Sandy Johnston

The Federal Railroad Administration will conduct a more complete environmental assessment of Amtrak’s proposed new Chicago-area maintenance facility, stepping back from an earlier decision excluding the project from review. 2 public hearings; end of year completion. www.trains.com/pro/passenge...

ODOT's wishlist for Cascades service improvements in Oregon: *layover track in Eugene *second track south of Portland *improvements near Salem *increased Eugene-Portland service from 2 RTs to 6

This Day in Labor History: October 28, 1825. The Erie Canal opens after over 1,000 workers die building it! Let's talk about the labor history of this early engineering marvel!

The effects of zoning changes really depend on the neighborhood. Enabling duplexes and triplexes in areas currently zoned for single family homes would add a lot of units on the far NW and SW sides. Enabling more transit-oriented densities would have a bigger effect in areas like North Center.

Chicago has been making strides to accommodate more homes. But zoning changes could accelerate construction. We estimate that reforms legalizing small apartment buildings & enabling high densities near all transit stations could add ~10,000 additional units compared to baseline by 2041.

Clifford the Big Red Trike tends to attract lots of positive attention. Today a park ranger patrolling on horseback deemed it "sick."

Just an amazing fall colors day for a ride in Franklin Park and the Arboretum

Do you like crayoning transit lines? Use the new annotation feature on Transit Explorer to try out route ideas; you can label them and see their lengths, then export maps. In the US, you can also compare against local data, like population & jobs density! www.thetransportpolitic.com/transitexplo...

I love that this account definitely disproportionately focuses on trains. Or maybe it's just that Wikimedia Commons disproportionately provides train pictures.

Today in train layout signs of upcoming urban renewal: a cadre of tiny N scale surveyors have shown up to measure off the street that's already been stub-ended at the railroad tracks

"In fact, at InnoTrans 2026, major rolling stock vendors who are interested in bidding on the IBX told ETA that they had difficulty understanding why the MTA would ever consider building the IBX unautomated." www.etany.org/reports/ibx-...

We also found that NGOs are more often linked to procedural equity than to recognitional and distributional equity. We also show that research design, geographic context, and NGO type matter in whether they advance green space equity. And we identify pathways through which NGOs affect equity.

Thrilled to share an article 2+ years in the works just published in Landscape and Urban Planning. We study whether NGOs contribute to urban green space equity. We find that more studies show that NGOs contribute to equitable outcomes than studies highlighting the opposite, with some nuances.

The NY Times headline from 2 years ago that Colorado stopped building highways wasn't entirely true—and neither is this one from from last week that Denver solved homelessness—but I'm fascinated to see them use GHG emissions PER MILE DRIVEN as the way to sell this widening on the environmental front

This will get a fraction of the attention that Hasan Piker gets: www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...

Nothing like a pop of fall color to lighten up some late-Brutalist transit architecture

The way the housing shortage and hostility to immigration work together is the blackest of pills

I'm gonna have to revisit my deck on how states run the risk of getting bilked when working with Class Is on passenger projects to include freight capacity projects too. itineranturbanist.wordpress.com/2022/04/11/t...

Update on this: NS has now eliminated direct Memphis-Northeast intermodal service. Traffic is once again moving via Atlanta, as it did before the railroad and a coalition of state governments spent hundreds of millions to upgrade the line/associated terminals

I had no idea that the CT Company tried out a GM New Look hi-rail bus on the Springfield-New Haven line in 1968, and that the actual bus still exists in the collection of a local museum. www.facebook.com/CTFireMuseum...

"the myth [that gas taxes fully pay for roads] protects the status quo... if people believe drivers pay their own way, it's easier to argue for more spending on highways. It's harder to ask the basic questions of like who benefits, who pays, who aren't we counting? It's a thought terminating cliche

I need to meet this train

This Cubs fan is very proud of the Brewers and pulling for them. Also, assuming they finish off this series, really looking forward to an all-small-market World Series that gives MLB owners egg on the face before their lockout even starts.

Sending the old Lake Street Bridge down the river

Since @dylancgiles.bsky.social was asking about it, I bothered to figure out where the badass “Death rides the highways but you are safe in the trolley car” slogan ran: Wilmington, DE. The car in the photo is a 1928 JG Brill “Master Unit” for Wilmington City Railway

Harris PhD student Jacob Herbstman has an important working paper: The first I've seen to rigorously quantify the costs of aldermanic prerogative in Chicago. More stringent alders -> reduced permit activity and lower density, which means less housing supply and higher housing costs in Chicago.

Apparently the Venture and Airo cab cars were delivered without shunt enhancing antenna from the factory, so they can't lead trains in places. Money's now available to install them, but it's taking a bit. www.trains.com/pro/passenge...