» This week’s big news. Open thread in the comments.
Follow my Twitter account (@ttpolitic) to get news in real time.
On The Transport Politic:
- Hazy future for Transit City as Toronto gears up for mayoral election
- London Underground’s privatization experiment dead as remaining PPP is bought out
- How viable is commuter rail for North Carolina’s Triangle?
- China expands its investment in rapid transit, paving way for future urban growth
- Cincinnati approves funding for streetcar, increasingly likelihood of federal commitment
Adapting to Change
- Brookings Institution: “Reversing 40-yr trend, the percent of Americans commuting by transit was up between 2000 and 2008, while share of those driving alone fell slightly:” http://bit.ly/cCZihU
- Next American City: Hidden in the tax code, a potential surplus of transportation funds: http://bit.ly/aIh1fC
- Dallas DART to tell Council that rapid transit well is dry, cutting off funds for downtown light rail line: http://bit.ly/9N6Qrc
- Toronto prepares to get bike share, planning to adopt 1,000 of Montréal’s Bixi bikes by next spring: http://bit.ly/dCS5Ja
- $500 million Camden-Glassboro rail line, supported by New Jersey Governor Corzine last year, is now on the potential cutting block of new Governor Christie: http://bit.ly/alHJEU
- Tampa plans a vote in November on light rail sales tax: http://bit.ly/bEu6hv
Intercity Rail
- What kind of improvements can Illinois expect from better rail service? http://bit.ly/9MuFyR
- Union Pacific going full-bore against the California high-speed rail project: http://bit.ly/9ZaCSm
- Rail service considered between New Orleans and Baton Rouge: http://bit.ly/9wtsHc
- Federal Railroad Administration approves preliminary work on high-speed line in Florida: http://bit.ly/aXthIo
Metros!
- Delhi Metro: An “emerging motif of modernity,” with two million daily riders by September: http://bit.ly/aBaFPX // Also, “hitching hopes on a subway:” http://nyti.ms/cyY82k
- India plans to build new metro systems in Agra, Allahabad and Kanpur as part of a nationwide rail investment: http://bit.ly/dsdbJZ
- Fantastic train passenger density signs proposed for Barcelona, potential easing the commute of thousands: http://bit.ly/alfd45
Image above: Delhi Metro, from Flickr user lawtonjm
6 replies on “Weekend Links”
Sexy new buses for London – the latest designs for the new Routemaster, due to hit the streets in 2012…
Can’t wait. Double-deckers are so much more pleasant than bendy buses. I’m kind of surprised they haven’t been more widely adopted in the US. Are there height issues or is there some other reason cities purchasing higher capacity buses seem to have universally gone for artics?
As noted, double-deckers waste interior bus space.
In London it’s probably a good tradeoff, however. “Bendy” buses only really fit on streets which are relatively straight, with relatively long bus stops, while the double-deckers can negotiate tighter curves without mowing down pedestrians.
US cities generally have huge wide streets with generous curve radii. In cities with narrower, twistier streets, it might be more attractive.
You’d be amazed at what narrow spaces they squeeze them through here. You can see a bunch of 73s on Stoke Newington Church Street.
While bendy buses do have a much greater capacity per driver, they aren’t as efficient s double deckers per linear metre of road surface.
Certainly in Chicago we have height issues with viaducts – sometimes even yellow school buses can’t make it through them and trucks regularly get stuck in some.
Don’t Hong Kong and Singapore have a lot of routemaster-esque buses?
It seems that double-decker busses are a british thing, as outside of british influence sphere, only Berlin comes to my mind having a considerable number of double-deckers (and that probably also leads back to british influence…
There are many good arguments against double-deckers, such as, for example:
• high axle load
• inefficient passenger exchange (note that the typical European city bus has three double doors (unless the operator still insists on 100% ticket checks when boarding, which makes passenger exchange even more inefficient), and the typical articulated bus has four double doors).
• a lot of “space overhead” (the staircases take away space, which is hard to compensate)
etc.
Just to add… the design of the new Routemaster looks indeed catchy, in particular the rear section.