Lakeshore Rail Alliance
lakeshorerail.bsky.social
Lakeshore Rail Alliance
@lakeshorerail.bsky.social
110 followers 41 following 180 posts
Promoting workforce mobility, economic development, quality of life for the Great Lakes and Northeast Megaregions through fast, frequent passenger rail service.
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Life at 110 mph Albany and Schnectady, NY, Oct 2019. We need this all the way from New York to Chicago.
This could be a problem for our Great Lakes Limited proposal. We will be taking this up with the congressional delegation along the route.
@amtrak.com is short of equipment as it is. Even with new Airo trainsets coming on line over the next 1-2 years, they need to keep cars around for expansion.
www.railway.supply/amtrak-begin...
www.railway.supply
While interesting on a theoretical level, no amount of driver education (or lane building) will fix traffic. We need high-quality options to the car keys so people can bypass traffic altogether.
The California High Speed Rail Project is set to see private sector funding and faster construction. Read the first 3 entries of the latest newsletter from the California High Speed Rail Authority (@cahsra.bsky.social):
www.hsr.ca.gov/communicatio...
www.hsr.ca.gov
When you have a decade of frivolous lawsuits trying to stop the project and years of political attempts to kill it, delays happen and costs go up. That said, the new CAHSRA CEO Ian Choudry has done a lot to turn the project around, speed up construction, and bring in private sector funding.
Our parent org, All Aboard Erie, is holding a fundraiser on October 4, 2025. The nephew of the late comedic actor Don Knotts of Andy Griffith and Three's Company fame will be discussing his life and career at McClane Church in Edinboro, PA. Buy tickets here:
www.ticketleap.events/events/mclan...
Again, Ohio showcases its position as the biggest impediment to passenger rail expansion in the Midwest. The state just dropped its updated rail plan, which contains no passenger rail projects. It's another slap in the face to the super-majority of Ohioans who want more & better passenger rail:
Passenger rail advocates pan state’s updated rail plan for freight focus
Ohio’s major passenger train advocacy group is railing against the state’s updated rail plan, which they say underplays passenger train expansion and places too much focus on freight rail.
www.daytondailynews.com
Though we at times criticize @amtrak.com, let's be clear about what the problem really is here: The lack of a strong, coherent federal passenger rail program with highway levels of funding annually (~$52 billion).
Let's stop with the passenger rail double standard. Airlines can't exist without publicly-funded airports, traffic control, security. Some states directly subsidize flights. There is a federal Essential Air Services subsidy. Bus companies don't build highways. Highways lose huge amounts of money.
Dems passed a HSR funding bill during Obama's tenure. When Tea Party Repubs took over the House and Senate, they removed the funding. Sen. Markey and Rep. Moulton (Dems-Massachussetts) have repeatedly introduced HSR funding bills
In the EU, there is pubic ownership of track that is open to competition by private sector operators. There are lines that the private sector can make money operating, but that's because, like aviation, the infrastructure is publicly owned.
This argument only makes sense if airlines had to build airports, pay for security, and pay for air traffic control; and if trucking and bus companies had to build highways. That said, Japan's Shinkansen is fully privatized (after the gov't build the track) and is profitable. Continues...
2/3 of the US has cities ideally spaced for high-speed rail and the travel density between them to make it work.
A lot of people don't grasp that 2/3 of the US has cities ideally spaced for high-speed rail as well as European-style night trains and fast, frequent conventional service to connect smaller cities and towns to those endpoint cities.
This @theatlantic.com piece is both spot on and misses a key point. The built environment Americans live in is hostile to kids. Walking/biking is unsafe and destinations are too far for it. Drivers speed everywhere. Cul-de-sac neighborhoods are isolated. Fix the built environment, fix this problem.
What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones
Children who were raised on screens need more freedom out in the real world.
www.theatlantic.com