Franklin Tang

Build trams. But build them well. Understanding what tramways are, what they do best and how to employ them.

I wrote a thing.

Build trams, but build them well.
Understanding what tramways are, what they do best and how to employ them.

open.substack.com/pub/marcochi...

To me, this One Seat Ride favourtism is more copium and hopium about perceived reliability than actual blanket reliability metrics. More consistent and predictable headway spill over to increased travel certainty and deconstruct One Seat Ride desires.

Suburban-commuter modernization into regional metro as a topic and the current abhorrence to see as a serious option to consider is an endemic problem within the industry.

It is a retrospect-driven discussion. Because the REM conversion opened soon enough, it is okay to reminiscence the original suburban commuter rail. If it is still delayed, the discussion would be on the delay.

Government Bill (House of Commons) C-15 (45-1) - First Reading - Budget 2025 Implementation Act, No. 1 - Parliament of Canada Government Bill (House of Commons) C-15 (45-1) - First Reading - Budget 2025 Implementation Act, No. 1 - Parliament of Canada

Bill C-15 for Toronto-Quebec City High-Speed Rail (TQHSR) has been tabled for first reading in the Canadian Parliament.
www.parl.ca/DocumentView...

This is painful to try to comprehend.

Graph of Mont-Royal Tunnel trains per weekday (inbound+outbound), now showing a spike to 331 trains/day in 2025.

An update:

Featherism - A practice of trying to comfort everyone with feathery inaction to feign forward progress. (I just came up with this its not real)

Not unique to Canada, but sure as hell so common in SE Ontario megaprojects.

The 2025 Unsung Heroes Notable New Yorkers achieving success behind the scenes

It's an honor and pleasure to be named to City & State's "2025" Unsung Heroes" list. I have to also shout out the amazing volunteers at QueensLink who make it look easy when it's not.

www.cityandstateny.com/power-lists/...

Does the Subway Still Need Train Conductors?

New Marron survey of 400+ subway lines across the world from London to Paris to Shanghai finds just 6% still use two-person train operation, which would be required by a TWU-backed bill.

“It doesn’t really matter to us what the data shows,” says TWU boss Samuelsen

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/n...

We dropped a new report re: train operations, everyone’s favorite topic. There’s some backstory that we will get too. But, the basic takeaway is modern train systems have moved away from two-person train ops. New York should, too! transitcosts.com/Train_Operat...

Quebec: snatching defeat from the jaws of victory (sometimes)

↓Mood for the rest of the day

@ndhapple.bsky.social
Hey look they are looking to make the descendant of the traincar in our acceleration curves tables

If only we have some land-based alternative that can move a lot more people on a dedicated alignment...

You know, to compensate for the loss in flying capacity...especially for this route, too.

Further increases in vertical circulation between 8th and 6th av platforms would be amazing, so would a surface refurbishment

While they are at it, upgrade the electric and signal systems at the station so that it doesn't disable 2 trunks everytime stuff kaputs.

NEWAG's digital sabotage of Koleje Dolnośląskie (Dolny Śląsk) trains - what were they thinking? - Jon Worth In the past couple of days, my Mastodon feed has been full of astonishment about how three Polish IT specialists discovered digital sabotage attempts in trains built by manufacturer NEWAG. The origina...

Scared about kill switches in buses Norway bought from China?

How about trains in Poland with something similar but even more malevolent 👇
jonworth.eu/newags-digit...

Ah no, not China, so doesn't generate the same fuss 🤷‍♂️

Why I’m still skeptical about ALTO’s HSR project A reality check and a plea for transparency.

I've done something that I don't do very often. I wrote a short, quick polemic post. It was prompted by a discussion in here.

It's about why I'm still skeptical about ALTO's HSR project and why there is no way around transparency in public projects.

open.substack.com/pub/marcochi...

Oh look it's the Canadian urban critic that I know reacting to Canadian (good) news!

While we are at it, the MPO should have power to release a Declaration of Public Good/Utility if a project under its perview is moving forward with a broad public consensus to shield it from unnecessary, frivolous and/or rent-seeking litigation

Aim for 4, settle for 6, wouldn't be surprised it ended up taking 8. Also wouldn't be surprised that it gets cancelled after 8.
I am tempering my expectations as always.

The consensus building might be less punitive compared other NA projects, but this is where realpolitik must happen again.

YouTube video by Lucid Stew O Canadian High Speed Rail | Alto

youtu.be/6JefalcFjuE?...
The last time Alto made progress I believe there was a tentative alignment chosen.

I have no doubt hell will break loose, but at least it is not freezing over like all the previous attempts.

Siemens has a smaller presence in Quebec already, just need to convince them to invest in a assembly plant. Stadler/CAF/Hitachi would be cool too.

Or CRRC in earnest without the Shenanigans, but I bet Alstom will throw a hissy fit if Carney manage to convince CRRC to do this rodeo again in Canada.

Screenshot of a paragraph: A proposed Buy Canadian policy will also prioritise procuring Canadian goods and suppliers for government-funded projects.

The only concern (so far) is the similarly tabled Buy Canadian requirement in the budget. Though Canadian rolling stock manufacturing capacity and previous Buy Canadian regulations is a complete different story than Buy America/Build America requirements, there is still room to maneuver.

/thread

High Speed Rail Final Report How to Improve Domestic High-Speed Rail Project Delivery We have most recently updated this report on 07/05/2024. Go to the PDF version Executive Summary Five Recommendations to Speed Up Domestic...

To point a finer point, the tabled budget comments on Alto HSR is Canada's most defined High-Speed Rail plan in a while. It also ticks 4/5 boxes for our HSR recommendations at the Transit Cost Project.

transitcosts.com/highspeed-ra...

5/thread

"...reaching speeds of up to 300 km/hour to cut travel times in half..."
"...to enable construction of the project to start in four years..."
Clearly defined timeline and scope of work towards intended outcome.
4/thread

"...accelerate engineering, regulatory, and permitting work..."
The federal entity is in charge of overseeing Project management, risk containment, regulatory and permitting fast-tracking.
3/thread

"The MPO will work to accelerate..."

The Major Project Office (MPO) is a Canadian federal entity focused on major project delivery, addressing the current vacuum of federal direction for Canadian High Speed Rail, among other national projects. 2/thread

Alto High-Speed Rail: Canada's first high-speed railway, spanning approximately 1,000 km from Toronto to Québec City and reaching speeds of up to 300 km/hour to cut travel times in half and connect close to half of Canada's population. This is a project that could create 51,000 jobs during construction and inject up to $35 billion into our GDP—with a target of 25 million tonnes in emissions savings. The MPO will work to accelerate engineering, regulatory, and permitting work to enable construction of the project to start in four years, cutting the original eight-year timeline in half.

The Canadian 2025 budget tabled by the Carney administration, describes the Alto HSR project in a very specific, defined goal.

The full budget can be found here budget.canada.ca/2025/home-ac...

1/thread

You know what? A better city is possible.