Why Subways in the US are Set Up to Fail
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- čas přidán 2. 06. 2024
- We've heard of multiple subway systems in the US having to close large parts of their system or cut service massively in the past little while, and I think a lot of it is how subway systems are fundamentally thought of - They are set up to fail. Let's talk about it!
Special thanks to Zion Orent, Max Katz-Christy (who also provided the clip at 6:06), and Wallace Donahoe for providing the MBTA footage used in this video!
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Ever wondered why your city's transit just doesn't seem quite up to snuff? RMTransit is here to answer that, and help you open your eyes to all of the different public transportation systems around the world!
Reece Martin (the RM in RMTransit) is an urbanist and public transport critic residing in Toronto, Canada, with the goal of helping the world become more connected through metros, trams, buses, high-speed trains, and all other transport modes.
A lot of comments mention funding but, I’m skeptical it’s a primary issue. US cities including Boston have actually spent a lot on transit such as with the very expensive green line extension (and have done some expensive things like getting rid of trolley buses) - the issue is that money is too rarely spent on things that enhance reliability and service quality. This is a great resource for more details on how systems in the US get less transit for more money: transitcosts.com/about/
You scared me when you said these cities were shutting lines down.
Then I breathed a sigh of relief when you said they're just being shut down temporarily to do repairs.
NYC does this all the time and uses city buses to shuttle passengers between stations over a section of line that's out of service.
I don't believe transit systems should be run purely as businesses, but maybe a bit of business acumen would be useful. Specifically thinking "how can we best spend the money we have to increase passenger numbers, thereby generating more revenue to further improve the system".
@@caw25sha transit systems should also be landlords, because their stations are massive subsidies to private real estate values but the transit service doesn’t see any slice of that
The focus should be less on providing a few highly evolved, critical lines, but on more spread out lines with each having lower capacity and costs. I think it is a funding problem, but more on of concentration of funding rather than volume of funding.
@@caw25sha One mistake people make about non-profit organizations is assuming they need to be run at a loss when the reality is, they should still be operated like a business with the motivating factor not being profit and any "profit" can instead be re-invested in the system
In most cities in the United States, public transit is seen as a welfare service for the poor who can't afford to drive. That conditions everything about the politics of transit. It means middle-class and rich Americans would rather call an Uber than use it (even in American or European cities that have great transit). It means you get rich NIMBYs actually campaigning to keep transit out of their neighborhoods to exclude the riffraff. And it means that the subway and tram lines are considered expendable as long as you can run a replacement shuttle bus, regardless of whether it can handle the capacity.
In the US it is expected that anybody who can drive or afford a car, will use a car, exclusively, for all trips. The idea that many trips are better done with efficient and reliable public transportation doesn't cross people's minds.
In the US I had a very memorable experience: To cross the road you get into the car and _drive_ across the road, instead of simply walking across the road (they even had a ped x-ing with a traffic light for pedestrians and it was only a four lane road). Mind blown.
@@user-jk2zm7uq5s if you've seen how people drive on those "only 4 lane stroads" you would understand the desire to just drive across the street.
Our infrastructure is very hostile to pedestrians, even the pole holding the stoplights and "beg button" is breakaway meaning if a car is going fast enough to kill you that 2ft diameter metal pole isn't saving you. And the other half of the hostility is our roads are overbuilt for speed (you see a highway quality road posted for 30mph and then wonder why everyone is driving 50 on it) which compounds the danger for pedestrians as lethality of a collision is 99% about the speed of the car.
I personally have no problem crossing a street, especially with a crosswalk on foot. Its just most stroads are so dangerous and unwelcoming you crave the additional safety of the steel/alluminum cage that is your car. (Contributing to the problem of course, but its understandable why it happens)
Hey Matt. It also helped that the average North American and Australian could afford a car a lot sooner than the average European or Japanese person. The United States and Canada was mainly motorized before World War II. The car fits with the American self-image a lot.
@@jasonreed7522 Don't forget we also drive massive cars for no reason which aids in killing pedestrians and even smaller cars
For all the issues that plague the NYC subway, I do appreciate that theres always service available for the most part.
Also when repairs need to be made that shuts down subway lines in NY, there are alternate routes people can take.
Yep, the most important thing!
Well said, sir. Let's see more videos on frail transit, please.
@@iron_lion940 Well i would say that mainly exist within Manhattan and Brooklyn, for the other parts of the city it’s still difficult to move around the city due to lack of good public transportation.
I've visited most big US cities and NYC transit is the one I trust the most. I know I can make it to my destination easily at any time of the day.
Seeing how poorly Subways in the US are maintained and allowed to be rundown (Thinking the recent events in Boston and the state of many NYCT transit stations) it really makes me appreciate the TTCs efforts to consistently maintain what it has. The 90s were sort of our dark period where stations like St. George appeared to be decaying.
Especially considering how chronically underfunded it is.
My partner said she would never complain about our transit again after riding the MBTA metro and commuter rail. It was gross, old, slow, loud, infrequent, not convenient, not clear for visitors, and literally dirty, and staff had no clue what was going on (red line was closed for weekend, and they didn't know how to take the commuter rail in).
I have to admit, weekend shutdowns (it seems like there have been a lot this summer) are inconvenient, but if it keeps The Better Way running, c'est la vie. Sure beats months or year long closures.
@@knarf_on_a_bike Yeah, as a North York resident, the weekend shutdowns can get annoying, but the thought of dealing with shuttle buses for an entire month is far worse.
@@arferbargel I’m less certain that the TTC is really so badly underfunded, it’s also quite inefficient
"Make transit the most convenient, reliable, and affordable choice for people." YES YES YES!!! So many things come down to this, not just transit. I read something similar in a book one time about why Spotify and Apple Music solved the piracy problem. It wasn't because people finally realized piracy was wrong and they should start paying for music again, it's because those services offered a service that was much more appealing despite the fact that there was a small fee attached. While you may always get a few people who want to ride transit because they are transit nerds or care about the environment (just like some people paid for music because it was the right thing to do), you won't really convince the masses that way. If you simply make something the BEST option, you'll find people adopt it en masse. It's the same thing with electric cars. Tesla's popular because it's a luxury car and status symbol and it has a supercool autopilot feature. Basically, "it's a TELSA man!!". Not because it's electric. I wish more people would understand this. So much of gaining adoption is simply making something the best option for people.
As for piracy though, a lot of those companies are now breaking what they "fixed". They're region locking and reducing selection, increasing prices and putting more restrictions on use, and as more services appear all trying to compete with each other, distribution rights are being fragmented across multiple services so you can never find what you want. They're pushing everyone back to piracy, and if these companies really do go out of business because of piracy, like they've been screaming about for 20 years, I'll laugh because they were always parasites that stifled creativity.
"Taken in the mass, the automobile is a noxious mechanism whose destiny in workaday urban use is to frustrate man and make dead certain that he approaches his daily occupation unhappy and inefficient." - Former Honolulu Mayor Neal Blaisdell.
What's a TELSA, man?
Not to be downer but outside of being forced by economic necessity would I never use public transit.
It's far too slow. A 15 minute car ride is close to 2 hours by bus. Double that for my daily commute to and from work and you get the picture.
@@Whiskey.T.Foxtrot it's too slow because the service isn't good in your community. There's no reason that can't be a 20 minute bus ride with a better route network.
The problem with the MBTA is that in order to finish the Big Dig, MassDOT had them cough up a lot of money and get some debt transferred to the T. This meant that money that was supposed to go to safety projects went to the Big Dig, leading to the situation now. So I would this is an extraordinary situation for the T, not a run of the mill problem
Yep. Same thing was mentioned by Alan Fisher in his latest video on the Big Failure.
Coincidentally both the Orange and Green lines share a tunnel that runs beneath the former Government Center parking garage currently being demolished, a project that has impacted service in the recent past. The current shutdown of both services will allow for the completion of the demolition and the shoring up of the tunnel.
Unbelievable that transit funds a motor vehicle project. Shouldn't it be the other way around? SMH
@@knarf_on_a_bike When Michael Dukakis, former Gov. of Massachusetts and Presidential candidate, pushed for it, he wanted transit projects to accompany it. But since the Big Dig was so over budget, time and expense could not be spared to do a lot of projects. The GLX is being done precisely to offset some emissions from the Big Dig. If more funding was provided each year to the MBTA, then the issue I mentioned in my comment wouldn’t be an issue
It’s a contributing factor but I hardly think it’s the only or even the main problem. Bostons new CRRC trains are *new* but they have tons of problems, the Green Line extension has had tons of issues despite getting lots of funding. This I’m skeptical funding is the main issue.
Wanna know something funny about the currently shutdown MBTA orange line? When the newest portion opened in the 80s, there was a news story where the guy goes down to check it out, and when he went to Ruggles Station he asked the construction guy he was interviewing if it was completely finished (it was) because it looked unfinished with how dark and dingy it was (and still is) even when under 2 days old. You can’t make this stuff up.
Wanna know something worse, Back Bay station has such poor air quality that asthmatics can’t use it because there’s a very real chance they’ll collapse from the smog that the non electric commuter rail trains emit in a station with next to no ventilation
Why do I have the feeling that corruption affected the project so badly?
That’s very concerning!
That last thing is very concerning and I'm actually surprised such a safety hazard is even (still) allowed.
It seems to me that the architects and engineers were (mis)informed that by the time the station was complete or a short time after the commuter rail lines there would all be electrified
@@stanislavkostarnov2157 no it was Amtrak that electrified the tracks but the MBTA kept using old fashioned diesel engines
Maintenance is really an underrated part of transit. The systems in the US I've been on are by far the worst for maintenance, ranging from accessibility issues with elevators to line shutdowns to delays.
Absolutely, with any infrastructure maintenance is critical!
I thinks its just a symptom of a broader refusal to actually maintain infrastructure in general in the states.
Often times a potential problem is identified whan its a say $10,000 fix and we refuse to deal with it because "its too expensive" so we wait 5 years and foot a $2 million dollar bill replacing it and cleaning up the aftermath. If we do this to car infrastructure, of course we will do it to transit infrastructure. (And anyone with a brain/basic math ability is internally or externally screaming their head off at the shear stupidity of this behavior.)
Although i have seen it get slightly better in 1 category where a CZcamsr clears culverts and drains for fun and constantly roasts the local DOT who should be doing this work. (Its obvious when something has been neglected for decades) And since he has a large audience now it causes people to put actual pressure on the authorities to do what we pay them to do, and the end result is he has less content to make in these areas.
@@jasonreed7522 And I think the broader refusal to maintain infrastructure here in the States is a symptom of the root cause of everything: our political system set up by the framers of our constitution. See, they're not so smart after all and even by the evolving standards of the day, they were groundbreaking in some areas and somewhat retrograde in others and our founding document shows that.
Metra in Chicago is horrible with maintenance.
@@sandal_thong8631 of course, especially because in some cases you can massively extend the lifespan of something with good maintenance.
The channel "Practical Engineering" released a video today on corrosion prevention with "cathodic protection" (slap zinc anodes on something in salt water and the zinc rusts before the steel or copper). In this video a case study is a bridge in Florida exposed to the sea and instead of replacing it they decided to experiment with corrosion prevention technologies and extended the useful lifespan of the bridge by 80 years. Politicians litterally won't live long enough to see the benefits of such good maintenance, let alone stay in office long enough to claim credit for it.
PS: the youtuber in my first comment is "Post10" his drain and culvert unclogging videos are very satisfying. (And he probably has some new content soon considering the deluge New England got today)
Was in Washington around 2018 - and I was SHOCKED when I realised during weekday, business hours, metro came every 20 minutes... And this was in city centre... Not far flung suburb. Nothing like what we used to in Europe.
Outside of service disruptions, this is usually only the case when three lines share the same tracks, providing trains every 6 minutes on the key downtown portions.
@@TheSJCieply Meanwhile in some far smaller German Cities like Bielefeld, Dortmund, Hannover and Germanys Car Industry City of Stuttgart 4 or even more Lines share the same tunnel sections with a 10 minute frequency on each despite beeing just lightrail with tramlike sections on most branches.
@@futurerails8421 That's the peak frequency without cars out of service.Our NTSB is really safety conscious, but only when it comes to mass transit.
The metro isn’t something you can count on. In the last 10 years it’s been in a steady decline. It’s great for someone out in the suburbs looking for a way in/out of the city, but for someone living in the city it’s more or less useless at this point.
@@jamie7664 If both origin and destination are within walking distance, it's great. Trains come every 6 minutes or so during peak (on the red line). People hating on the metro is just what people do around here. It doesn't even catch on fire that often.
Ugh, you've hit the nail with this one. The moment I saw that MBTA Blue Line train on the thumbnail, I knew this was going to be about maintenance. It's that easy nowadays to justifiably rag on the MBTA. They were saddled with debt from the Big Dig, where there was no problem coughing up $22 billion for a car tunnel when it could have been used for mass transit.
The Big Dig actually originally had plans for a rail link between the North and South Stations, but that got cut as part of an attempt to bring costs down.
Well, the MBTA also spent an enormous amount on the Green Line Extension, maybe that should have gone to state of repair instead! (I know it was part of conditions around the BD)
@@funplussmart typical 🙄
I remember from my time in Germany, Hamburg, whenever there is a track failure or maintanence going on, the trains still go to the furthest stations they can, and then busses are used as substitutes to shuttle people from that station to the closest station that isn't affected by the repairs and people can continue to ride the train from there. You lose maybe 15 minutes of time but you never have to worry about getting where you need to go.
That is how CTA in Chicago handles outages, too, and the buses go from an accessible station to an accessible station for people cannot use stairs.
Same thing in Sydney here :)
The London Underground is so extensive and multiply connected that over the central part of the system, if a line shuts down it's likely possible to use another Underground line just by walking a few more blocks.
True. Same with New York
It's called redundancy, part of all well-engineered systems.
This reminds me of my experience on Berlin where the U1 and parts of the U2 have been merged to the U12 because of maintenance and renovations on the U2 viaduct. The power of redundancy is certainly not to be underestimated.
Not just that but a national rail service, overground, Elizabeth Line, etc...
@@moofey Mind you, on the day I flew into the UK a couple of weeks ago, much of the London system was shut down or operating at reduced capacity because of a massive transport strike (which followed closely on rail strikes), which in turn seems to have been a response to underinvestment in staffing the system. So things aren't perfect. But that was just a couple of days of downtime announced in advance.
I think a big problem in the US is that transit is assumed to be mainly used for commuting. In my native Germany transit is assumed to be used for every transportation need, whether it’s kids going to school, getting groceries, visiting friends, going out, or to connect to high-speed rail or airports. This also makes systems more resilient to WFH
That and it's just really expensive to build anything here. When you look at cities with extensive systems, like NYC, they were nearly always built when labor was cheap and when it was acceptable for a construction project to have a death toll. When they were building the Seattle Link in the early 2000s every time someone was injured the whole project shut down for two weeks while they investigated. We have more respect for human life now and that makes big infrastructure projects hard.
Definitely
@@MrBirdnose It's also harder and more expensive to build under build up areas, you have to account for all those skyscrapers on top, back in the day you would dig a ditch, build the rail, then close it again, now you have to dig underground.
A shut down for a month might be pushing some of those users to buy a car, which means a long term loss of ridership.
Love to see more on Frail transit, along with what some solutions are.
That is exactly what happened here in Manila. In 2019 Line 2 had the same problem when the power rectifier tripped and caught fire, while Line 3 had very frequent breakdowns.
It took two years to repair and upgradd everything, including the COVID-related delays, so when on-site classes resumed on August 22, after two years, things are now much better.
Thanks for watching, and yeah it sucks but some will buy cars
As a European I really hope like projects like the rem and go expansion show other North American cities the value of investing in and upgrading your transit and making it more customer oriented and convenient the ridership will grow massively if you have a extensive and reliable transit system
Canada, particularly Southwester Ontario, and Montreal metro area are really moving toward having excellent transit. To the degree that it will hopefully become a snowball effect. We will have moved so many people on transit that we will have more people advocating for transit.
I'm not sure what's going on in the US, but for whatever reason advocates struggle to fight for adequate transit. I don't fully understand the politics there, but Canadian advocates seem to be really successful at pushing government to invest in transit.
@@PSNDonutDude Canadian society seems far healthier than US-American society overall, and that is reflected in public transit projects and the attitude towards them. Go to any discussion about transit in the US and see how quickly you’ll find comments like “only poor or criminal people ride transit”, “subways are where the homeless people pee everywhere” and so on. True or not (for the US), the fact that transit there comes with such associations so frequently speaks volumes about how dysfunctional their system is, that that is what transit is associated with. I don’t think it’s that bad in any other country in the world. I hold far more optimism for Canada’s future regarding transit projects than the US’s.
I hope so!
It's so bad that our ridership in Boston has not even reached 80% of pre-COVID ridership. But surprisingly, our system's catchment isn't that bad. Before 2020, about 1/5 of all Bostonians and the surrounding suburbs that make up the Boston metro area used public transportation on a daily basis.
I think the REM and GO projects are going to convince other *Canadian* cities to improve their transit systems but in the US? Fuggetabout it. First, Americans WILL! NOT! GIVE! UP! THEIR! FRACKING! CARS! Second, Americans don't pay attention to anything going on outside their own country unless the conservative media scare them with stuff like "caravan invasions"! Third, even improvements in one US city won't necessarily inspire others: Philadelphia connected their Pennsylvania and Reading commuter rail terminals decades ago making their two separate systems into one quasi-regional rail network. Boston has been wanting one for decades too but was stymied by the Big Dig, which took up all the room in the only reasonable location available. The other reasons are what our host has said.
Sometimes it's the little things that can show symptoms of a poor maintenance culture too. Rusty girders, dirty tiles and broken PIS can be inconvenient, but they also show a lack of care and attention to the transit system. LUL does seem to be able to keep 100+ year old stations looking clean and presentable, the walls are repainted, the floors are cleaned, and the matrix boards are kept in good working order. It might not seem that important, but if a transit system can't get the basics right, it's fair to be concerned that they aren't doing a great job with the more complex and technical maintenance tasks.
Worse, people always blame the bad maintenance on unions, citing silly reasons like "they get paid while working less" and other red scare bullshit.
Which is just very weird, because railway unions in Europe are much stronger that they are in the US, and yet the stations there are far more well maintained than in the US.
@@ianhomerpura8937 largely because unions in the US have this problem of basically shooting themselves in the foot, leading to a feedback loop that companies take advantage of in their propaganda campaigns. Then again, given that the European unions weren't _machine gunned down_ at the first opportunity or _had a national guard try to roleplay WW1_ because of strikers defending themselves from illegal arrests...
I remember that after a major crash during a union strike, the union head _had the audacity_ to consider the injuries and deaths of said crash to further his strike...
You saved the essential point for the end - for people who are non-users, or extremely infrequent users (i.e. people who could become regular transit users), basic quality of life stuff has a huge impact on their attitude towards transit, both as a a recipient of public funds and as a personal transportation choice. Cleanliness, frequency, clear signage, good trip planning tools, etc. are all big factors. I'd love to see a video on systems that do this kind of thing very well.
Exactly, part of why people like cars is that as the owner/driver you control the comfort level. Cleanliness, other passengers, music, seat comfort, frequency, navigational aids are all under your control/selection so you can almost always ensure that it is a pleasant experience. (What isn't under your control are the conditions of the road including other drivers and a mutual unspoken agreement to not run into eachother, this is terrifying)
I personally think the best way to inprove all of these features for transit is to get local politicians to ride their own systems somewhat regularly. (I don't care if its spend 1 day a month treating it like an inspection or them trying to be a regular) When the ser first hand what the experience is, and know they have to experience that consistently while in office then they should become advocates for better transit quality of life features themselves. (Good luck forcing this on them though)
I think even more context was needed for the Boston situation since the FTA was breathing down their neck on multiple, multiple safety issues including risky escalator failures, a death on the Red Line as a man was caught in between doors couldn't free himself as the train left, and a lack of dispatch staff (20-24 hour shifts).
Yes, but that loops back to why things were so bad in the first place
After trying so hard to make plans work on DC transit frequency for the better part of 2 years, moving to NYC has really opened my eyes on just how limiting infrequent service is. I hope DC fixes its issues but right now I fear the worst for the future of DC metro
The only way it could get worse is if the 8000 series also goes belly up
What infrequent service? You are the 2 nd person laughingly embellishing the state of DCs metro. If you don't know, please cease with the half truths.
Take a visit to Tokyo and you'll be spoiled again. Highly redundant lines going all over the place, a 10 minute or less walk to the nearest station and trains running every few minutes all day long.
When the 7000s were running before the pandemic, I could say that the DC transit experience was superior to that of NYC. NYC smells worse, isn't maintained, isn't clean, is more crime infested, and houses more homeless than DC.
Atlanta is far from a transit mecca but I have noticed that almost every weekend they are single tracking, which sucks for frequency on the weekend, but means they are really concerned about maintenance and putting in the work on the network to avoid a major closure. The few times they've had to close a section completely, usually to work on a switch, they worked 24 hours, provided notice, and had decent bus bridges to connect the gap.
Well, what does MARTA stand for alternatively? That answers why.
The Washington DC issue sounds at first glance like an issue we had in London on the Jubilee line in 2020/21. In short, some cracks were found on structurally critical parts of the chassis- the coupler plates, which is how the couplers connect to the chassis. If a coupler plate breaks, the train splits in 2. They shut the Jubilee line down early one night, sent all trains to the depot for a check of all of their coupler plates, and only the known good ones were sent out. Some units had the cracks, but they weren't too bad, so were also sent out, but with intensive regimes for checks. I believe the issue has still not been entirely rectified, but if you go to a Jubilee line station today, you will find the line operating almost normally, with trains every 2-5 minutes with occasional 5-7 minute service gaps, rather than every 2-3 minutes consistently.
Public transit is the answer to so many problems. Thanks for using CZcams and your time to be part of the solution.
While I lived in Tokyo from 2007-2013, a section of the Odakyu-Odawara line was moved entirely underground. It took the entire six years I was there, but it was done without disrupting service even once. Even the final switch to the new underground tracks was done overnight without disrupting any trains, before the old overground tracks and stations were demolished.
Part of the reason it took so long was because Odakyu couldn't purchase any land next to the tracks, since it was all built on. They had to tunnel directly down underneath the existing tracks, all while still running the normal service, which is one of the busiest commuter lines in the world.
We aren't capable of doing that. No money in it.
The northern line closure was a ball-ache, but there are a couple of adjacent and semi-adjacent ways to get around that area on rails, so not a death blow to mobility. I would say detouring onto Thameslink to get into London Bridge probably put me 10 minutes behind maximum most days.
Exactly!
I have a feeling this will be another thing about the US not understanding transit systems.
Some people certainly do, but they don’t appear to be in leadership!
@@RMTransit it's not just that the leadership class with few exceptions doesn't understand mass transit, it's that they don't even *care* to understand the issue!
This is probably one of your best videos man, keep it up!
As a bostonion (i mostly use the red line, but still) i find this infuriating. The shuttle busses too that replaced the orange line are inconvenient and confusing.
What about shuttle buses on the red line on weekends when they prepare it for the winter? I hatted those
I currently live in Medford and work in Government Center and my weekday commute, even before the shutdown, is to take the 101 or 95 to Medford Square, then the 354 express bus to State. This generally takes 30 minutes, even with the horrendous morning traffic on 93 South. On weekends (I generally work Sunday through Thursday), my commute is the 95 or 101 to Sullivan and then the Orange Line (and you can guess what that has been like lately).
It’s funny you mention closing a major highway-they just closed the sumner tunnel (and it’s really important-so important that with it closed using transit to get to the airport may sometimes be faster than driving)
Good points all around. Something I think about a lot with Washington D.C.'s WMATA is that a lot of the decision makers don't seem to understand the system, who uses is, and what it's for. It was originally built in the 1970s, primarily as a means of getting government & government adjacent folks from the suburbs into the city. But Washington D.C. and its surrounding area has changed dramatically in the decades since. However, it's still treated like something used for 9 to 5 shift government workers. if you work in a coffee shop, or a bar, or a restaurant, you likely don't make enough money to live within the city limits, but you can't use the Metro to get to work early in the morning or late at night, because of limited service. If you work on the weekends, forget it. I worked on-site throughout the first two years of the pandemic, and I can tell you, the train still had a lot of people riding every day, because a hell of a lot of people who use is aren't working office jobs.
You add to that problems with system integration, where WMATA buses are scheduled to arrive at stations two minutes after the train leaves in the morning & only run once an hour, and the trains are running on 20 to 30 minute headways once you're out of the city core, and it became a real problem.
I'm lucky I left my job when I did, about a week before the 7000 fleet's removal. But my wife still has to deal with it, and it's a daily problem. She has to use rideshares a lot, because she can't rely on the trains or buses. And those costs add up.
We're constantly told that because folks are working from home, nobody is riding the train, but every time I've taken it in the last year, it's been full, and that's getting on at the end of the line.
If you live in NYC, despite the pandemic or the presence of uber, crime or whatever, then you understand the subway not even as a form of transit, but an extension of your own legs, it's like a reflex that you just depend on without question. All the naysayers fade into the background of the sheer practicality of it. There simply isn't a better way to get around a city that what a subway can provide. People just understand this, even while the may deny it. It's secretly the envy of every other city in the country, even San Francisco. The NYC subway is like an old friend or a brother whose presence is a constant comfort. If I want to get across town, I don't even wonder about the time it takes to get there or whether it's possible, I just assume I'm there already (without needing to concentrate on avoiding obstacles or keeping myself focused on the end), I'm just there. Boom. I'm in Ft. Tryon Park. Boom, I'm at the farthest point on Staten Island, Boom, I'm in the suburbs of Long Island or at airports in New Jersey or Brooklyn, Boom, I'm in Grand Central, Boom, I'm on the Appalachian Trail or at the Adirondack Mountains. When you leave the NYC area, you instantly detect the poverty, the nakedness of being without the subway.
Beautifully said. Most of N. America can't even dream of what NYC has, because they haven't experienced it.
This is the same with Tokyo and Japan in general. Trains here are like loading screens for fast travelling in a game.
Could not agree more. We live in Providence, but in both NYC and Boston a lot. The subway is NYC is a treasure, despite its shortcomings.
The Glasgow Subway was shut down for 3 years between 1977-1980 for a complete re-building. I think if that hadn't happened, it would be a lot less reliable now.
Needs expansion. A single loop is not enough.
@@hysterics8011 I mean new lines all around to cover most of Glasgow.
The thing that constantly screws the MBTA is the fact that for the past decade they’re trying to put a band aid on a stab wound. Decades of no investment and now they’re trying to both repair and expand the MBTA. I’ve ridden the T for 15 years now and shuttle buses shutdowns were the bane of my existence, especially when it seems like things aren’t getting better. I use to ride the Red Line every day and during rush hour I would always expect the line to partly shut down or delay it severely. As someone who is dependent on public transit, I would hope that this month long shutdown will greatly improve reliability but we’ve been down this road before and it always ends up the same. I’m glad you covered this, thank you! Very informative video.
Sadly things are not so bright in Europe either, funds will decrease for public transit and the economic crisis looming ahead won't help us maintain a regular order of service that Covid already broke.
_"Frail"_ as in weak and also _fail-rail..._ I like it.
I recently visited Salina, Ks. It has a population of 46,000 people and surprisingly had a great bus system with short buses showing up at least every 15 minutes with substantial ridership and nice bus stops. Amazing how they can get it right with so few resources but so many larger cities fall flat.
Salina has a good taxpayer base. The citizens actually pay taxes instead of just taking them as in major cities.
@@starventure its pretty obvious that with much less dense construction which makes utilities more expensive to provide, a less wealthy population and a manufacturing based economy, their budget per person is much lower than in a lot of these big cities. Economies of scale help a lot as well. All the chips are stacked against them and yet they punch above their weight class.
I will say that DC’s bus system is decent. Like with its metro though, it could benefit from increased frequency. As long as you’re not living in a single family housing zone, public transit can get you anywhere in the city (except the Lincoln memorial).
@@pizzajona i’m moving over there very soon. Definitely looking forward to it. There’s no intercity service out here so that’s gonna be the biggest upgrade.
@@pizzajona DC has a nice system, but the city has some fundamental issues that cause it to repell instead of attract.
You are spot on with this diagnosis. More train frequency is needed. We need Rapid Transit Mesh Networks in DC, Chicago, Boston, Philly, SF Bay Area, LA, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Baltimore & Cleveland without highway widenings. In this video, I gained an insight about the mono-culture danger of trainsets.
One of your best videos! I love seeing WMATA mentioned (even if not for the best reasons haha). They're slowly bringing more 7000 series cars back into service thankfully but I agree I wish they ran shorter trains at more regular intervals.
I'm just glad that people are finally mentioning just how bad the state of the MBTA is.--- I've had to ride the orange line for many, many years. Its unfathomable to believe they shut the system down, but part of me believes it was necessary given just how terrible the state of the system is. Its been ongoing for years, and ive tried tirelessly to publicize this issue--the state thinks they can continue neglecting the system, but with enough publicity and federal intervention, there's hope to saving it. Thank you RM Transit.
The Orange Line specifically has been neglected even more the rest of the T
@@counterfit5 There are so many reasons behind the orange line being less funded... and I think we all know what some of the biggest are (hint: racism)-- same goes with the state of the mattapan trolley too.
I disagree to the point of DC's trains being too big. Pre-pandemic, they would run 8-car trains every 7 mins/line and those would nearly completely fill up during rush hour, meaning that capacity was being used. The only reason it's not being used right now is the pandemic ridership dip. They also aren't able to increase frequencies to much greater than 7 mins because of interlining and bottlenecks(7 mins means that the central stations served by 3 lines get service every 2-3 mins) - which means that big trains was the only way to provide the capacity that they did before the pandemic. Having big trains also means they can accommodate additional demand as more transit oriented development projects are completed (many under construction along the silver line and blue/yellow line at Potomac yard) and as more things rebound.
And sure, it's easy to say, for the ridership we have today, the system is too big, but like most systems in the US, it wasn't built with a pandemic in mind.
The problem isn't how much the train is being used but in how often it runs. If you can run 6 cars every 4mins then it would be better in the long run as more people would use it and it would still carry the same number of people. With Transit frequency is king when it comes to ridership. Basicly he's saying that with smaller trains we would get high ridership numbers. With higher ridership numbers the governments would be more likely to invest more in transit.
@@MacPhal1 The issue with that is that until the recent 7000 series situation, metro was already operating at the highest frequency permissible by the track in most of the system. Increasing to 4 mins per line, at least for the Blue, Orange, Silver, Green, and Yellow lines would be impossible because of interlining and bottlenecks (the Red line was already at 4 min headways prepandemic). There's an article by greater greater Washington called, "Metro’s stuffed full at Rosslyn. What can be done?" that goes over this bottleneck issue in great detail if you want to learn more.
You actually demonstrated his point. a maximum frequency of 7 minutes is too much and in other places even systems with interlining offers a much better frequency. To do that you need to maintain and upgrade your system all the time and that's one of the problems of US systems, like in Boston and Washington.
In a good system bottlenecks are fixed, higher frequency is achieved by improving signaling systems and/or by avoiding interlining.
Yes, if you have a station served by 2-3 lines you will get higher frequency of trains but it won't help you if the other trains do not reach your destination as It can only increase frequency for the shared section.
@@AL5520 Yes, but then the problem is interlining and signaling, and not bigger trains. I agree with your points, the DC metro does have lots of issues with the system, I just don't think big trains are one of them.
Also, I would expect that if the system somehow got rid of interlining and fixed signaling issues to increase capacity, they could still fill trains at rush hour. After all, the red line, which had whole-line frequencies of 4 mins and no interlining was able to do this prepandemic. Bigger trains also make it more likely that people can get a seat at more times of day, which increases the attractiveness of the system. Given that the system is already there, a large train doesn't cost that much more to operate than a small one either, especially given that you have to pay operators for both (unless you had automatic train control but that's a whole other story, and you can make ATC work for big trains too)
Other systems having branching without limiting individual branches to 7 mins, could at least get down to 5-6 which is a substantial capacity increase, as would more doors, fully walk through trains, and more open space! I just think it’s false to suggest the trains couldn’t have been 6 cars for example.
Great video! Thank you for talking about this. I do have to jump in to say that you forgot some of the Green Line on your map! You've probably realized this by now, but you're only showing the D branch, and leaving out the B, C and E branches. Keep up the good work!
Thank you as always for the great video!
As frustrating as the radial nature of New York's system is, the criss-crossing of the radial lines provides a small amount of redundancy for at least some parts of those lines as well. I'm thinking of the somewhat recent major M and L shutdowns that seem similar in scope to the T's Orange Line shutdown.
Though circumferential transit that's actually good would be amazing.
As someone from the DC region this was a really nice explainer of the 7000 series train problem, thank you.
Thanks so much for your videos sir. I keep watching one after the other and forget to comment.
I think this also points to how important it is to have overlapping modes of transportation networks as additional means of emergency capacity. For example, Line T of the Link in Tacoma in the middle of connecting the extension to the main line, so Sound Transit currently has the line shut down (Aug 1 - Sept 16) but in its place a shuttle route was created to serve the same stations with no loss in frequency. Or whenever there is a major service disruption or maintenance on Line 1, Sound Transit usually utilizes its ST Express fleet to serve the disrupted portion of the line.
They've been doing some maintenance on the Seattle Link line for the last couple of weeks, and they did notify riders ahead starting in June. The entire line was still open, but was split into two parts: the northern half ran as normal, just not the full length of the line; and the southern half was single-tracked between a couple stops, and frequency was reduced (but not eliminated). It seemed like they planned well, and notified people well, and people could still get where they expected to go. They've got upcoming maintenance windows planned, with contingencies in place (bus bridges for closed rail segments, etc.) so that people can still rely on the transit system to get them to their destinations. Have to give big props to them for keeping us all in the loop.
Line 8 was split for most of the time while I was in Madrid. There was a shuttle from Nuevos Minsitrios to Columbia, but all Airport service had to get dumped on to Line 4 at Mar de Cristal, and then people would have to transfer to 6 or 9 (or 7 I guess for 10 southward-as you could go to Pinar and ML1 to Metro Norte destinations) at Avienda de America
I live near Boston, don't own a car, and take the orange line to get to work, so I can add a few points here. The funding aspect has been discussed in the pinned comment, so I won't mention that.
Point 1 is that the MBTA actually does have plans to increase frequencies. There were two points in buying new Orange and Red line cars - the fist is that the old cars are extremely old and needed to be replaced. But the second is that the new cars can be run at up to 4.5 minute peak frequencies because they use modern signaling technology. One benefit of the monthlong shutdown is that they will be able to test all of the new orange line cars, and phase out the old ones. Then once they have enough dispatchers, 4.5 minute frequency can begin. The MBTA is also redesigning the bus network to run every bus at minimum 15 minute frequencies all day.
Point 2 is that the 6 car trains are frequently full or nearly full at peak hours with 7 minute frequencies. Upgrading to 4.5 minute frequencies will help, but not enough that they can start running shorter trains.
Point 3 is that bus lanes are popping up everywhere lately, even before the shutdown. The Boston area has a ways to go to get people to switch to bikes and transit over cars, but I've lived here for 10 years and I see how things are changing. Every month there's a new bus lane, or a new protected bike lane. Cambridge and Somerville both have plans to create holistic bike lane networks. I walk around Cambridge regularly, and it really is creating the network (it should be complete enough to be comfortable for family use by 2025 or so). Even Boston itself is slowly building out its network. Despite the setbacks the MBTA has faced lately, we're broadly headed in the right direction. Finally, though I'm loathe to take politicians at their word, every single Democratic candidate for statewide office has a plan to improve the transit network (and Democrats almost always win statewide here - Charlie Baker is an exception, but that was Martha Coakley's fault). Maura Healey, the Democratic candidate for governor, has a many pronged plan to improve transit - including transforming the commuter rail into true regional rail (unfortunately the deadline for that one is 2040), electrifying it, and increasing transit frequencies on other bus networks in the state.
Tl;dr overall, the current situation sucks, and it's awful, but I don't think it's going to lead to a transit death spiral. It looks to me like we're headed in broadly the right direction.
A big part of the current problems with systems like DC and Boston are that they are all reaching their end of design life at the exact same time. DC Metro was built in the 70s and just like BART, everything was meant to last about 50 years. Boston is much older, but was upgraded to a "modern" metro system also in the 70s. Because everything is getting old at the same time they are breaking at the same time. It's actually the same situation with interstate highway infrastructure, which was all built to last 50-60 years.
I would love to see more videos on this!
You should definitely do a full video on Boston, we truly are one of the most disasterous systems in North America. Our problems are on a totally different level, a few months ago the ENTIRE downtown rail system got speed restricted to *under 15 mph* because they discovered so many safety issues on the tracks. Parts of Basically every single line has been shut down in some capacity on and off for 2 years. The orange line shutdown fixed next to nothing. A fare system upgrade that’s going on 5 years of work and a gigantic cost overrun that still hadn’t even begun a beta test. Crash after crash after crash. Bus fires. Shootings. Train fires. A debacle where maintence workers said they had finished repair work but hadn’t even started it. It’s like the NYC transit crisis that happened a few years ago but 5x worse
Another problem in Boston that the MBTA doesn't want to address is the Green Line. The subway is an obstacle course where under normal conditions, trains can make more stops between stations than at them. All it takes is one train in front of another. There are signals that will stop a train when you can see that the next one is green. The low floor cars require the operator to leave the cab to turn a key to extend a ramp when a wheelchair passenger gets on or off. The single level junctions at Copley and Fenway can delay trains in both directions when an outbound train has to cross the inbound track. Trains also have to creep over switches. The excuse: it's the oldest subway in the country and they can't do anything about it.
the green line genuinely needs multiple tracks in each direction underground the train spacing during rush hour is absolutely awful.
Dang, I was just on vacation to Boston. The blue line was my favorite, but I made sure to ride every line at least once and now I’m sad to hear they’re cutting it in half
I would be interested in seeing more videos about frail transit. After living near the northern end of the MBTA Orange Line in Malden, MA for two years, we had another shutdown on the northern half of the line for several weeks from March 2021 due to one of the new trains derailing near Wellington station. I cannot imagine living there now with the whole line shut down though. It would have made my commute to work unbearable. Living in Chicago now and hoping something similar does not happen here since I am at the mercy of a similar radial system and live quite far north on the Red Line. The only advantage is that Metra commuter rail also has a station in my neighborhood and that runs relatively frequent headways of 15 minutes for the AM and PM rush hours on the days I need to commute downtown for work. We also have a decent 147 express bus that runs down Lake Shore Drive to The Loop.
When I lived in Chicago for almost 3yrs there red line never broke down ever - or brown line, no delays, shut downs of lines, the CTA seems very efficient- maintained compared to Bostons waste f transit system that are always breaking down, constantly in disrepair, brutally inefficient, and run into the ground by the waste libtard, marxist politicians.
Now, you've covered the Montreal REM before -- and I'm curious to hear your opinion on the impact that automation might have on the future of transit. It would maybe be an interesting question to ask how the labour shortages might be the cause of the low-frequency transit offering.
Excellent video! Please more videos on frail transit! Thanks.
Frequency is so important! when you have infrequent transit you plan your day around it and likely show up to the station/busstop in good time. however when transet is frequent you dont even look at a time table you just show up and dont have to wait too long and even if you miss your train or bus you only have to wait 10-15 min maybe even shorter (2 min with the CPH metro)
This is why delays on infrequent service are that much more debilitating. A train that runs once every half hour or hour, and that shows up 20 minutes late, is pretty much useless as a way of getting around. People will just go get the car (which they still must own because the system is far, far from allowing people to go without)
A discouraging but necessary video. Thanks for your excellent analysis and for being such a stalwart advocate, Reece.🌟
12:55 and the same way that Quebec City’s tram is perpetually being threatened yet that useless, expensive highway tunnel is being pushed forward… whilst the existing bridges and highways crumble. I’m not optimistic…
I live in eastern Naples (Italy) and our local railway network (the circumvesuviana railway) has kinda the same problems: it's a radial network (all lines start from Naples), some lines get randomly shut down with just one day of notice (or even just a few hours, in the worst cases), there's a station that floods every time it rains, causing an entire line to shut down, delays and cancellations are communicated on a telegram channel almost nobody knows (sometimes hours after the event), and they also increased the ticket price as of 08/01/22 (or 01/08/22 if you are non-american).
Also, there's a shortage of operators, and the few of them left are forced to work extra hours. When they decide to stand up, many lines are shut down as a consequence. The only line that is always operative is the one to Sorrento, because is used by tourists to reach Pompeii.
Is that a One Meter gauge rail line?
I think I remember smaller than normal width tracks going to
Pompeii.
@@josephpadula2283 yes! 950 mm gauge to be exact!
One that rail line you can
”Torna A Surriento”?
Sorry It is Sorrento!
Apologies to Pavarotti.
Mi dispiace,
Giuseppe Padula
I’m a Mbta Greenline operator. Also one major thing to note, well at least in MA. The way the Law is set up, The Mbta also has to go with the lowest bidder. So a lot of the equipment is sub par
It's also really hard to build your life around transit in the US because the real estate surrounding it is SO DANM expensive.
Hey Reece you should do a video on the TTC's interlining experiment waaaaay back in the day. I think it'd be a good way of highlighting the issues with radial networks.
You could get some sweet footage of those "NEXT TRAIN KENNEDY" signs that haven't flipped in ages
Hey Reece, I don't know if you take video suggestions these days but if you do I would love to see a video focusing on bus services and their relationship with major highways.
I have such a video :) czcams.com/video/Fu5HId5R6EQ/video.html
I appreciate your focus on mass transit systems. Future posts on other aspects would get my attention. There is so much I don't know about these systems, which I would prefer to use if reliably available. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and use BART When it makes sense. Changes in the train cars resulting from new equipment coming on line has caused some controversy, but been well accepted overall. Greater frequency of trains on the routes would be greatly appreciated.
I think this is your most subtle, and ironically your most convincing, argument for redundancy in transit. I love this video.
I’m also going to keep ribbing you about using the word “less” when you should be using the word “fewer.” 😉
That’s why for better or for worse Toronto does quite well, our network is getting less and less radial with all the new EW lines!
Great concept of "frail transit". Would love to see a 5 most frail transit systems *and* a 5 most resilient metro systems video!
You could do a major metro area population cutoff too to limit the possibilities a bit - something like 2+ million metro areas in the EU / AUS / NZ (Copenhagen+), 4+ million metro areas in North America (Seattle / Montreal+), and 5+ million metro areas in East Asia (Fukuoka+)?
8:35 On Twitter, you can easily find people telling WMATA and their new general manager to run 4-car trains. All our trains, including the 7000 Series, can run as 4-car trains. However, while this would bring the necessary capacity for the finally-soon-to-open silver line extension, it would increase congestion on the blue/orange/silver core from the temporary New Carrolton-bound blue line trains.
I lived in Madrid during a time that the 50 oldest metro stations were all closed for reconstruction. The bus service in lieu was amazing.
Great video RM! I'd like to also comment on the 'more vehicles for operating lines' point you made. Having more vehicles, like you said, is much better than just one type, but it requires more maintenance facilities that most transit networks aren't willing to spend money on. Say for instance you have a model of train from Stadler and another from Bombardier. You need to have two separate part pools to maintain those trains. Another thing is that if enough vehicles are ordered, there is really no need to cut service down like Boston did. Take Dallas, with its fleet of 163 Light Rail Vehicles built by Kinkisharyo. 'Half' of the fleet (101-175) have different propulsion systems than the other 'half' (176-263), so if problems are found on the older vehicles, there is enough of the newer vehicles to bolster the frequencies that DART wants (10 mins at rush hour, 20 mins on off-peak(should really be increased!)), while still keeping maintenance costs low because they are fundamentally the same train, just built at different times. Again, a very informative video and one that I enjoyed!
As someone who lives in America I think part of the problem is that theirs actually this idea that transit should pay for itself. That even if they don't make up all the operating costs fairs should still make up the lion share of them. Which is weird because we don't expect for roads to be paid for dominantly by the toles, which just include those because those who use a service more play a bigger part in heling to maintain it, not be the sources of its maintenance. This is at least partly leads to the heavy focus on austerity that you mentioned which is a source of a lot of the problems. And part of the reason that people are making such a big deal about the drop in pandemic ridership. For systems that depend so much on the use of fairs, even a somewhat decreased use in the system cuts into budges, which cuts into services, which then off course can itself decrease ridership.
As you said in your introduction in this video, we in Madrid (Spain) currently have 6 stations in our circular line being closed for repairments, from July 30th to September 10th, but four of the six could be reached from other lines, so it simply means a bit of inconvenience not being able to "close the circle". Anyway, a *HUGE* special reinforcement of *FREE* buses every 5 minutes, was set up if you really needed to traverse through that path. I don't know if that's being done in Boston, if so many people are complaining in the comments below. We in Madrid have 12 subway lines and 250 bus lines with 2000 coaches active at a time inside the city, but cannot see subway lines in a *MESH* scheme in Boston. Bad design flaws are prone to a single point of failure.
DC metro is finally going back to frequent service this year, with most trains running every 10 minutes or better on individual branches at all times. That said, the Yellow line shutdown has been a complete mess. If you thought shutting down a line for a month was bad, imagine that for 7 months. Even though no stations are closed, the detour adds an additional 10 minutes, not including the extra transfers you have to make, to your trip.
NYC has frequent shutdowns or service changes on nights or weekends.
I plan trips during workdays.
As someone from DC who uses the metro all the time, I’ve only noticed it getting bad on the weekends where instead of the the normal 5-7 mins it’s 10 and I live in a part that they’ve given us 3+ months notice of parts of the line shutting down, not to mention working with the local commuter service, VRE, in order to make it as seem less as possible. When Metro shuts down they’re actually providing us with other options, are there delays and some transfers, yes, but they do what they can and do it well
I have no idea what exactly happened in DC but if the rolling stock might be potentially dangerous you really have no other choice but to scale down service until issues are solved. Better safe than a major accident.
The 7000 series cars have issues where the wheels can derail. WMATA knew about the issue early on but didn’t consider it a threat until multiple derailments. Because the 7000 series is such a large portion of the fleet, headways had to be reduced.
They are trying to solve the problem, but it’s complicated. WMATA still hasn’t found out what the chief cause of it is, but the agency has found a way to inspect for it. However, these inspections must be done manually and they do not have the workers necessary to bring more than a handful of the 7000 series back online. Recently, they proposed an automatic inspection system which should bring much more of the fleet back. I believe the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) is currently reviewing the plans since they have to sign off on issues with the 7000 series and the previous plan was to do all these inspections manually.
Going forward, it looks like we’ll get some but not all the 7000 series trains back. Right now, DC is relying on trains as old as the 2000 series manufactured in the early 1980s. In 2024, the 8000 series should be introduced which should help out the system a lot.
In a lot of fields success is the compound effect of marginally better decisions, and you do a great job of explaining how marginally worse decisions interact to make things a lot worse.
This is a very eloquent way of putting it, small things add up, for better or for worse!
@@RMTransit thanks. Have you thought about doing some videos specifically on TOD, and what’s good and bad practice, and maybe how NA, Asia and Europe compare. When you look at a lot of NA transit it’s looks sorely in need of density after-the-fact to get ridership.
Great video as always but this one was even geekier (thank you). My son now also follows you (the apple not falling far from the tree?).
Interesting points. To some extent it is about ambition & scale though and that the larger networks can have circumferential lines that enable travelers to jump to another line that is approximately parallel. London has the Circle line and the Overground fulfils a similar role. Tokyo's E line seems to do something similar along with several other lines that are C or L shaped with multiple interchanges along the route where crossing to another nearby line seems to be possible. In Glasgow, they build the circle line and then forgot to build the radial bits ! Even a relatively unambitious C shaped relief line close to the city that joined up all the Transit and commuter lines would make things easier for MBTA passengers.
A circle or half loop line isn’t just about the transit experience. Boston is a polycentric city. The transit system is designed to serve a monocentric city in an era where downtown office commutes are demphasized.
A circle of half loop line would have enormous network effects for the transit system while directly serving medical centers, universities, dense inner city neighborhoods, the airport, and entertainment districts - giving Boston a transit system befitting of a polycentric city.
Subway systems require constant maintenance to keep them in good and safe working order. They fail to maintain them due to a lack of funds and get a big backlog of overdue maintenance
Nice shot of Farringdon Station, which I used for many years.
I’m a foreign student in Madrid, it’s impressive how different people’s lifes here are thanks to reliable public transportation. My friends have been navigating the city through metro and buses since they had a conscience and without parent supervision . When you’re out with friends and want to go somewhere y’all inmediatly start walking towards the nearest bus or metro stop (which are always no more than 10 minutes away walking).
MBTA's situation is exactly what happened to MTA Maryland's subway system. It shut down for a month, luckily it didn't get to the point of rail arcing, fires or derailment. It was a devastating time since it is the only subway line in Maryland. A ride for people that would usually only take 29 minutes end to end would take triple that time as the line has a lot of feeder routes and due to how the roads are set up and station configuration it would take over 90 minutes for a bus to visit or go near each station the line served.
Luckily for me, I no longer lived in the area where I needed the subway for daily travel. It was a huge headache and despite the closure to fix issues, there is consistent track maintenance almost every week where either half of the line is shut down completely for a few days. Not only that but the states only light rail line has an operator shortage right now meaning that it runs every 15 minutes during rush hour on the trunk line, every 30 minutes on branch lines with service suspended on the 3rd branch and have a map on the schedule for people to walk from the main line to the 3rd branch's terminus. In extreme cases, now happening more often, a train on a branch line would not show up for 70-115 minutes! Ant this train ends at one of the busiest airports on the east cost.
I loved the video clip the the Montreal metro; fascinating video. Yes, I would prefer more frequency than larger stations. Convenience, timeliness, safety, and utility are the most important aspects of mass transit. Clean spacious stations are nice but I would rather spend my time in transit.
Singapore is the best example of public transport that I have ever come across. One method of paying on both trains and buses, excellent frequency, about every 6 minutes for buses and around 2 minutes for trains at peak hours, extremely clean and convenient no matter where you live in the country.
2:12 “The idea that [your transit agency] would just shut down a major transit artery for a MONTH…”
Auckland: *Hold my ginger beer*
We just got an announcement that during the next two years various train lines will be closed for periods of months. One of them for 9 months.
Superb analysis. As I am considering moving to a city with better transit, I've been thinking about this, which seems like a fatal flaw with high capacity transit. Road systems don't seem to break the way that a transit system can, because there are so many alternative roads. I am a huge fan of transit, but I have balked at being reliant on transit and thought that maybe car reliance is better.
I had lived in DC for years but was able to move away and work full time remote (not for WMATA). In my first visit back to the office I was disappointed by the decline in metro service. Between the older trains and decreased number of trains it was definitely annoying (and the yellow line bridge from the airport was closed). I do have to say that from what I remember of commutes from the before times there was a massive drop in ridership and it almost felt like an appropriate level of service? Maybe it is just because I moved to a city that has 30 minute headways on their "bus rapid transit" system, and we should expect better in general. Either way despite it's massive flaws WMATA continues to make it feasible to move around the city without a car.
I've been coming up with a master plan to improve the subway in New York. PEDs, CBTC, ATS, ADA, all that good stuff.
@Lighthouse in the Storm what do you mean?
@Lighthouse in the Storm no
Performance enhancing drugs?
@@eriklakeland3857 no
@@collectivelyimprovingtrans2460 what are PEDs then?
i live in the DC area. the star structure is awful, because it requires you to go into the city and back out to get somewhere that would be so much shorter by car, and the buses in these surrounding areas are slowed down by all that car traffic. apparently its never going to get better on the metro rail, but i wish they would at least put together some intercounty light rail in northern virginia.
Moved from DC area to Chicago earlier this year and am very happily living car free here. CTA runs a really great system compared to other US cities, but I do worry about the aging elevated structures on the brown/purple/red line becoming an issue in the future since all 3 depend on that artery for at least part of their journey. We also desperately need a line that forms a half circle connecting multiple lines at points that aren’t in the loop. Think Wrigley/Lakeview, Logan Square, Humboldt Park, Lawndale/Pilsen, Washington Park/Hyde Park or a route similar to that. I see a large number of people, especially on the west side, choosing to Uber places instead of taking transit (even when they live relatively close to a stop) because it takes too long to go all the way to the loop and then go north or south from there.
The Brown, Purple, Red, Blue, and Pink lines all have rebuilds recently completed or currently underway. If Chicago has done one thing right, it is keeping up on maintenance. On the other hand, system expansion has been nearly nil. That is unfortunate for multiple reasons. The CTA competes with the south Lakefront Metra Electric instead of integrating fares and feeding buses to it. A north Lakefront line was long ago projected to be profitable (replacing many express buses). Finally, as noted, a crosstown line (along Ashland Ave) could connect the Brown, Blue, Green, Pink, and Orange Lines and would be a major improvement.
You should see the situation on the S5 in Frankfurt, Germany. In january a lorry hit a bridge and the service was severly reduced and it is not possible to drive it without getting angry. The bridge should have been repaired a while ago but they say there are difficulties in steel delivery. So the bridge is not repaired yet and it still needs a while. This situation is similar to that in the USA, because I don’t understand why you don’t prioritize this important line like you would priorititize an Autobahn. I’m sure it would have been possible to repair one bridge in less then two months instead of more then half a year.
This is another great video and I really appreciate you continuing to harp on the issue of frequency over capacity for these metro lines. I hadn't even really considered the fact that metro lines were running bigger trains at lower frequencies, so that while they had the same capacity technically, they were worse overall service. It's amazing to me how this simple point seems to be missed by many transit operators in the US.
I also thought your point about having too many of the same train model can actually be a big negative for systems, because you can reduce system resilience. I think many in the US are too focused on efficiency and don't understand that higher efficiency = less resilience, but hopefully the pandemic will bring some change to that train of thought.
One minor disagreement I have with your comment on funding, though. You state that transit agencies spend plenty of money on transit, but tend to get less value for the money. I agree, but I think that's missing the actual issue. The issue is not that we don't overpay for transit, it's that we don't value maintenance and operations budgets as much as capital budgets. It makes sense, big capital projects get a lot of press, so they make transit agencies and politicians look good, but if maintenance and operations budgets are cut at the same time, you get what we're seeing now with MBTA.
In my nearby city of Cleveland, OH, we recently had to shut down one of our lines for over 2 years (!) without any warning due to a major safety issue. The only bit of good news is that the line was not very heavily used and was less than 2 miles long, but still definitely not reliable.
Infrastructure is not being prioritized in the US, from drinking water to highway bridges to railway anything.
It really sounds like a lot of this just boils down to an utter lack of respect for transit riders. Just like you said, they shut transit down with little regard for people who might depend on it. Like they don't consider those people worthy of respect.
Something like this (closing with barely any notice period) wouldn't happen to said major highway, because in the US, drivers are respected and driving is considered a first class mode of transportation. Transit... isn't. And if the people who offer transit don't even consider it a first class mode of transportation, obviously the population wouldn't either. It's just a nice to have for those dirty poors, but more importantly it gets them of the way of our nice shiny automobiles.
Thank you for highlighting frequency of service as a foundational element of good transit. Long and inconsistent wait times are a huge reason people lose the habit of relying on transit and buying cars.
I'm always surprised how passionately you talk about Transportation:-)The Lego Krokodil on your Shelf looks great.
Minor correction: The Stockholm Metro you showed has included some planned extensions. E.g., the blue line does not split in the south yet.
Indeed!
@@RMTransit Every time a train line is shutdown in Stockholm rail replacement bus service is offered instead. It is often not as fast nor reliant as in normal case but it gives that alternative for people to still use transit during the shutdown. Highways with only transit lanes could be a way to make the busses more competitive too. Btw the longest closure in Stockholm right now is on Saltsjöbanan (train) where the inner city end station will be closed for 11 years due to some new construction including a new blown out bus terminal.
Here in LA planners frequently UNDERESTIMATE ridership and the infrastructure is often I’ll equipped for it. For example, the Expo Line hit its 2030 ridership 13 years early, and a new light rail line connecting to it is opening this year AND stations are adding lots of new housing and offices. We also have a HUGE bus driver shortage, making it harder for riders to connect to our small but growing subway system.
Why is LA using light rail instead of expanding its metro?
@@pizzajona LA Metro is setup with a board based on regions of LA, not ridership. It's expected each region gets their own project and the same funding, regardless of density and existing transit usage. To spread more projects across the county, they prefer light rail over subway.
Hello, Boston metro resident here. What happened with the shutdowns Green Line Extension and Orange Line are the result of policies of both former mayor Marty Walsh and current mayor Michelle Wu not doing enough to fund the MBTA to solve key issues and instead give that money over to bike lane infrastructure projects in a city that doesn't have enough metro and commuter service lines, as well enough money to maintain the usability of the current lines in harsh climates, to justify such a move. That's not even taking into account how preposterous the decision was given the terrain of Boston as well as how car dependent the city is becoming due to more and more shutdowns of important lines. What makes this even worse is how current Mayor Wu has implemented a fare free system for MBTA bus routes, further robbing the service from being able to have the funds to properly function and maintain the lines it needs to maintain. The biggest casualty being the Ashmont-Mattapan line which needs an infrastructure upgrade to two important bridges on the route so that the line can run old Type 9 LRTs on the route instead of the 1940s era PCC cars and not cause the bridges to collapse due to the weight requirement. I understand that I may be alone here among your viewers when it comes to being against bike lane service, but the problems with lack of funds to the MBTA directly stem from choosing to prioritize bike service over rail service among other things. You ask any other Boston resident, they will tell you that the prioritization of bikes over necessary upgrades to the MBTA is pushing them to drive their cars more out of being fed up.
I wonder whether it is possible to do some evaluation or video that focuses on the maintenance of different systems, i.e. maintenance expenditure per mile, or some reasonable base value like that. What do we the public know about such data, and do we know enough that it is possible to compare - let's say between one Asian city and one EU city and a city like Boston?
Thanks for sharing