It's also the super long routes, which ups the km part of passenger-km.

YouTube video by OproRail Croisement de 2 Irisbus Crealis NEO 18 sur . réseau Astuce Rouen #astuce #teor #Rouen #bhns #crealis

Link that works: youtube.com/shorts/FEjAI...

Rouen's optically guidedTEOR been doing that for a couple decades now, enabling true level boarding (youtube.com/shorts/FEjAI...). It's hard to imagine that the tech or hardware would be particularly expensive, but adoption seems minimal.

IR started rolling out Kavach/TCS, IR's ATP w/ cab signalling, in 2020 (with trials before that). Only a small portion of the network currently has it (<5% IIRC). The current pace seems to be ~2,000km/yr, but the target is apparently 5,000km/yr.

Regarding "service quality on a map": I recall seeing a pre-war US rail network map, posted for nostalgia, that *did* have frequencies... and yeah, the vast majority topped out at daily or worse.

I think this makes complete sense... with the caveat that the schedule is also knob you can turn. Setting an aggressive schedule with conditional priority should (citation needed) be better than hard coding aggressive TSP.

This part ("Standard gauge is considered ideal for metros because it imparts speed, manoeuvrability and safety") is actually pure, unadulterated, BS though.

Plus they (rightfully) chose 25kv AC @ 50hz, which *is* actually India-only for metros, so they'll need to order custom rolling stock anyway.

Imagine HOV lanes, but the threshold is just 1 person lol

I'm curious how low average vehicle occupancy will go, once deadheading taxis (and all burrito taxis) don't have drivers.

I think very few of the pre-interstate expressways in the US were actual private ventures. The usual model seems to be: publicly built, but with tolls.

Negative shout-out to NACTO for explicitly discouraging this

2,590 deaths on railway tracks last year: Report A total of 2,590 people died on Mumbai's suburban railway tracks in 2023, with an average of seven deaths per day, according to government statistics. The majority of deaths were caused by unauthorise...

Yeah that must be it. At 1 death per 20 billion p-km, you'd expect about 60 deaths a year. Which checks out when totalling reported train *crashes* online... but then Mumbai adds over 500 deaths from falling off trains: www.hindustantimes.com/cities/mumba...

This must also be excluding falls-from-trains, right? Obviously negligible in most places, but even just the deaths in Mumbai would make India's rate an order or magnitude worse.

Ironically, New Urbanism seems like the opposite: A lot of nostalgia for what was *here* in the past vs. what people abroad do.

It's mostly okay, but it gets weird sometimes. Like praising grids for "traffic dispersion", while most urbanists abroad (incl. Barcelona) are trying to reverse that.

I bet there's a solid chance that Caltrain's KISS' could beat the Acelas

I have a couple theories, but none that I'm fully committed to.

I think electrification, and the resulting path dependence, is the big one: If you look at Indian suburban systems that get actual rideship, most (all?) were electrified by the 1930s.

To be fair to them, Banglore's suburban rail teeters on the edge of non-existance. I don't think there's a single line with better than hourly frequency, plus tons of multi-hour schedule gaps. It's in a comply different universe vs. Mumbai, or even Chennai

Also: Rapidly inflating standards for "good parenting".

This is my favorite contradiction of post-war US planning. The contrast between the hyper regulation of some aspects (like parking minimums, based on p-values ranging from "lol" to "Imao"), while totally abandoning control of minor details like... the entire street network.

Including the middle data points shows a different (not necessarily better) story, I think.

Another data point after 2022 would be really helpful to confirm trends, but I guess we'll have to wait a while.

The correlation isn't *that* strong?

The top two check out, but then China is by far the least religious of the 5... but charts above (slightly more religious) Russia and (way more religious) India.

Is the person who makes that decision a political appointee, or a technical expert that survives multiple administrations? Or even the actual politician themselves?

Partially disagree with the "metro lines for the rich" line.

In the Indian left context, I see this being used to be more anti-metro ("just build BRT/trams instead!") than pro-fare-integration.

Delhi fares are exclusionary, but gets actual ridership, and is not "for the rich" (unlike flyovers).

Maybe the DLR? IIRC London has passes, but I think they're pretty rare?

*tons of broad gauge only track in the South *West*

Bangladesh is a strong candidate. It looks like pre-unigauge India: tons of broad gauge only track in the South East of the country, tons of meter gauge only in the north, and a lot of dual gauge around Dhaka (and a couple other places).

Somewhat relatedly, I think a lot of the anti-suburban rail bias could be fixed by air conditioning. That should at least shift the discussion to fare policy, rather than this idea that suburban rail is inherently inferior.

Even within the same format, Toaster Strudels taste so much better... and somehow have *fewer* calories.

Yeah I would say it's almost the exact opposite: LA probably has the hardest problems to solve. The shear magnitude of job sprawl puts it firmly in the league of other sunbelt cities. Without structure to the density, an urban form similar to Kuala Lumpur is probably the *best* case scenario.

i like how everyone in chicago is doing blatant license plate fraud now. multiple cars in my neighborhood without front plates, plates upside down, plate covers, fake temp plates, no plates at all