The new India of Vande Bharats: Who it accommodates and sidelines
These trains charge almost eight times more than a general coach on a passenger train. Passengers travelling on other trains also have to deal with frequent delays as the tracks are congested and Vande Bharat gets unhindered access.
The lost art of hand-written public transport signs
From an exhibition at the Sydney Bus Museum:
"Sign writing was once an important trade. The signs needed to direct bus traffic and provide timetable and destination information for Sydney's bus network were formerly painted by hand at Randwick Depot.
"Many of those employed to do this work considered it to be their job for life. Their skill is evident, but it was time consuming and expensive to produce signs this way, and by the 1980s the writing was on the wall for this trade.
"Various printing techniques have replaced the hand painted sign in almost all situations in the bus and transport industry, but if you look around the museum, you will see many examples of their craft."
Preventing states from spending fed funds inappropriately should be a priority.
The US is continuing to spend billions$ on expanding hwys rather than fund #publictransport, with the INFRA bill -accelerated: dominance of cars at the expense, of comms. & #climate.
INFRA law in 2021 to upgrade the US’s crumbling bridges, roads, ports & public transit, $: overwhelmingly used for maintenance & widening of roads rather than improving: network of bus, rail & cycling options-.
Some good news for anyone who loves RMTransit's public transport explainer videos, but doesn't like Google and YouTube.
Looks like @RM_Transit now has an account on PeerTube here, which you can follow from Mastodon: @reece
(If you're the first to follow the account from your instance it will initially appear empty. Videos will start appearing in your feed after you follow.)
The ghettoisation of sleeper coaches: The two Bharats of Indian Railways
“Overcrowding is not allowed in AC coaches, people adjust in sleepers.” This unwritten policy of the Railways means that those who cannot afford an AC ticket will have to travel in the dangerously crowded general and sleeper coaches.
Privatized #Boston rail: “We don’t want to #strike, but we will when we are legally able to” - new cleaners pay so low, eligible for #FoodStamps and #Section8
Following on from the great reaction video of @nerd4cities I've released my own responding to the question -'Does Urban Planning YouTube have a HUGE problem?'
Looks like the Boring Company's Las Vegas tunnels are going about as well as you'd expect from an Elon project...
"The muck pooling in the tunnel at the north end of the Las Vegas Strip had the consistency of a milkshake and, in some places, sat at least two feet deep. ... At first, it merely felt damp. But in addition to the water, sand and silt—the natural byproducts of any dig—the workers understood that it was full of chemicals known as accelerants.
"The accelerants cure the grout that seals the tunnel’s concrete supports, helping the grout set properly and protecting the work against cracks and other deterioration. They also seriously burn exposed human skin. At the Encore dig site, such burns became almost routine, workers there told Nevada’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. An investigation by the state OSHA, which Bloomberg Businessweek has obtained via a freedom of information request, describes workers being scarred permanently on their arms and legs. According to the investigation, at least one employee took a direct hit to the face. In an interview with Businessweek, one of the tunnel workers recalls the feeling of exposure to the chemicals: “You’d be like, ‘Why am I on fire?’”"
Do you think that Scottish buses should work for people and planet, not just profit?
In JUST 48 hours, local leaders will decide if Strathclyde should look into being the first Scottish area to end the Wild West free market on your buses.
You’ve got the power to influence them NOW. Wherever you are, please sign this petition to demand public control before we deliver it to their meeting on Friday.
>>...if you live in a single family house with a driveway and usually get around by car, imagine that there were an automated gate at the end of your driveway that only opened once an hour, on the hour. When it’s closed, you can’t get your car in or out. If that were your situation, your biggest transportation problem would not be traffic congestion, or how fast you can go on the freeway; it would be how to get this frigging gate to open more often. That’s how low frequency feels to a potential transit customer, and why frequency often swamps other factors, like speed, in determining whether transit is actually useful.<<
Metro: "we also reached huge milestones on Saturday and Sunday, recording our highest passenger numbers since 2018!" #Melbourne#PublicTransport#TaylorSwift