At one point beginning in 1901, a traveler could easily ride via interurban rail from Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin to Little Falls, NY

https://www.sheboyganpress.com/story/news/local/2016/11/04/interurbans-meteoric-rise-then-fall/93291360/

@transit

(I hope it's okay if I just keep posting stuff here)

This version of the multidirectional elevator is neat because it's not an exotic modern solution or just a concept, but an actual practical machine that's widely used. It's not quite fresh content but it holds up.

The comments say it can run a lot faster, as you'd expect for the added complexity, but they don't usually use the full speed for liability reasons. I wonder if a version could be made that's fully enclosed.

New York City’s transit system is launching a new type of subway train where riders can walk between cars and doors are wider, the first of its kind in modern US history.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority Thursday ran the new R211T open gangway trains on the C line for the first time. The pilot program includes two such trains, with 10 cars each. While the more spacious trains are used on mass-transit systems in Europe and Asia, the MTA’s investment is the first for a US public transportation provider, according to the MTA.

“You can actually move seamlessly from one car to the other,” Governor Kathy Hochul told reporters before boarding the train for its first passenger trip. “You’re not trapped. You want to have a different experience? You can get up and move around. You don’t get claustrophobic.”

In one of the coolest and more outrageous repair stories in quite some time, three white-hat hackers helped a regional rail company in southwest Poland unbrick a train that had been artificially rendered inoperable by the train’s manufacturer after an independent maintenance company worked on it. The train’s manufacturer is now threatening to sue the hackers who were hired by the independent repair company to fix it.

After breaking trains simply because an independent repair shop had worked on them, NEWAG is now demanding that trains fixed by hackers be removed from service.

The project has been delayed for years, but perhaps with Amtrak (and Andy Byford), the line will finally progress.

This is my full interview with Kim Irwin, the Executive Director of Health By Design about her work advocating for expanded transit and other urbanist policy in Indianapolis. It was a great conversation. Check out the more polished version of the video here.

One day...