Josh Fabian

Nighttime photo, taken from the balcony of a dwelling place, shows some blue-green waves of the aurora borealis across part of the sky. Boston-style triple deckers are seen below in the foreground.

Nighttime photo, taken from a balcony, shows bright red and blue-green waves of the aurora borealis across the northern sky, all occurring above the rising moon. Several nearby apartent buildings are visible in the foreground.

This was more than a little cool—the sky was alive tonight in Boston. #aurora #northernlights

Hallway inside a hotel building. Outside the ballroom sits a sign on an easel reading "Session Room C", containing detailed descriptions of four conference sessions taking place inside across the day.

Conference attendees inside a large ballroom are seated around circular tables of 8–10 people each. A stage is found in the background, flanked by large monitors reading "Welcome to the Moving Together Conference".

Pair of escalators, with one person visible, standing on the upward unit. Above the escalators is permanent wayfinding reading "Ballrooms, Hynes Convention Center, Prudential Center". A printed sign an easel sits beside the elevators reading "Welcome! Check-In On 2nd Floor".

A speaker standing at a podium, besides a seated panel, presents to a meeting room of attendees. To the left of the speaker is a large projection screen

Likely hundreds of times I've traversed the main corridor of the Sheraton in #Boston, as a shortcut between some combo of Back Bay, the Prudential mall, Hynes Station, and St Cecelia's.

This week, I finally got to attend a function at the hotel, @massdot.bsky.social's Moving Together conference!

It’s 22:37 at Dodger Stadium, and “Shipping Up to Boston” is heard playing on the PA.

The Red Sox are nowhere to be found.

Meanwhile, it’s 01:37 over here in Boston. Time for bed.

#WorldSeries #15thInning

Saw some of the precast curbs in place along part of Washington Street! #Somerville #cycling

Attendees of the No Kings rally walk through a portion of Boston Common. A person dressed in green and yellow dinosaur costume speaks to a group of attendees.

Also shout out to the return of @roadsteamer.bsky.social y.social to Boston!

Large crowd of protest attendees, some holding handmade signs containing various messages, cover the grounds of Boston Common. It is daytime with mostly clear skies. In the far background is a stage with a person speaking at a podium, with a US flag as a backdrop; a large digital screen hanging above the stage projects the speaker to more attendees.

Within the rally crowd, a person in the foreground, dressed in an orange inflated costume, waves their arms up. In the background, a protester's sign reads "So Much Outrage So Little Sign".

Rally-goers hold up signs among the crowd at Boston Common. One sign reads "Vaccinate RFK Jr's Brainworm". Another sign simulates a reCAPTCHA asking users to "Select all of the squares with // A rapist // If there are none, click skip", followed by a photo of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein cut up into several squares.

Signs from Boston's No Kings rally are left on and along the fence and railing bordering the Public Garden. The signs contain various saying including "NOT NORMAL", "RESIST", and "Immigrants make America Great".

Boston turned out Saturday—let's keep up the momentum. #NoKings #protest

In Boston, every day is No Kings Day

View from inside a crowded MBTA Red Line car, with many people standing inside. One seated passenger holds a circular sign reading “NO KINGS THEN”.

I thought I was running awfully late to the party earlier, but this was the scene inside the #MBTA Red Line around 1:45—AFTER I couldn‘t fit inside the first two cars. #Boston #CambMA #NoKings #MoreTrains

The “No Kings” protest - October 18th. | Photos by jackdarylphotography / Projections by Silence Dogood

Heartbroken by news of yet another senseless act of violence this morning at a house of worship. No American should ever fear for their safety - least of all when gathering peacefully to pray - and yet tragedies like this have become frequent.

🚊🌙 Your friendly reminder that MBTA subway service runs until at least 1:45 AM tonight (and every Friday and Saturday now), with selected major bus routes also running until then!

💸 Plus, all MBTA service is free after 9 PM tonight, October 3rd, and October 4th.

#Boston #transit #latenight

Idk if you can make it, but @transpocampne.bsky.social is also happening the day before APTA TRANSform, next Saturday...I hear at least a couple folks will be heading up from PVD for it!

If you've never been to one, it's an open-format mini-conference that attendees can submit topics for, day-of!

Crowds of people stand throughout a street, facing a temporary stage on which music is being performed. The street is lined with red, white, and green decorations.

Food vendors line a neighborhood street as feast-goers walk between them. Illuminated fleur-de-lis symbols are found strung across the street.

The photographer holds a meatball submarine sandwich, wrapped in foil, while standing on a street. Feast-goers are seen in the background lined against metal barricades.

Several street signs are attached to a telephone pole, one with black text on white background reading "ONE WAY", and two with white text on green background "SAINT COSMAS" and "SAINT DAMIAN", respectively.

It's my neighborhood's weekend to shine at the 100th Italian Feast of Saints Cosmas & Damian in #Cambridge! From food to processions and live music, it's a chiller, homely version of the better-known North End feasts.

Final day is today—come out once the rain clears up! #CambMA #StreetsAreForPeople

Digital board at South Station listing upcoming Commuter Rail and Amtrak departures. The current time shown is 1:18 AM, and the next train is shown to be for Worcester at “5:00A”.

Aaaannnd 17 hours and 51 minutes later, we’re back at South Station, having gone to New York Penn Station without taking Amtrak or going at all through Connecticut one way, and taking the Acela back north.

Time to get some sleep…

Vestibule of an Amtrak Acela car. A backlit LCD screen indicates this is a “Washington” to “South Sta Bos” service with “Route 128” being the next stop.

Screenshot of a digital speedometer app showing a current speed of 148 miles per hour.

Interior of an Acela business class car.

Acela vibes. I think my friend put it best—in business class, it’s a marginal step up over the Northeast Regional, and it’s marginally faster.

I appreciated the dim lighting from the Bronx until Providence, though the PA chime and lights coming on are all very jarring. No Menu Shot, sorry.

Nighttime photograph of the exterior of Moynihan Train Hall at New York Penn Station, with its classical columns and historical steps. A US flag tops the building; it and the building are uplit with warm lighting.

Digital departure screens within Moynihan Train Hall—one for the Long Island Rail Road and another for Amtrak. An Acela train for Boston is noted to be “Boarding” on Track 14.

A person boards an Amtrak Acela train stopped at an indoor station. The “CafeAcela” car is in the foreground.

The original goal: Catching the Acela back to Boston and riding one of the “OldGen” trains for the first time, while I still can. ✅ Back home we go…

Bowl of shaved ice over lychee jelly, adorned with sliced strawberries and strawberry syrup.

MTA MetroCard fare vending machine actively dispensing a yellow, standard-issue MetroCard.

Took a few minutes in New York to meet up with a couple friends over a tower of shaved ice, as well as get a new MetroCard (gotta stock up before they become antiques!).

But what was the aim of this whole trip…?

Lower level of Penn Station showing two LIRR trains berthed on opposite tracks on the same platform.

Column with a green, backlit sign pointing toward the nearest exit, including the word “Exit” as well as the ISO running person pictogram.

Penn Station, here we are! South Station to Penn Station in exactly 12 hours, 40 minutes.

Decision made: I’m staying through to Penn Station. And what a treat, too, to have this shot ruined by…the “NextGen” Acela!

Looking down the upper level of a bilevel coach on the LIRR.

LIRR diesel locomotive and bilevel coach proceed through a grade crossing.

Passengers, some carrying bags and rolling suitcases, alight from one train onto a high-level island platform, and proceed toward a waiting train on the opposite track.

A multi-car train with the MTA Long Island Rail Road logo sits at a station with open doors. A digital screen, hung above the platform, shows the next train departing in “2min” is the “7:08 Penn Station” train on Track 1.

And now for some @mta.info LIRR appreciation! Diesel train to Babylon, electric semi-express to either Jamaica (for GCT) or NYP, I haven’t yet decided. This also marks the first time I’ve been east of Jamaica on the LIRR (or, by extension, I guess, on Long Island generally…).

Intersection in Downtown Patchogue, which is signalized but bans left turns for vehicles. Turns on Red are also prohibited.

Empty Bethpage bikeshare racks next to a railroad station.

The upshot is getting to check out this (I’m assuming, maybe I’m wrong?) typical Long Island town center for a bit. It was abuzz with bars and grills and the like on a Friday summer afternoon. (I grabbed a mediocre slice of pizza.)

There also is or used to be some sort of bikeshare program here…

Screenshot from the Transit mobile app, showing an expected arrival time at Patchogue LIRR bus stop at 17:33. The screenshot is taken at 17:31.

So inevitably the connection gets missed…had the displeasure of watching the train leave the platform right as the bus approaches our final stop.

So a 17:31 departure from Patchogue now becomes an 18:31 departure.

So the move from here is to hop on the LIRR at Patchogue and be on our way. But this is also the tightest connection of the day—3 minutes as scheduled, and it’s at least a minute walk from the bus berth to the train.

If I miss it, it’s an hour until the next train, but should still make the Acela…

Next leg is Suffolk Transit’s Route 66 toward Patchogue.

(On a side note, I should have packed snacks to pace on throughout the day, the hunger is growing, and it’s not clear that there will an opportunity to stock up before getting to NYC…)

Train tracks next to a rail station contain several old railcars connected to more modern LIRR coaches.

Entrance to a relatively simple Riverhead Station on the LIRR, featuring a ramp to the platform and bike racks that are mostly occupied.

Next stop: Riverhead, at the western tip of SCT Route 92’s bow. This is one of their transfer pulse points, where about 5–6 buses congregated and then departed within a few minutes of each other.

I was hoping to have enough time to grab some food at an adjacent market, but alas the line was long.

A pretty gnarly, summer rainstorm also came through—thankful that I got to spend the entirety of the storm on this bus, but a number of passengers with shorter trips were not so lucky.

Photo looking out of a bus and to a vehicle garage with a parked Suffolk Transit bus and a separate school bus visible.

Along the way we spend a few minutes outside Suffolk Transit’s Greenport garage (or rather, that of their operator) as we switch drivers.

But…the service frequency from Greenport is, abysmal, to put it nicely, so we’ll have to continue further west until we find an LIRR station with better service.

I think this is also the point where I start to partly follow in the footsteps a certain @milesintransit.com video!

A Suffolk Transit bus is stopped on a road with a destination sign reading “92 EAST HAMPTON RR VIA RIVERHEAD RR”.

Suffolk Transit local transfer ticket with an expiration date two hours into the future.

Next up is a new transit system for me, Suffolk [County] Transit! The bow-shaped, hourly Route 92 gives a number of options of LIRR stations to connect to, with the closest being a 10–15 minute ride to Greenport.

A clearing in a dirt path appears beyond an archway made of branches.

Photo of a beach on a nearly clear day. The ground cover is made up almost entirely of small rocks and pebbles.

I had about 45 minutes to spend at Orient Point, and discovered (clearly I didn’t plan this trip well enough…) these trails around the beach that make up a county park. Wonderful surprise to be able to get my feet a bit wet!