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Today I took a walk around town, and successfully took a train! But first, I am going to post a video of me not riding a train (but where I still show transit and talk about infrastructure in general). My AirBnB is only about a kilometer from downtown, but today is the first day where I made...

In my last 24 hours in Portland/The United States, I had a lot of time on my hands and walked around Portland. Here are two videos I took while walking around Portland in the rain. The first is of the City of Maywood Park, a small town of less than 1000 people, surrounded on all sides by...

As I alluded to in my Willamette Valley thread, I was planning on moving. And I have moved, to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. I am going to be studying Spanish here for 10 weeks (or more), and of course, I will also be riding the trains, as much as I can! Much as I did with the Willamette...

I think along with its size advantage, Boston has the advantage of being a city that is on the NEC, and where people are used to riding rail. I think that is a reason a lot of routes that branch off from the NEC, like the Downeaster, Empire Service, Ethan Allen, and Keystone are so successful...

So this is an objective comment on the Amtrak Cascades, and why I was travelling to all these small towns. One thing I never really put into words before, because I didn't realize it, is how much an outlier the Amtrak Cascades is in terms of distance travelled, and the size of the cities...

Another video, and an announcement! Yesterday, I travelled to Stayton, Oregon, a small town/suburb of Salem located about 15 miles east of Salem, Oregon. To get there, I took a Flixbus to Salem, and then a regional Cheeriots bus, followed by the same bus back to Salem, where I took an Amtrak...

I took the Coast Starlight on my birthday weekend in 2022 and saw fresh snow. My birthday is May 28th.

So basically someone made this decision five years before I was born and no one has gotten around to changing it since then? I would also guess that for some of the smaller communities, the bus (which had 3-6 riders on my trips) is a lifeline for certain people, especially for medical uses. And...

This one had been on my list for a long time: Lane Transit District, centered in Eugene, Oregon, has a "city bus" that goes 55 miles eastward, through the McKenzie River Valley to McKenzie Bridge. It only runs, currently, four times a day, and since I live in Corvallis, I had to really plan...

And as a final video from yesterday, I took the Portland Streetcar back to Union Station: The Portland Streetcar opened in the early 2000s, years after I had become accustomed to riding the MAX. I find the MAX to be useful and wide ranging, while the Portland Streetcar is mostly a niche thing...

I do kind of wonder what the target demographic for the FX2 is, because it seems a little like a solution in search of a problem. (Which is the same thing I say about the Portland Streetcar in a video I will be editing and posting today). Is this bus supposed to be a replacement for a...

And here is the Tilikum Crossing Bridge, which I've wanted to get a video of for a while, and which is interesting from both an architecture/engineering standpoint (which I wish I knew more about), and from a policy standpoint. This bridge carries only transit: two types of rail transit (the MAX...

Today was also the first time I rode the BRT FX2 line. This video is a pretty casual look at what it is like to ride it, just a short journey from downtown across the Willamette River. Like the Vancouver BRT, and unlike the Eugene BRT, this BRT only has doors on one side, and as far as I know...

There might be some truth to it, but I don't think that one person's support or opposition to transit tells the entire story, because the overall economic and demographic environment are probably the bigger stories. That is the truth today. While there have been some politicians who have spoken...

Exception to the above: The airport Red Line is being expanded, but it is mostly technical fixes to improve service. They are also extending the Red Line to Hillsboro, but that is a pretty nominal distinction, since it is co-lined with the Blue Line on those tracks already...

Well, also, to put this in perspective, I have had some topic drift in this thread, which was originally supposed to be about the Portland MAX system, which is a very extensive and utilized service for a medium sized city. I then focused a little on when and where the service would be extended...

Yep, it is basically an articulated bus, not a true BRT line. The biggest advantage it has is that its platforms allow quicker boarding and deboarding, since passengers can enter at three different doors and pay with contactless cards. I think a lot of compromises were made when designing this...

Looks like the 2nd Vancouver BRT line is about to open! It might not be as glamorous as a train, but it is looking pretty spiffy. I also think that this BRT line, as well as the 3rd line, still in development, will make the idea of Light Rail into Vancouver as more useful. Right now Vancouver...

Theoretically, all markets should clear. Theoretically, if a landlord has supply that is going unused, they should decrease the price on it to make *some* money, rather than make none at all. If you have a commercial property, renting it for even $100 a month makes more sense than not renting it...

One of the things that has to be clarified before answering this question is what is "commuter rail", and it is not purely a pedantic discussion. Because both in terms of equipmenment and purpose (form and function), "commuter rail" is a vague term. For example, the Amtrak Capitol Corridor would...