r/transit

There has been rumors of Tesla taking over the Las Vegas Monorail’s elevated segment, ripping the tracks out and replacing it with a road. No, this is not fake. This is a real proposal.

Buried in today’s Amtrak/USDOT announcement selecting Penn Transformation Partners is a major line: the Penn Station transformation will “expand track capacity, including the introduction of at least limited through-running on the regional rail network.”

That does not yet answer the hard questions: which services, which partner railroads, which platforms, which tunnels, what dwell assumptions, what fleet compatibility, and when the FRA-led Service Optimization Study becomes public.

But it does change the baseline. Through-running is no longer just an outside advocacy proposal. Amtrak is now describing it as part of the official Penn Station transformation program.

It is a sequence of three cable-stayed bridges, completed in 2026, to connect a new residential district under-construction ; a good example of the infrastructure-first approach -- tramway lanes increases public confidence (as compared to buses) and thus attractiveness of the district.

It is one of reasons I have traveled to Helsinki :)

Pictured: a TTC fare gate with a QR, NFC/EMV, & RFID reader. I like when a turnstile has more than 1 option of paying. That makes it future-proof, imo.

With this setup, you can skip the queue at the ticket machine or booth and either:

1. Purchase an E-ticket from an app & scan the generated QR code.

Or

2. Tap your RFID pass that you've already purchased.

Or

3. Tap your mobile wallet or physical bank card directly.

Either way, you'll have a ticket machine right in your pocket. This also applies to buses and trams :)

Onboard the VIA Rail Canadian (Toronto to Vancouver), an employee mentioned that we would be seeing a number of deteriorating poles along the side of the track which were telegraph lines used for communicating between stations.

Apparently the government decided it was too expensive to remove them and has left them to succumb to the elements. Some were even submerged in water (didn't get a photo) but since there is no electricity running anymore it's not a hazard.

I found that all pretty interesting so I took some photos!

My favorite trains are the Sotetsu 20000 series, Keio 8000 series, KiHa 40 series, and KiHa 261 series. My favorite buses include the Hino U-HU Blue Ribbon, Hino Blue Ribbon City, Mitsubishi Fuso MS8 Aero Bus, Mitsubishi Fuso Aero Queen III, Mitsubishi Fuso Aero Star M, Isuzu U-LV Cubic, and the Nissan Diesel 7E with a Fuji Heavy Industries body.

Real picture credits to respective owner. The Surat Metro is expected to commence operations by late 2027.

Liverpool Overhead Railway exhibit at the Museum of Liverpool (seen August 2015).

From 1893 to 1956, the Liverpool Overhead Railway connected the docks, and other parts of the Mersey River waterfront, using electric multiple unit trains. It was the second electric “metro” in Britain after the City & South London Railway opened in 1890, and the first elevated railway to open with electric trains instead of starting with steam and electrifying later like New York and Chicago. After the “Dockers’ Umbrella” closed, not much was preserved, but car 3 (Brown Marshalls & Co Ltd, 1892) is displayed with some elevated track at a reconstructed Dingle Station.

Fairfax Connector Route 983 Bus from Dulles International Airport to National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, 26 stops.