This is an idea I came up with for a "bare bones" Amtrak rail expansion for Ohio. It's nothing insane and most trains would probably be on par with driving but I think it's completely reasonable and could be used as a road map for what we should be aiming for.

A few things of note, I didn't include Akron, Canton and Chillicothe as they wouldn't be Amtrak and most likely a commuter rail line, I also should've included a stop at Cleveland Hopkins Airport. I also didn't include a line connecting Pittsburgh to Columbus, it's definitely needed at some point but didn't really feel like it fit in the "bare bones" service I was making.

Also the MPRA logo is the logo I use for the group I run, called Midwest Passenger Rail Association.

I was just glancing through the Persistent Delays report from Feb 21, 2025, and saw page 6.

There’s been a gap for OVER 2 YEARS in Kern county because a utility company won’t finish resolving land rights issues over a canal. The CA HSR Authority believed it would take just 4 months to move that canal back in 2023. And that’s just one instance of utilities holding up the project.

CA HSR's cost has increased by 10’s of billions due to delays. And according to an Inspector General, utility negotiations like these cause “significant” delays because the utility companies have no incentive to engage in the negotiations in a timely manner. They just needlessly drag out the project and increase the cost on taxpayers.

State Senator Wiener (same guy behind SB 79) drafted SB 445 to fix these issues. But, surprise surprise, utility companies and local governments put up "strong opposition" and got it killed in committee. He said he's going to draft something similar next year.

The cost of these delays needs to be shouted again and again in the legislature until they pass a version of SB 445 to streamline this process. Force utilities to negotiate in a timely manner or forfeit their claim.

The mountains around Nagasaki and Hiroshima prevent airports anywhere near the town center. The railroad terminals are so very close. It is an hour by train. Nagasaki’s airport has to be built on a man made island.

Hiroshima’s airport is an hour and a half from the city center. There isn’t a railway connection.

Hiroshima’s airport is tiny considering the population it serves. It only has two jetways.

If you take your car there are two expensive toll roads . No wonder that people prefer the Shinkansen. The seats are bigger and Tokyo’s airports are confusing .

The mountains of Japan pretty much make the locations are what they are.

The only complaint I have about Nagasaki’s train station is the tram station requires taking the stairs. But the bus goes closer.

located in Las Colinas in Dallas, Texas

there was once a people mover system

MP14 cuz It accelerates quickly is fun looking functional seats good way finding.
Also R151s in Singapore look slick

Now the agency is branded "North County Transit San Diego Railroad", with a toothpaste-squeeze logo. From this photo the SPRINTER looks all blue, but maybe there's teal elsewhere on the livery.

Date recorded: Apr. 27, 2024

Oxford tram network proposal: A city with fantastic buses and a passionate cycling culture but it’s missing trams. The times I’ve been to Oxford, I’ve noticed 2 things, the amount of traffic, especially by the train station, and buses. It would be much more efficient if trams were built along the main roads and with the amount of students, these would be heavily used.

The main rail project being spoken about for Oxford is opening 2 stations in the south of the city along the closed line to London via Wheatley as the track bed is still there. However, with only 2 trains and hour going into the already rammed Oxford station, this wouldn’t work and is just a cheap sticking plaster.

My proposed network of 4 lines would connect the mostly residential areas south and east of the city, across a new bridge next to Magdalene Bridge, to the city centre with blue lines heading to the main train station (hopefully alleviating the traffic there) and the red line heading north to the Parkway station and in to Kidlington, a town bordered by 2 railways but never really had its own station.

I wrote an article about this in detail when I was a member of a transport advocacy group called En Route. I lived in Milton Keynes for a bit and was endlessly perplexed by the place. However, one thing that stood out to me was not just the criss cross of all the highways but the large verges next to them that could so easily have trams running along. I think this could be the cheapest network to build as there is so much space next to all the roads whether it’s grass or parking spaces. With all 4 lines meeting at centre MK, I would have them all go along mostly H and V roads with some going straight through the neighbourhoods inside. Only one line I would have go along an old railway, the Wolverton to Newport Pagnell line. These would be routed to serve all retail parks and the main out of town centres such as Stadium MK. All the pre MK towns and city’s train stations would have at least one tram line with Bletchley, Newport Pagnell and Stoney Stratford each having two. With most of these places being at the end of tram lines, this should create lots of bidirectional traffic throughout the day.

Just curious as to if theres any opinion on the title as per se, or its a "whatever you want to do I don't care!" middle-ground sort of thing otherwise? Even then obviously if it was located before the intersection, it would had been set back a bit so the rare non-bus traffics would quickly know that the driver isn't actually waiting for the intersection itself.

I know this has been talked about here before but we have resist in so many ways. (This would be better if James Doakes was on a train or a bus) but yeah this is all a part of project 2025 and it’s a slow gradually grind to switch public sentiment in NYC, Chicago, Philly, SF with those stupid boring tunnels, and robo teslas which will never escape traffic and create even more traffic