The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved eight new line projects which are intended to improve connectivity, minimise logistics costs, reduce oil imports and lower CO2 emissions. The projects approved on August 9 include 64 …
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Station Dwell Times, Anglosphere Incuriosity, & NYC’s Penn Station’s Expansion Proposal (PedestrianObservations)
This is the second part of my series about the Regional Plan Association event about expanding capacity at Penn Station. Much of the presentation, at least in its first half, betrays wanton ignorance, with which area power …
Continue readingHigh Wages and Baumol’s Cost Disease (PedestrianObserations)
The Baumol effect is a mechanism for how the real costs of goods and services can rise over time: wages rise due to economy-wide productivity growth, including in sectors with no productivity growth, and this raises their …
Continue readingSpatial impacts of a massive rail disinvestment program: The Beeching Axe (JUrbanEconomics)
This paper investigates the reversibility of the effects of transport infrastructure investments, based on a programme that removed much of the rail network in Britain during the mid-20th century. We find that a 10% loss …
Continue readingGuangzhou’s Massive new Railway Station: A Stadium-sized Cathedral to Train Travel
Guangzhou, perhaps more familiar by its anglicised name of Canton, is a port megacity in Southern China. It sits alongside Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and several other cities in the Asian economic powerhouse that is Pearl …
Continue readingHudson Tunnel moves ‘full steam ahead’ with US$6.88Bn funding approval (GroundEngineering)
The US government has approved a US$6.88bn (£5.4bn) federal grant for New York’s Hudson River Tunnel, meaning the project is moving “full steam ahead”, New Jersey’s governor has said. The New York Times reported that on Tuesday …
Continue readingChicago’s Railroad Congestion Problem Spills over onto Roads (HomeSignal)
In February 2023, two thousand feet of Chicago’s South Normal Boulevard disappeared. The street’s end came at the hands of Norfolk Southern’s 47th Street intermodal terminal, a facility which moves thousands of containers a year …
Continue reading£8.6M pledged for business case on reopening Leamside Line as part of Tyne Metro (NewCivilEng)
North East mayor Kim McGuinness has pledged £8.6M for the development of a business case to re-open the Leamside Line railway as part of the region’s Metro, which could provide spare capacity for the East …
Continue readingThe governing realities for Labour in power, & what it means for planning and transport
“I wanna be the leader, I wanna be the leader.Can I be the leader? Can I? I can?Promise? Promise?Yippee I’m the leader, I’m the leader.OK what shall we do?” Roger McGough Any Colour You Like …
Continue readingHow HS2 is using giant metal cans to overcome groundwater ingress (IanVisits)
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 …
Continue readingFriday 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 …
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