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He seemed to sort of correct himself on that one iirc - like down from five minutes.

A lot of the city does not (but once did*) have rail service, so that would be great. I know that Metra is gradually trying/planning to move to a more regional model than commuter model with more mid-day trains (when, of course, they could drastically increase ridership with more evening...

I think there are even - can't think of the right term, alternate history I think - novels about this happening or, in fact, the basin never filling. I hadn't realized that channel tunnel construction had started in the 70's (iirc) and then faltered - I knew there had been test bores around...

Were there ever through cars to San Francisco or elsewhere on the 20th LTD or B'way Ltd (or similar trains - or elsewhere west like Portland/Seattle)?

That was really a great video, thanks for posting it. Those Pullman reservation carousels were really cool (among other things).

Eliot Noyes was a surprise - he's the designer of the Selectric typewriter among other things (houses, corporate/industrial design, etc). He died relatively young at 66.

Especially if more protests block the O'Hare access road.... What I remember from the last convention (or the one in the 90's) was that the CTA cleaned all the stations around United Center and very few conventioneers took transit - they were taken by shuttle bus from their hotels.

Here's what Renfe would be connecting to: Tim's description: "At 350km/h, China currently has the fastest operating train service on earth. Second place is a tie between the planet's other technology giants - Japan, Germany, France, and Morocco. Wait. Morocco? I went to Casablanca to find...

A lakh is 100k, right (it was in one of the articles you posted)?

Those deep Norwegian tunnels are mostly below the sea bed in less active tectonically areas. The seabed at Gibraltar is deeper than those. I think there are shallower sections but that would be a longer tunnel. I think Seikan Tunnel is something like 50+ km long.

It will be interesting if they can make it work technically - it's a very difficult strait to build in (like the Straits of Messina).

Interesting: but why did I think the S-Bahn was older than the U-Bahn?

Metra (and I think the CTA does as well) has indicators - as in signs - at platform edges (obviously harder with lower platforms and differing car and engine types) indicating where to stop based on number of cars, is this found on mainline rail? Seems like I've seen it somewhere, but can't...

The big difference between Europe and the US is one word: Freight! That said, it sounds like some of the freight railroads here aren't doing a great job pleasing their customers with freight (whether that is planned money losing for value-out or planned sale or just plain sheer incompetence I...

Metra had chimes - somewhat similar, if less elegant - to alert crew to curves.

I think that the axle count issue may be resolved - you'll have to dig around but there have been some posts about it.

Thanks, interesting information. I assumed a shunter would be needed to get the cars onto the ferry since you couldn't easily do 3rd rail or catenary. A lot of the electrification was actually rather late on the continent wasn't it?

Fascinating photos in both sets (second reminds me of photos I've seen of my dad during and after the war a bit, though they had emigrated by the early 50's) - so the trains, despite being in Southern territory were diesel (I spy the third rail and I think I see a few pickup shoes)? Were the...

I think this discussion is interesting in that most of the talk is about the eastbound (as I called it, "The Rhoda") rather than westbound ('The Mary') timing. Once the Columbus work is done, how much was that supposed to speed up service? In theory, with $$$, it could be a 110 MPH service (as...

I don't see a problem with arriving in Chicago at 1 AM (it's even earlier in Milwaukee) - Chicago isn't a shuts down at midnight town (though the Loop gets pretty deserted these days). Plus it enables later departures from Milwaukee. I think the earlier departure option is good too.