The Washington Metro system was shut down completely for a day this week to allow crews to inspect all of the power cables in the system. They found 26 cables and connectors in need of immediate repair. This is just the latest in a series of safety problems and breakdowns that have plagued the system. Metro has a large unfunded maintenance liability. This doesn't surprise us because we expect American transit systems to have a backlog. The difference is that unlike NYC, Chicago, Boston, etc., which have systems a century old, the … [Read more...]
Los Angeles Union Station: Looks Great And Works Well, Too!
This is part of the series North America's Train Stations: What Makes Them Sustainable or Not? Photo of welcome desk looking into the grand waiting room on the right and the former ticketing hall on the left; courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Let me recap the theme of this series: to compete against the car and win over commuters, stations must ease connections between modes. How LA does this matters, nationwide, for it helps build a strategy that breaks transit out of today’s trap of red ink and taxpayer dissatisfaction. Transit’s case … [Read more...]