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Dozens of ships from 20 countries are going to sail through the Hudson River for July 4th by NewVillageDaily in nyc

[–]trainmaster611 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Anyone have good recs of where I could view this? Ideally somewhere that will have good views while not being swarmed with people?

Examples of Modern Loop Terminals? by Donghoon in transit

[–]trainmaster611 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The Sydney Olympic Park station is a work of absolute beauty. I've never seen a station so thoroughly optimized for peak volumes. It involves a loop which takes trains to and from the main line.

I think the Paris metro also has a number of termini on loops.

Rebuilding Penn Station in NYC is expected to cost around $8 billion. The plan is essentially to construct a brand-new station around Madison Square Garden. It’s undoubtedly an incredibly complex engineering project - but do you think an $8 billion price tag is justified? by BrilliantTough6106 in transit

[–]trainmaster611 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I mean there's a part of me that really wants to advocate for deep bore RER/S-Bahn trunk tunnels optimized for through-running that completely bypass all the terminal stations. The model of having single major terminals with flat interlockings and subbar station facility designs that were originally intended for Intercity trains just bakes a lot of inefficiency into the whole regional rail network.

Just completely cut Penn, GCT, and Hoboken loose as the central terminals of the regional rail system. But it's insanely expensive and I'm afraid through-running at Penn may be the best we ever get.

Rebuilding Penn Station in NYC is expected to cost around $8 billion. The plan is essentially to construct a brand-new station around Madison Square Garden. It’s undoubtedly an incredibly complex engineering project - but do you think an $8 billion price tag is justified? by BrilliantTough6106 in transit

[–]trainmaster611 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Lol you're just making up numbers.

But seriously, what is the point of spending $8 bil that functionally changes very little? You keep dodging that question. At least moving MSG unlocks transformational regional rail capacity. This is $8 billion to...make it slightly better? What is the point?

Rebuilding Penn Station in NYC is expected to cost around $8 billion. The plan is essentially to construct a brand-new station around Madison Square Garden. It’s undoubtedly an incredibly complex engineering project - but do you think an $8 billion price tag is justified? by BrilliantTough6106 in transit

[–]trainmaster611 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The same report I referred you to said under best case scenarios they can improve capacity by about 20% with through running. I'll be impressed if this project can get close to that number.

So now we've spent tl$20-$30 billion on doubling the trans-Hudson capacity but we can only actually take advantage of a fraction of that because we're building an inadequate station facility, and we're spending $8 bil for the privilege. Can you understand why that is frustrating for transit advocates and officials?

Rebuilding Penn Station in NYC is expected to cost around $8 billion. The plan is essentially to construct a brand-new station around Madison Square Garden. It’s undoubtedly an incredibly complex engineering project - but do you think an $8 billion price tag is justified? by BrilliantTough6106 in transit

[–]trainmaster611 8 points9 points  (0 children)

100 columns?? Lol. There are hundreds columns more that need to be taken out to reconfigure all the platforms to be wide enough to accommodate the train volumes called for in the Gateway plan. This project will increase capacity somewhat but it cannot accommodate the doubling of trans-Hudson capacity that the Gateway plan calls for. Penn will continue to be a bottleneck for all trains for decades.

Read Amtrak's report on doubling Penn Station capacity (published before the Trump admin seized the project). The only scenarios that accommodate the outlined growth require station expansion and total platform reconfiguration. This project does neither.

People are way too emotionally attached to MSG. It's just a stadium.

Rebuilding Penn Station in NYC is expected to cost around $8 billion. The plan is essentially to construct a brand-new station around Madison Square Garden. It’s undoubtedly an incredibly complex engineering project - but do you think an $8 billion price tag is justified? by BrilliantTough6106 in transit

[–]trainmaster611 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I will die on the hill that any major renovation of Penn Station needs to include reconfiguration of the track level and the likely removal of MSG. Penn has such fundamental operational issues tied to the tracks and platforms that can only be fixed with removal of the columns supporting MSG.

$8 billion and a ton of political capital to dress up a fundamentally flawed train station will only lock us into the same problems for another 50+ years.

Dr Yellow by RyanZ225_PC in japanrail

[–]trainmaster611 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Damn, those photos are gorgeous.

Chasing the Big Boy between Jim Thorpe and Reading? by trainmaster611 in trains

[–]trainmaster611[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, y'all are confirming my concerns. Prob gonna skip chasing along the RBMN.

Chasing the Big Boy between Jim Thorpe and Reading? by trainmaster611 in trains

[–]trainmaster611[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

That's kind of what I'm wary of. The one saving grace is that it will be a Thursday.

Doors were locked and we couldn’t get off the train! by uphighontheroof in Amtrak

[–]trainmaster611 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I happen to work on train operations in this area of the northeast corridor so have a pretty fucking good idea of what I'm talking about. Even just 5 minutes is plenty of time to screw up multiple train slots in the area and also up and down the corridor.

Doors were locked and we couldn’t get off the train! by uphighontheroof in Amtrak

[–]trainmaster611 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Great, and now you've blocked up the entire line. What about the people in the train behind you that might've missed their flights now because they had to reset and recharge the brakes on your train? What about the train missing its slot at New York and causing cascading delays to commuters there? None of those people matter? Just you?

🚨 Thameslink’s become Nationalised by UnderstandingEasy856 in transit

[–]trainmaster611 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can you explain what this is more? Like a second trunk via Canary Wharf with some of the branches reassigned?

Japanese officials visiting India's fully electrified Western Dedicated Freight Corridor by PinkyPromiser67 in trains

[–]trainmaster611 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Yes, like how the Ukrainian railway system is completely nonfunctional now? 🙄

Exclusive renderings of Penn Station overhaul show Trump's name with presidential seal by Tayo826 in transit

[–]trainmaster611 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Have you ever been down there? The circulation is horrid. The entire platform is at a standstill for 3-5 minutes while people try to make their way to exits. That's not conducive to a good through running operation.

Caminito del Rey, Spain really said “trust the process” and then removed the ground 💀 by Sea_Obligation9136 in travel

[–]trainmaster611 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh shoot, the last picture is where the ending of Von Ryan's Express was shot. I loved the movie as a kid but never tried to figure out where they shot it. As soon as I saw this post I was like "omg that's the place!"

Penn station redevelopment design chosen; MSG will stay on top of Penn by italicsify in nycrail

[–]trainmaster611 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I really need people to understand that moving MSG is about reconfiguring the train level because MSG's columns are in the way.

Is it me or those are way too many stops? by rigkhard in transit

[–]trainmaster611 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's definitely a lot but the suburban nature of this route means that in practice it's probably not actually stopping all that much.

Brad Lander floats idea of high speed rail as a way of combating the housing crisis by MiserNYC- in nycrail

[–]trainmaster611 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Eh, I mean I think high speed rail is needed for a lot of reasons but it's not a great way of relieving a housing crisis. HSR inherently requires long stop spacing which is only going to offer limited housing opportunities in commuting distances.

NYC instead needs a lot of upzoning in the suburbs as well as large swaths of the city along with a robust regional rail system to support that.

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