kaptrice 🐦⬛
@kaptrice.bsky.social
world TOP #1 producer of high purity anthracite coal
Pinned
The Fushun Electric Railway - China's First Electric Railway
China is not a country well-known for legacy suburban railways. Although lately several dozen new-build lines have appeared, and several mai...
kaptrice.blogspot.com
For decades, China's only electrified suburban railway was a 300km-system in Fushun, an industrial city of a little over a million in Liaoning province. I wrote a little about it: kaptrice.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
Mosaic transit group please come back to save us
Metrolinx promised 33-34 min
TTC runs it at 54 min
Doesn’t bode well for Eglinton either
TTC runs it at 54 min
Doesn’t bode well for Eglinton either
Sharing this out from the Metrolinx website re: Finch W LRT
33-34 minutes from end to end, average speed of 20-21 km/hr.
33-34 minutes from end to end, average speed of 20-21 km/hr.
December 7, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Mosaic transit group please come back to save us
Disappointed by FWLRT and I wasn't expecting much in the first place. The timetable is appallingly slow.
December 7, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Disappointed by FWLRT and I wasn't expecting much in the first place. The timetable is appallingly slow.
we are reaching new levels of inane traffic delays
December 7, 2025 at 3:17 PM
we are reaching new levels of inane traffic delays
Reposted by kaptrice 🐦⬛
Capitalism is when you're good at building car, Communism is when you're good at building train. This is why the Soviet Union was Communist, Japan and China are mixed economies, and why America was capitalist but now is feudal.
August 25, 2025 at 2:47 AM
Capitalism is when you're good at building car, Communism is when you're good at building train. This is why the Soviet Union was Communist, Japan and China are mixed economies, and why America was capitalist but now is feudal.
It's like looking at an unevolved kind of lifeform
December 3, 2025 at 6:23 AM
It's like looking at an unevolved kind of lifeform
There are three big continental scale freight-heavy rail networks and the only one that is also a first-class passenger network is in China, where this is done by kind of having multiple duplicative networks. The lesson stands for the other
China has both more ton-km per route-km than the US and more p-km per route-km than any European country - and China achieves this on the same network, whereas the US has rounding-error p-km and we have rounding-error t-km west of Ukraine.
it’s always very odd how people talk about rail in a vacuum without mentioning the interstate highway program. Then they get Professor Zuremski to say something that’s arguably not true (the USA has the best freight railroad network).
December 2, 2025 at 5:15 PM
There are three big continental scale freight-heavy rail networks and the only one that is also a first-class passenger network is in China, where this is done by kind of having multiple duplicative networks. The lesson stands for the other
Reposted by kaptrice 🐦⬛
it’s always very odd how people talk about rail in a vacuum without mentioning the interstate highway program. Then they get Professor Zuremski to say something that’s arguably not true (the USA has the best freight railroad network).
Very disappointing episode of @planetmoney.bsky.social's The Indicator this morning - basically USA doesn't have a better passenger rail network because cities are far apart, freight is more profitable, and building rail is expensive. But huge factors left unmentioned...
one.npr.org/i/nx-s1-5622...
one.npr.org/i/nx-s1-5622...
🔊 Listen Now: Why the US chose not to have a passenger train system like Europe
The Indicator From Planet Money on NPR One | 9:02
one.npr.org
December 2, 2025 at 2:52 AM
it’s always very odd how people talk about rail in a vacuum without mentioning the interstate highway program. Then they get Professor Zuremski to say something that’s arguably not true (the USA has the best freight railroad network).
Reposted by kaptrice 🐦⬛
China has both more ton-km per route-km than the US and more p-km per route-km than any European country - and China achieves this on the same network, whereas the US has rounding-error p-km and we have rounding-error t-km west of Ukraine.
it’s always very odd how people talk about rail in a vacuum without mentioning the interstate highway program. Then they get Professor Zuremski to say something that’s arguably not true (the USA has the best freight railroad network).
Very disappointing episode of @planetmoney.bsky.social's The Indicator this morning - basically USA doesn't have a better passenger rail network because cities are far apart, freight is more profitable, and building rail is expensive. But huge factors left unmentioned...
one.npr.org/i/nx-s1-5622...
one.npr.org/i/nx-s1-5622...
December 2, 2025 at 3:11 AM
China has both more ton-km per route-km than the US and more p-km per route-km than any European country - and China achieves this on the same network, whereas the US has rounding-error p-km and we have rounding-error t-km west of Ukraine.
I found which LIRR dataset was irregular! It was its ridership reporting to the FTA National Transit Database. The APTA reported ridership data looks a lot more reasonable.
December 2, 2025 at 5:44 AM
I found which LIRR dataset was irregular! It was its ridership reporting to the FTA National Transit Database. The APTA reported ridership data looks a lot more reasonable.
why is the LIRR's ridership data like this
December 2, 2025 at 5:16 AM
why is the LIRR's ridership data like this
One of the interesting things in the commuter rail picture is how under-represented the "new" systems are. The 6 big railways of the United States all represent takeovers of suburban service significant *before* automobility. GO and the Western systems are unlike them...
In August 2025 GO rail ridership surpassed that of the Metro-North Railroad for the first time, making it (for a while) the second busiest railway in North America by passenger numbers.
December 1, 2025 at 10:54 PM
One of the interesting things in the commuter rail picture is how under-represented the "new" systems are. The 6 big railways of the United States all represent takeovers of suburban service significant *before* automobility. GO and the Western systems are unlike them...
Reposted by kaptrice 🐦⬛
One of the nice things about the REM is that it provides a nearby illustration of how fast the O-Train could be if we wanted our rapid transit to actually be rapid:
youtu.be/Wx7yOQqYeK4?...
youtu.be/Wx7yOQqYeK4?...
OTrain vs REM: 1.5km race
YouTube video by Ontario Traffic Man Clips
youtu.be
December 1, 2025 at 9:00 PM
One of the nice things about the REM is that it provides a nearby illustration of how fast the O-Train could be if we wanted our rapid transit to actually be rapid:
youtu.be/Wx7yOQqYeK4?...
youtu.be/Wx7yOQqYeK4?...
In August 2025 GO rail ridership surpassed that of the Metro-North Railroad for the first time, making it (for a while) the second busiest railway in North America by passenger numbers.
December 1, 2025 at 6:52 PM
In August 2025 GO rail ridership surpassed that of the Metro-North Railroad for the first time, making it (for a while) the second busiest railway in North America by passenger numbers.
Reposted by kaptrice 🐦⬛
The forced bus transfers are an underrated part of REM's success rather than inconvenience, and it's instructive to compare to PATCO: although they share similarities in land use and orientation, NJ Transit was never forced to divert its buses going direct to Philly; PATCO ridership never broke 40k
November 30, 2025 at 11:05 PM
The forced bus transfers are an underrated part of REM's success rather than inconvenience, and it's instructive to compare to PATCO: although they share similarities in land use and orientation, NJ Transit was never forced to divert its buses going direct to Philly; PATCO ridership never broke 40k
Reposted by kaptrice 🐦⬛
For better or for worse, REM pulled off a very successful bit of cultural/regulatory arbitrage. They've essentially created a regional rail network at reasonable capital/operating costs by...making it "transit-y" rather than "RER-y." Contrast with GO's efforts is striking.
November 30, 2025 at 9:23 PM
For better or for worse, REM pulled off a very successful bit of cultural/regulatory arbitrage. They've essentially created a regional rail network at reasonable capital/operating costs by...making it "transit-y" rather than "RER-y." Contrast with GO's efforts is striking.
Reposted by kaptrice 🐦⬛
The subcategorization/tropefication of popular fiction has been very bad in general, both for authors and readers.
The death of browsing is part of the reason art is the way it is now. Our opinions are largely fed to us by algorithms. Spending a spare 15 minutes wandering around a bookstore or comic shop or video rental place was how you found stuff you wouldn't ordinarily pick up and thereby expanded your taste
Bookselling is like the most "people go to the store and buy what looks cool to them without a particular agenda" type business left, and your purchases have a huge influence on what is ordered, what is displayed, and what is recommended.
November 29, 2025 at 6:52 PM
The subcategorization/tropefication of popular fiction has been very bad in general, both for authors and readers.
Reposted by kaptrice 🐦⬛
Fun little evening side quest: the subway and streetcar network in April 1954, but in contemporary style.
November 28, 2025 at 6:53 AM
Fun little evening side quest: the subway and streetcar network in April 1954, but in contemporary style.
it turns out that on 31 August, 1934 there was an incident here in which 110 people were killed or injured when the anti-Manchoukuo resistance blew up a Seoul-bound passenger train
November 25, 2025 at 12:23 AM
it turns out that on 31 August, 1934 there was an incident here in which 110 people were killed or injured when the anti-Manchoukuo resistance blew up a Seoul-bound passenger train
Reposted by kaptrice 🐦⬛
For decades, China's only electrified suburban railway was a 300km-system in Fushun, an industrial city of a little over a million in Liaoning province. I wrote a little about it: kaptrice.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
The Fushun Electric Railway - China's First Electric Railway
China is not a country well-known for legacy suburban railways. Although lately several dozen new-build lines have appeared, and several mai...
kaptrice.blogspot.com
November 18, 2025 at 8:21 PM
For decades, China's only electrified suburban railway was a 300km-system in Fushun, an industrial city of a little over a million in Liaoning province. I wrote a little about it: kaptrice.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
Metrolinx publishing a meaningfully specific set of goals and the infrastructure work required to achieve it for GO Expansion? Am I dreaming?
November 21, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Metrolinx publishing a meaningfully specific set of goals and the infrastructure work required to achieve it for GO Expansion? Am I dreaming?
I have a feeling this suffers heavily from the data completeness problems encountered by European-compiled indices lol
November 19, 2025 at 4:01 AM
I have a feeling this suffers heavily from the data completeness problems encountered by European-compiled indices lol
The advance into the modern metropolitan is weird, you have Braudel saying in the 70s that the whole world will one day look like the USA or Japan. Two very physically different routes into modern metropolitan structures, and they both really are so different from any traditional form.
It's kind of funny because Will stancil is normally a big believer in the idea that ideas not material conditions shape history and like one of the best examples of this is how 1950s elites were convinced cars were The Future™ and completely destroyed American urbanism with negligible public debate
I mean it's not this simple but a handful of policy elites really did drastically reengineer our urban fabric in ways that were popular in the immediate term and created massive social dysfunction beyond that.
November 19, 2025 at 3:28 AM
The advance into the modern metropolitan is weird, you have Braudel saying in the 70s that the whole world will one day look like the USA or Japan. Two very physically different routes into modern metropolitan structures, and they both really are so different from any traditional form.
For decades, China's only electrified suburban railway was a 300km-system in Fushun, an industrial city of a little over a million in Liaoning province. I wrote a little about it: kaptrice.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
The Fushun Electric Railway - China's First Electric Railway
China is not a country well-known for legacy suburban railways. Although lately several dozen new-build lines have appeared, and several mai...
kaptrice.blogspot.com
November 18, 2025 at 8:21 PM
For decades, China's only electrified suburban railway was a 300km-system in Fushun, an industrial city of a little over a million in Liaoning province. I wrote a little about it: kaptrice.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...