Sandy Johnston

Huh, no idea why that link didn't work. Ari's got you covered. bsky.app/profile/ofse...

Extensive footage of Pennsy electrification ❤️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhMyLN-_JSU

Perfectly willing to spend $$$ keeping SLE barely alive when the $$ could be re-routed to better performing lines (not necessarily advocating this), but also willing to look for "cost savings" that make it less useful. Logic!

Absolutely ridiculous stuff from both Amtrak and ConnDOT that will ***slow down*** service between New London and New Haven.

Super duper cool!

Afternoon sun

TIL Amarillo's local steam loco has a name!

Very cool--the Great Plains Transportation Museum, at Wichita Union Station, has positioned a Santa Fe 4-8-4 on an overpass over a major street. What better advertising? www.gptm.us

This is an incredibly cool new construction two-flat in Woodlawn--rather than the usual two stacked full-floor units, there's a duplexed quasi-SFH and a smaller studio-type unit that acts like an ADU.

TIL there was a little electric railroad serving a hotel in the heart of the Adirondacks localwiki.org/hsl/Paul_Smi...

Freight Train on the Luce Electric Short Line
2800 Central Ave. NE
Source: Hennepin County Library

Very excited to say that the stars have aligned and NYU Marron/Transit Costs Project have landed a grant that will fund a second edition of Momentum, which will apply the high-throughput framework to major regional rail networks beyond the NY area.

Our three big new cases:
- NJT
- SEPTA
- METRA

@amtrak.com President Roger Harris, on the Transit Unplugged podcast, says the railroad aims to retire all of its OG Acela trainsets by the end of the year (2026).

The new Acelas are performing well with some expected "teething pains."

New paper finds that US bike deaths have "trended toward lower-density suburban areas" rather than central cities

Those killed tend to be poor and non-white.

Lesson: The suburbanization of poverty could be contributing to the surging number of cyclist fatalities.

doi.org/10.1016/j.jc...

Springsteen fans will get a kick out of today's Connections

You want your Gateway project funding? Here’s the price. 🤡

@punchbowlnews.bsky.social
punchbowl.news/article/whit...

Whoa, big deal in RI

Fascinating that Cedar Rapids, IA managed to funnel all of the railroads running through its downtown--lines from four different Class I carriers--into a single trunk.
rail.guide#14.18/41.978...

It has some good spots!

A screenshot from Google Maps. The satellite imagery shows a train station next to a single track and next to it the label for a historical marker/site. The title next to the label says "Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad" and "Temporarily Closed".

I might say something stronger than "temporarily closed" about the Rock Island...

(ok, it's just for the historic Iowa City station building, but this is funny)

www.google.com/maps/@41.653...

NW-1m by Mike Sosalla Rock Island Railroad photo site

I knew the Rock Island repowered their Alco FAs with EMD engines, but I didn't realize they swapped the FA's prime movers into EMD switchers, leaving them surpassingly ugly, even by the standards of the Rock's crazy fleet pbase.com/rocksosalla/...

Careers - Info & Job Postings - CTA

Be the change: @chicagocta.bsky.social's full slate of summer internship opportunities are posted. First batch of applications are due on Friday. www.transitchicago.com/careers/

Given the scramble we're seeing to subsidize microtransit services that mostly don't perform very well, I definitely expect to see this.

Solar and Batteries Are Squeezing Out Natural Gas in California The state's power emissions fell 8% last year, even as they rose almost everywhere else.

California seems to be building a massive amount of renewable energy and storage while not building a massive volume of new data centres.

That seems to be having the effect of actual drops in greenhouse gas emissions, particularly as batteries cut deep into gas

Michael Schabas‘ proposed high speed rail alignment for Canada.

drive.google.com/file/d/12fJV...

Eyes On the Street: Days After the Storm, Boston's Sidewalks Are An Inaccessible Mess - Streetsblog Massachusetts Thousands of different property owners are responsible for clearing the city's sidewalks, and there's considerable variation in sidewalk accessibility after winter storms.

Eyes On the Street: Days After the Storm, Boston’s Sidewalks Are An Inaccessible Mess - mass.streetsblog.org/2026/01/29/e...

Neon Liberalism #61: The State of the Resistance Samantha interviews Professor Omar Wasow, challenging him to reflect on the first year of the second Trump administration. What forms of resistance have worked? What forms have been less successful? W...

anyways. to be a bit more productive, as professor omar wasow notes, "almost no protests are witnessed in person." they are witnessed via images--via media--and, yes, via journalists. that is how information spreads.

you want your images to spread.

www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...

Fascinating artifact! (as Shabazz says in the replies, this is from 1937)

YouTube video by The Oregonian Timelapse: Crews work to free 3 locomotives stranded on Oregon trestle

Cool timelapse from the Oregonian of salvage efforts for the P&W train derailed in Toledo, OR
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBtk...

YouTube video by South Coast Rail Videos NEW HAVEN F40! MBTA's Newest Heritage Unit - 1/28/2026

McGinnis looks good on an F40.
youtu.be/Milp7MI0QxI?...