

Light rail + bus.  Especially when complemented by bus.  E.g., Salt Lake City is small and has LR because of the 2002 Olympics.  The transit system isn't great overall, but in the primary catchment area of the TRAX system, complemented by bus service, it works pretty well.  Even though higher density TOD isn't really part of the equation.

True commuter rail.  Legacy systems.  Big systems in the Northeast centered around serving NYC, Boston and Philadelphia.  Chicago.  The DC area has old lines from B&O and Pennsylvania Railroad, and a new line in Virginia (transit service by train had diminished in that area long before more modern times).  Chicago has an extensive system.

New.  Many newer transit systems, like Seattle, Miami, and Salt Lake, have complementary commuter service.

California has three successful modern systems, Caltrain in the North, which has gone through a great deal of electrification, Metrolink in Greater LA, and Coaster in San Diego County (which really should be amalgamated into Metrolink).

Railroad tourism as a way to promote transit: Union Pacific's Big Boy steam locomotive journey

Valley Transit (San Jose) poster promoting transit use and transportation demand management.

I have three pieces about transit marketing around the idea of creating a National Trains Month, to be held in May, which is the anniversary of the creation of a transcontinental railroad system.  

-- "Modern railroad tourism promotion," 2018
-- "May should be National Train Month as a way to market and promote passenger rail," 2021
-- "Two train/regional transit ideas: Part 2 | Running tourist trains from Union Station," 2021

The idea is to promote all forms of rail transit, including freight (that's a way to have the big railroads help pay for the event.)  It is inspired by how Amtrak had National Trains Day/Weekend in the early to mid 2010s, as a promotional event.

The idea of leveraging grand train stations is also discussed in this entry from 2015, "New State Rail Planning Initiative in DC: First meeting Monday September 28th," suggesting DC Union Station as a point of leverage.

Traditional railroads often do promotions of their old steam engines.  And some do special lighted trains during the December holiday season.

Even though I am into railroads, for some reason, I am not enamored of steam.  

Nonetheless, Union Pacific is doing a run of its Big Boy steam locomotive from Wyoming to California and back in June and July, and I probably will try to see it when it's in Ogden ("Union Pacific releases new details about Big Boy tour; Ogden a major stop," Standard-Examiner).

It's exactly the kind of event I suggest needs to be pulled into a larger scaled schedule of events to promote railroads--freight and passenger--and rail-based forms of transit.

And special programs for kids.  Japan's local railroads sometimes have railroad-related playhouse areas.  The National Park Service has a railroad themed Junior Ranger booklet, Railroad Explorer. 

I think railroad passenger services, which are mostly commuter oriented, need to provide free days to give people an introduction to the service, and that could be done during a National Trains Month.

Railroad themed playground in the Depot District of Lacey, Washington.  Photo by Nikki McCoy.

Etc.

Building a statewide rail passenger program for Ilinois

I have written about how Pennsylvania with SEPTA, Massachusetts with MBTA, and Maryland with MARC ("A "Transformational Projects Action Plan" for a statewide passenger railroad program in Maryland," 2019) could use their regional railroad commuter systems as the foundation to develop statewide railroad passenger programs.  

Massachusetts has a big advantage because offshore wind power could be used to electrify the entire system.

I hadn't thought about it in terms of METRA and Illinois.  The State of Illinois just selected METRA as the operator, over Amtrak, to extend service from Elgin (the service emanates from Chicago) to Rockford ("Metra chosen to restore passenger rail to Rockford," Rockford Journal-Star).  Rockford is about 90 miles from Chicago.

Amtrak does provide service throughout Illinois, such as from Chicago to St. Louis, and Chicago to Milwaukee.

For thinking about how to organize railroad passenger service at multiple scales throughout the US, see:

-- "Two train/regional transit ideas: Part 1 | Amtrak should acquire Greyhound" (2021)

Brightline West should also be used to transform public transit service in Las Vegas

Riffing off of "Florida's Brightline passenger rail as an opportunity to rearticulate and extend transit service in cities like Orlando," that entry mentioned that Brightline is developing a similar railroad service between "Los Angeles" and Las Vegas, called Brightline West.

The Brightline West train will have stops in Victor Valley, Hesperia, Apple Valley and Rancho Cucamonga in California, and Las Vegas in Nevada.

It's 270 miles driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, a trip of 6 hours or more.  

Millions of people make the trip every year. so it's a lucrative market for transportation services, especially if they are convenient and cost effective.

Metrolink at Rancho Cucamonga Station.  Photo: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.

While Los Angeles Union Station is awesome, it'd be a challenging engineering project to start Brightline service there, so Brightline is settling on starting its service at Rancho Cucamonga in San Bernardino County, LA's exurbs.   That's about 50 miles from Union Station.

It's served by the Metrolink commuter rail service, so to get there by train will require starting and ending on Metrolink--at least one transfer, and probably two, will be required.

Brightline will be building a dedicated train station at RC ("Rancho Cucamonga will get new train station for Vegas and Ontario airport transit projects," Inland Valley Daily Bulletin).

Brightline's portion of a trip to Las Vegas will be 218 miles, and touts that the trip will take 2 hours 15 minutes--half the time of driving.  

But that's the second leg of the trip.  There will be at least 1 hour 15 minutes on Metrolink to get to the Brightline train--that's from LA Union Station, which will take longer from other stations, and likely will require an additional transfer, so three legs to the trip. (Eg from Santa Ana, the trip would be almost 2 hours 30 minutes to RC.)  Driving to RC is another option, or to an intermediate Metrolink station.

Brightline aims to capture 30% of the 40 million trips by car or bus to Las Vegas from Greater Los Angeles.

The task of building may be slower than in Florida, because in California especially, they have to get agreements to use right of way (mostly along I-15), although they have been successful doing so. The Las Vegas station will be built on Las Vegas Boulevard on the Strip ("Brightline buys land for high-speed rail terminal," Las Vegas Review-Journal).

But they plan to start building the station later this year, and have it open next year so clearly they are moving fast ("Nevada senator backs grant for Brightline’s LV-LA train system," Las Vegas Review-Journal). But it is not scheduled to start service til 2027.

Four years isn't a lot of time to do big things in adding transit infrastructure and programs, but there is still an opportunity, using what I call the "transformational projects action plan" approach to transit planning, with the idea that new additions to service should be used to simultaneously drive other improvements across the transit system.

-- "Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen, Japan, as an example of Transformational Projects Action Planning | Planning and executing complementary improvements across the transit network + advances in transit marketing," 2022

-- "Revisiting the Purple Line (series) and a more complete program of complementary improvements to the transit network," 2019/2020, original multipart series published in 2017

-- "Using the Silver Line as the priming event, what would a transit network improvement program look like for NoVA?," 2017

-- "Crystal City Arlington as Amazon one-half of HQ2 | Part 3: Leveraging Amazon's entrance for complementary transit network improvements," 2018

-- "Crystal City Arlington as Amazon one-half of HQ2 | Part 4: Pie in the Sky transit improvements," 2018

-- "A "Transformational Projects Action Plan" for a statewide passenger railroad program in Maryland," 2019

-- "A "Transformational Projects Action Plan" for the Metrorail Blue Line," 2020

-- "DC, Transformational Projects Action Planning, and the Baltimore-Washington Maglev project ," 2021

-- "Prince George's County's newly announced transit oriented development program for the Blue Line," 2022

Photo: RTCSN.  People lining up for The Deuce.

Transit in Las Vegas

Bus. RTC Southern Nevada is the public transit agency in the Las Vegas Valley.  Las Vegas has a bus-based transit system ("Las Vegas RTC: Where Image is Important," Mass Transit Magazine).

They have a couple of premier and premium services that are especially well positioned and marketed, one called The Deuce, serving the Las Vegas Strip with double deck buses, a 24 hour servicen with an all day fare, and a free Downtown Loop shuttle.  

The Deuce averages about 200,000 riders per day, which might be the highest use of any bus line in the US.

The SDX--the Strip and Downtown Express--provides similar services to The Deuce but a faster trip, because of limited stops. Likely it is used more by employees than visitors.

The SDX buses are articulated and "fancy."

RTC also runs a bikeshare program, manages certain intelligent transportation systems functions, and a number of game day sports related express bus services.

The Deuce is a robust service, connecting to the hotels on the Strip and Downtown, the Airport, and Convention Center, and the football stadium and hockey arena.

Monorail. The Las Vegas Monorail wasn't designed to be mass transit.  It was a private venture connecting two hotel-casinos about one mile apart starting in 1995.  In 2002, it was extended almost 3 miles, connecting to a number of other casinos.  

The system went into bankruptcy and now is run as a nonprofit.  It doesn't go north to Downtown or south to the Reid International Airport.  Costs to extend exceed the capacity of the organization. 

Extension is difficult because of how the line is situated, behind casinos on the east side of the Strip, and there can be long distances between stations and destinations especially between the west and east sides of the Strip.

Vegas Loop underground tunnel.  The crazy Elon Musk Boring Tunnel underground serving the convention center is an ersatz transit service.  A tunnel with buses would have a lot greater capacity.  Now vehicles carry three people and they plan for little shuttles that can carry 12 people.  There are plans to extend the system by many miles, but the capacity per hour is pretty low.

No passenger rail service. Train service between Salt Lake, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles was provided starting in the early 1900s by the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, a part of Union Pacific.  

Las Vegas' art deco train station was replaced by a modern boxy station for Amtrak, which was proximate to the Plaza Hotel and Casino.

When Amtrak took over passenger rail services from the railroads, the Desert Wind, originating in Chicago, provided service to Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles ("Rails remain, but Amtrak left Las Vegas with the Desert Wind," LVRJ).  Service was suspended in 1997.

Last Vegas Transit Network Complementary Improvements Program in association with the development of the Brightline West passenger rail service 

The blog entry "Branding's (NOT) all you need for transit" lays out a three point plan for strenghening transit systems.

The first element is an integrated public transportation system.  In Las Vegas it would mean bringing together the RTC, Las Vegas Monorail, and private services including taxi and shuttle services, Brightline West, the Nevada DOT, and probably the Airport and Convention Center in an overarching German style transportation association.  I don't know the landscape there.  Right now, if RTC and Brightline work together, that's huge.  And the taxi industry and drivers are a very strong lobby against public transportation.

The second element is treating transit as "a design product" and ensuring that each and every element within the system of providing transit and mobility services is designed to be effective, efficient, successful, powerful and connected.

The third element, tying it all together, is an integrated branding system.

The recommendations below reflect these points.

1.  Extend Deuce bus service to the Airport. (Now.)  Yes/No/Maybe.

The Deuce has suffered ridership losses ("Las Vegas Strip bus revenue drops, spurring possible route changes," LVRJ).  I would attribute this partly to the need to do constant marketing to tourists, and the rise of ride hailing services.  

But a possible factor is that it doesn't serve the Reid International Airport directly (other RTC services do, which connect to The Deuce).  

Extending the route to the Airport would create a more legible bus service, presenting transit to tourists as the glue of their trip--from the airport to hotel to casinos to Downtown to the Convention Center to sports facilities and back.

One model is how STM in Montreal brands their bus service from the Airport to Downtown as the 747.

An advantage The Deuce would have over the 747 is that it would be one seamless service connecting most major destinations within the city, starting with the Airport. 

As it is, The Deuce is potentially the best example of point to point bus service in the US.  People don't have to learn about other transit services, other routes (other than the Downtown Loop Shuttle), they could stick with The Deuce and meet most of their needs.

OTOH, people getting to and from the airport have luggage, and don't want to take what feels like a circuitous bus trip with many stops to get to their hotel.  And most of the hotels have airport transportation shuttles.

Plus, the taxi industry is very organized, unionized, and fights public transit service to the airport.  So maybe extending The Deuce/SDX to the airport doesn't make sense.  

Alternatively, it could be done with the Express route, the SDX, the Strip Downtown Express, which is an articulated bus, and likely focused on employees and residents as riders, since it is limited stop.

And co-marketing The Deuce and proposed "Airport Express."

Another option would be to work with the hotels that offer their own airport transportation shuttles to co-brand the vehicles with RTC/The Deuce, to reinforce the use of transit during the stay and that The Deuce is the best option.

2.  RTC should create a new marketing program for The Deuce in association with the launch of Brightline service/partner.  RTC/The Deuce should be a marketing partner with Brightline and vice versa.  The Deuce should be marketed in Southern California train stations where Brightline will stop, on trains, etc.  A good example would be how Brightline is already marketing its service in the Orlando's Airport.

Note that in South Florida, comparable to how SoCal's Metrolink works with local transit services, the QR code on a Brightline ticket provides a free trip on Miami-Dade's Metrorail and Metrobus ("‘Brightline+’ app to enable door-to-door trip ticketing," Trains Magazine).

Partnership should include integrating Brightline into the RTC app, and RTC into the Brightline app.

One of the most intriguing transit co-marketing examples I've seen is in Kyushu Prefecture in Japan, which last September launched a new Shinkansen service (Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen, Japan, as an example of Transformational Projects Action Planning | Planning and executing complementary improvements across the transit network + advances in transit marketing," 2022).  As part of it, they wrapped buses and taxis with ads promoting the new train service.  

3.  When the time comes, extend The Deuce to the Brightline West Station. 

Rendering of the Brightline West station in Las Vegas

Extending The Deuce to the Brightline West station is a no brainer.  Brightline has great first mile/last mile services in South Florida connecting people to the station before their trip and to their final destination after.  

Brightline has "taxis", electric shuttles, and other vehicles for moving people between origin point, stations, and their final destination.

But in Las Vegas, rather than develop their own services, at least for people staying in the main hotels, they should partner with RTC and the hotels, focused on The Deuce, and provide discounted access, inclusion within the Brightline and RTC apps, etc.  (Separately, Brightline could focus their own first/last mile services outside of The Deuce service area.)

Note that RTC could do this "now" by extending service to the Las Vegas Premium Outlets South, which is across the street from the future train station. But that's a step can wait til the opening of Brightline.  Unless, the Outlet Mall wants to subsidize an extension.

Likely the preferred alternative would be to have a different Deuce route that goes to Brightline/Las Vegas Premium Outlets, while the main service continues as is.

4.  Consider extending the Monorail to the Airport (and Allegiant Stadium).  The Deuce has 200,000 riders daily and provides more direct service to destinations.  But monorails are cool and it would be used more heavily if it served other important destinations.  

OTOH, its fundamental design flaw--located behind the casinos on the east side of the Strip, making direct service to the west side impossible, that people would still have to get to their hotel with luggage, and the fact that The Deuce is an incredibly successful and definitely cost effective point to point bus service already means that this is an expensive and unneeded option.  

(Not unlike how the new underground terminal at Grand Central Station serving the LIRR doesn't really save LIRR riders much time, because of the time required to get to the street surface.)

Plus better to spend the money on projects that have better return in ridership.

5.  Work with Utah to provide passenger train service from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City.  In keeping with the idea of transformational projects action planning and the Rio Grande Plan for Salt Lake City ("Transit as a formula for local economic success and improvements in regional quality of life: Salt Lake's Rio Grande Plan"), multi-state passenger rail should be promoted.  Frontrunner is a passenger rail service from Provo to Ogden, which should be the platform for extending train service elsewhere in Utah and to adjoining states.

The Mayors of Salt Lake and Boise have discussed extending train service between the cities ("Boise, Salt Lake City partnering to request rail service between cities," Boise Dev).  Similarly, there should be planning to extend Front Runner to Southern Utah, and to Las Vegas.  

The Union Pacific did provide service to various destinations in Southern Utah including Cedar City and St. George. Cedar City was staged as the jumping off point to the National Parks.

This could provide important connections serving tourist destinations--major National Parks--in the south as well as higher speed transit connections between Las Vegas and Salt Lake City (and ultimately to Boise and beyond).  This is shown by historical service once offered, in the Union Pacific timetable and system map pictured below.

Page 6, Table A, Chicago to Los Angeles serving Omaha and Salt Lake City, Union Pacific Railroad passenger train time tables publication, issued April 30, 1967

Back cover with map of the system, Union Pacific Railroad passenger train time tables publication, issued April 30, 1967

6.  Ideally, Salt Lake to Las Vegas train service could be routed to the Brightline station on the Strip.  I don't know if there is enough capacity.  Obviously, because we don't have multi-state railroad planning in a coordinated fashion ("Two train/regional transit ideas: Part 1 | Amtrak should acquire Greyhound"), it's not like such questions are being asked.   

Site view of the proposed Brightline West Las Vegas station.

7.  Frontrunner-Brightline co-marketing/cooperation.  Like how it is recommended above that RTC and Brightline have a marketing partnership, the same goes for Brightline and Frontrunner, if train service were to be extended from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas. And as recommended above wrt RTC,  Brightline and Frontrunner should develop a co-branded Salt Lake to Los Angeles train trip in their respective apps.

A mural promoting Amtrak service in Las Vegas remains extant at the Union Plaza hotel.  Flickr photo by Martin Manning.

8.  Train tourism as part of the Las Vegas experience.  Working with railway museums in Nevada, perhaps some train tourism options could be built into Las Vegas from the Brightline West station, although it might be counter to the image of Las Vegas as modern and futurist.  

One such line could go from Las Vegas to Hoover Dam.  (Although historically, such service was provided by bus.) The Nevada State Railroad Museum is based in nearby Boulder City.

This piece is about DC, but extendable, "Two train/regional transit ideas: Part 2 | Running tourist trains from Union Station."