Notices by 𝚃𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚜 𝙶𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚌𝚘𝚎 🚇 (straphanger@urbanists.social)

By 1920, the network of interurbans in the US was so dense that a determined commuter could theoretically
hop interlinked services from Waterville, Maine, to Sheboygan, Wisconsin—a journey of 1,000 miles—exclusively by electric trolley.

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(The video above shows a vintage 1932 trolley from Scranton, the "Electric City" of Pennsylvania.)

Some years back, I sought out still-running cable cars and trolleys across the US, from Kennebunkport to San Diego.

I loved the PCC, the streamlined Cadillac of electric streetcars...

They still run in #Philadelphia, San Francisco, and on the Mattapan, the old "High Speed" Line outside #Boston.

Want to stick it to Little Tariff Man this weekend?

Sign up for a tariff-free newsletter from Canada! 🇨🇦

In the interests of international friendship + cooperation, I'm giving out free month-long memberships to my tranport-themed newsletter HIGH SPEED if you sign up today.

https://www.highspeed.blog

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THIS JUST IN:

Yesterday, the people of #Paris voted "Oui" or "Non" to pedestrianizing and greening a further 500 streets in the city, and eliminating 10,000 parking spots.

The result: 66 percent, or two-thirds, voted "Oui"!

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Who voted "NON"?

The usual suspects: the wealthy, car-owning residents of the western arrondissements (in red and orange).

And they lost.

https://www.liberation.fr/societe/ville/comment-etre-contre-cette-idee-a-paris-les-rues-pietonnes-veulent-faire-ecole-20250322_6UGQPMXUYZBDPGTRWGSJB25ALA/

Pass it on: #deleteyourtesla

And she shared it with two friends, and they shared it with four friends, and so on, and so on…

This is an excellent meme! Give me a hand: let’s make it go exponential.

Got the Trump trade war blues?

I explore how #Montreal is charting a path to agricultural self-sufficiency w/ urban fish-farming, greenhouses on shopping malls, and rooftop grapevines for wine-making.

Bye-bye imported tomatoes!

On the Food and Wine Magazine website:

https://www.foodandwine.com/montreal-urban-agriculture-8783278

So Elon Musk's DOGE is hitting one DC agency, the NHTSA, especially hard.

Surprise, surprise: it's the small team responsible for regulating self-driving cars.

Very convenient. And utterly corrupt.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/21/musk-doge-tesla-autonomous-vehicles-nhtsa/

It's about time we stopped building pipelines, highways, and runways, and got back to the railways that really built this nation.

We're good at trains, and trains—especially the electric variety—are good for the world.

I can't think of a better way of pissing off Trump than for #Canada to go ahead with building the proposed Alto high-speed rail project.

A multi-billion high-tech megaproject, that would deliver faster trains than the US has, using Canadian steel + aluminum.

Might even kick off a modern version of the space race.

Yesterday, the Liberals in #Canada announced they're going ahead with true high-speed rail. (Not just "high-frequency.")

This means 300 km/h (186 mph) electric trains from #Toronto to #Quebec City.

This corridor is home to 700k students, and half Canada's population.

Great news, but...

🚅🧵

...there are a lot of "buts."

But: It's $3.9B, for a project that will take at least 10 yrs, and could cost $100B.

But: Political future of the Liberals is up in the air.

But—the biggest "but": This is really announcement of the choice of a consortium, made up of...

https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2025/02/19/canada-getting-high-speed

...Air Canada, CPDQ Infra (Quebec pension fund, which built Montreal's REM), and SNCF (France's rail operator).

In other words, a public-private partnership.

Which raises the question: what happens to VIA Rail, tasked with operating passenger rail across Canada?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/rail-toronto-quebec-via-1.7463323

BIG NEWS! Official announcement of high-speed rail in Canada. And it has a name: Alto.

300 km/h all-electric trains to run from #Toronto to #Quebec City.

Trudeau made the announcement at a press conference in #Montreal today.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-announces-high-speed-rail-quebec-toronto-1.7462538

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Here in #Montreal, we just got 74 cm (30 inches) of snow.

This plow driver has the right idea.

The municipal snow removal operation should also be a car removal operation!

Congestion-relief pricing has been a big success in #NYC.

Car traffic is down, transit ridership is up.

Another city that could benefit? #Chicago.

With its compact core, transit efficiency would jump if cars were limited in the Loop.

https://chi.streetsblog.org/2025/02/12/never-mind-the-naysayers-nyc-style-congestion-pricing-would-be-great-for-chicago

Guess which major US city has state-of-the-art Swiss trains serving its transit system?

#Atlanta, baby!

MARTA rolls out the first of 224 CQ400 cars, made by Stadler.

(Next challenge: make sure they run on time, like in #Switzerland...)

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/atlantas-marta-unveils-first-new-trainset/

I show how the transport policies of the nation of #Switzerland (pop. 9 million) can be a model for large metro areas in my longread in today’s Globe and Mail.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-what-north-america-can-learn-from-the-greatest-transportation-system/

I’ve got a longread in this weekend’s @theglobeandmail.com about how the transport system of #Switzerland (pop. 9 million) can be a model for metro areas in North America.

Sure, you can read it online here: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-what-north-america-can-learn-from-the-greatest-transportation-system/

But I prefer the hard copy. (With an espresso.)