Lakeshore Rail Alliance

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We are leaving Facebook. Please join us on BlueSky, LinkedIn, Mastodon, or, for the time being, Threads.Despite being active here for more than two years, engagement has barely grown compared to other platforms. In addition, this and other Meta platforms are about to be flooded with even more fake AI. We are getting more return on our efforts on other platforms, so we will stop posting here effective immediately. http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/meta-ai-users-facebook-instagram-1235221430/

Facebook and Instagram to Unleash AI-Generated 'Users' No One Asked For Meta says it will integrate AI-generated characters into Facebook and Instagram with their own user accounts.

It's not just the US where cars are increasingly unaffordable and smaller, more economical models unavailable. This is deliberate by the auto industry. High-quality options to the car keys can make car ownership truly optional and save households a lot of money. LEGALIZE TRANSPORTATION FREEDOM.

Britain’s car market is a complete disaster In which the nation's most average driver tries to buy a new car and realises we’re all poor now.

Neither FDOT or Amtrak are innocent here. Million$ spent and 27 years of negotiations. NY-Miami trains won't be serving Miami International Airport. We need major passenger rail policy reform and must get beyond the Amtrak model for providing service.

Amtrak derails decades of deals to serve Miami International Airport Amtrak, now eight years late pulling its first train into a station built to its specifications at Miami International Airport, has finally set a firm arrival date: never. In a short letter, the National Railroad Passenger

We recommend this podcast interview with Joshua Dominic, one of the co-founders of Dreamstar Lines, which is aiming to start a SoCal-San Fran night train in early 2026. We're rooting for Dreamstar Lines

Critical Mass Business Talk Show: Ric Franzi Interviews Joshua Dominic, Co-Founder & CEO of Dreamstar Lines (Episode 1557) | Critical Mass Business Talk Show | Orange County’s Longest-Running Business Talk Show Joshua Dominic is the Co-Founder & CEO of Dreamstar Lines, the premier overnight sleeper train service in North America. Joshua co-founded Dreamstar after experiencing the significant shortfalls in today’s travel and realizing other countries had a working solution, but one needing further dev...

And 1962 is already paired down from 1940.

Comparing the U.S. Passenger Rail Network 1962 vs. 2005

I can attest. Once my former job allowed work from home 3 days/wk, my mood improved. My family is also happier vacationing in places that are walkable and have good transit:

How extreme car dependency is driving Americans to unhappiness A car is often essential in the US but while owning a vehicle is better than not for life satisfaction, a study has found, having to drive too much sends happiness plummeting

The expense of car ownership is straining US households. The shotgun marriage between Americans and cars needs to go. Legalize transportation freedom. Make it so car ownership is truly a choice by providing viable options to the car keys.

Friday's Headlines Are Going Broke — Streetsblog USA Car ownership is a huge expense, especially for low-income U.S. households, which spend a third of their pre-tax paychecks on transportation, new federal stats show.

As frustrating as this is, it's a symptom of a bigger issue: this country's failure to create a viable, robust national passenger rail program supported by money in a dedicated trust fund (like highways enjoy) necessary to build it. Passenger trains need their own tracks, whether it is separate tracks within existing rail rights-of-way, within unused portions of highway rights-of-way (where feasible), or dedicated passenger-only rights-of-way.

Class I railroads see red over Amtrak’s views on passenger train preference - Trains WASHINGTON — Class I railroads this week disagreed with Amtrak’s contention that its passenger trains should enjoy absolute and unlimited priority over freight trains. Amtrak, as part of its complaint over Union Pacific’s handling of the Sunset Limited, told the Surface Transportation Board ea...

Amtrak ridership, revenue soar. People want trains:

Amtrak Ridership, Revenues Roar Into FY25 | Rail Passengers Association Amtrak’s financials seem to be off to a roaring start in the early months of Fiscal 2025, with ridership and revenues at least double year-ago levels in all three Amtrak business lines – Northeast Corridor, State-Supported, and Long-Distance.

In 2023 Europe had 399 grade crossing accidents. In the US, we had 2,192. Why? Europe has eliminated most of its grade crossings. We need to take rail safety measures like grade crossing elimination more seriously here.

Pecos TX train wreck 12/18/24 Watch as a freight train crashes into a semi truck triggering major accident and derailment that partially collapses a nearby building 📌 l ...

Amtrak makes our jobs as advocates more difficult when they allow this kind of thing to happen. VIA Rail Canada isn't having these issues with their LD fleet order. Perhaps Amtrak should go to single-level equipment and do a joint order with VIA. It would save both companies money

Amtrak Inspector General report: Long-distance fleet order delayed as carbuilders balk - Trains WASHINGTON—Despite responses from prospective manufacturers indicating already-published concepts for replacing bilevel Superliners would be difficult to execute, Amtrak management moved ahead with requests that carbuilders subsequently rejected. The result has been a seven-month delay in issuing ...

While a step in the right direction and we will support it; it falls short of what is really needed to transform our rail system. Link to bill text in page below:

Sen. Markey, Rep. Deluzio Introduce Legislation to Transform U.S. Rail Network | U.S. Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts New All Aboard Act would make $200 billion investment in rail Bill Text (PDF) | One Pager (PDF) |...

"Our results show that beyond a certain point, increases in car dependence yield a decrease in people’s satisfaction with life."

www.sciencedirect.com

While the U.S. continues to have a 3rd rate passenger rail system, here's what's being offered in eastern Europe: LTG Link Christmas train operating through January 9th. This is not a tourist train. We'll never get this kind of variety of service in the US until we completely re-think passenger rail policy and get past the Amtrak model for providing service:
https://ltglink.lt/en/christmas-trains

This isn't the result of gov't policies. It's geology. Over the past 160 yrs, we've found and exploited the cheap, easy oil in the U.S.0 For the past 20 yrs, we've been relying on expensive, more difficult-to-extract oil to keep production up and growing. The problem is, the difficult oil can't sustain growing production for as long as the cheap, easy stuff did. Our transportation system is geared for cheap oil. Those days are over, and we've ignored multiple warnings since the early 1970s about our oil dependence.

US Oil Production Is Slowing, The Ramifications Will Be Significant While we are probably close to a bottom in oil prices, I will become more confident of this once crack spreads stabilise and confirm a pick-up in demand.

Ohioans want passenger rail.

Passenger Rail Advocacy Trip "So I just want the residents and the businesses to know that this is about Hamilton. This is about our future. This is about the future growth of our city."...