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British Columbia already has permanent DST.

CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Modern concrete structures are bulky in comparison, require thicker supports than the steel bents of existing structures (taking up more sidewalk or bike lane space), and would block even more light from street level. They don't work well unless the road is so wide it has a median strip.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

They need to be consolidated, not closed outright; one of those stops alone could not handle the passenger loads of both or be made ADA-compliant due to space constraints. The existing exits are close enough that a new set of (wider) platforms between them could be built and made ADA-accessible.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

They also forget that this is will be an important transfer location should SAS Phase 3 get built. At this point they ought to build the transfer mezzanine (i.e. an underpass for now) and the station exits at 14th and 2nd now, which would save time and money later on.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Paper transfers are still issued for those paying directly on board the bus with exact change. That is being phased out by the end of the year or so, but until then drivers still issue transfers (which are really single-use paper MetroCards) for these riders.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Pass products are actually supported by the system already from a technical standpoint, just not sold. TAPP is a nearly identical system from the same manufacturer (Cubic) and it supports passes right out of the box. Other systems from Cubic all support passes as well.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The system itself supports unlimited passes. NYCT refuses to actually offer them because they insist that it is unfair to poor people to offer to charge ~$135 upfront in one go for a monthly pass instead of making everyone pay per ride up to the weekly fare cap.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

These buses generally only come out during rush hours or as spares anyways. Sending out operable buses with broken trackers or signage is avoided but is an inevitability unless trips are to be dropped; both of these are QoL issues compared to stranding passengers by cancelling runs.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

It does not make financial sense to retrofit equipment whose replacements are actively being built and arriving on property. New buses come with new trackers factory-installed, so they'd be spending a significant sum on electronics that would immediately get thrown out and become e-waste.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It'd be a dead end at this point, between NJT's lack of success with them and its fleet standardization push. The current hybrid motorcoaches are 2016 models and at present no more than 11 of the 37 of them are operable, far less by percentage than the CNG and diesel ones of similar age.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

NJT has ordered some, to disappointing results. Pilot orders of hybrid transit buses and motorcoaches in the early '00s never resulted in actual orders, and the only significant order of them (courtesy of some grant money) has largely been pulled from service early due to chronic mechanical issues.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The existing Oradell garage floods during storms and was not built to hold modern 45' motorcoaches. Without new garage space NJT would have had to cut service to fit the longer buses, and Rockland Coaches had just vacated Westwood when this became an immediate issue in 2022.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Most consumable public services require some payment at point of service. Public utilities are not free, nor is sending mail. Countries with universal healthcare still have hospital and perscription bills, they're just reasonable. The Soviet Union still had (cheap) rent for its guaranteed housing.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The free bus pilots in NYC did not result in unique new riders or any mode shift from cars. The vast majority of observed new trips were people who already ride the bus taking really short trips within walking distance. Kansas City had to reinstate fares to cover for cost increases.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This is not historically accurate. Streetcars/interurbans had fares and were profitable in their own right. They were not built for the purpose of load management. Mention of fares and discounted commuter tickets are right here in these 1928 Pacific Electric timetables. bsky.app/profile/alex...

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Buses are available two long blocks to the west at JFK Boulevard & 10th Street.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

If this were actually true the opex portions of the public financial reports of most major transit agencies nationwide would have to be wholly fabricated.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The difference is that he actually believed it was a genuine policy solution, as opposed to using it as a buzzword. He pitched it, the MTA pointed out that its decent farebox ratio means that backfilling lost fare revenue equals less net service, so he pivoted to the viable half of "Fast and Free".

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

He did, but as mayor has more or less dropped the idea in the face of actual budget realities in order to focus on making buses faster and more frequent (e.g. creating busways and stop improvements).

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The vast majority of riders do not care about arbitrary standards, only tangible improvement. The new trainsets get hype because they're the first serious investment in years, and come as plans for improved intercity service nationwide using them continue to build momentum and come to fruition.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The system is only guaranteed to be 85% accurate largely due to older buses slated for retirement within 1-2 years still using old trackers (and some of these having broken trackers but otherwise being operable, running without tracking), but they ignore it because they want NJT starved of funding.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

We get defensive because as things stand, attempts at external benchmarking largely come from Republicans who want projects dead and services cut. NJ Senate Republicans want NJT's funding cut because the new bus tracking system doesn't have near-100% guaranteed accuracy like Amazon package tracking.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

These are the lead members of a large class of trainsets intended to improve intercity service nationwide, featuring better amenities than previous generations of rolling stock. This is not the bare minimum and hype is to be expected.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

About half of them. The balance were several stations on the Oyster Bay, Greenport, and Montauk branches, which is largely responsible for the weird stop spacing on the East End.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Raising platforms is largely trivial. The problem is that you also need to provide full ADA access as part of that, which is most often not. The MTA lucked out by raising platforms in the electric zone pre-ADA; post-ADA many LIRR diesel stops were closed instead of raising platforms to save money.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I, for one, welcome the prospect of SuperCamden.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

This would be against the electrical code in most of North America. You are not supposed to wire bootleg grounds to external objects that are not dedicated grounding rods. This also can interfere with signals, if the track is signalized.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

It's impossible to predict what ridership will be without a draft schedule available. However, considering how bad Lakeland's postpandemic service is and what it ran before, there is good ridership potential with any decent service level. Traffic on Routes 15 and 23 can get real bad.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

About 150,000 (17th out of 21). This is more than Salem or Cape May counties, both of which actually have decent transit service, as well as Hunterdon and Warren counties, which have mediocre but usable service. Salem (the least populous) even has its own NJT local bus route.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Andover in particular is the IOS of a larger project, namely to Scranton, that would also serve Blairstown. It is in NJ's interest to get the tunnel done now, as later project work on the second phase is more trivial. Did I mention the station is in walking distance of Andover?

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Sussex County has by far the least transit service of all 21 counties. Improved bus services are not an option as Lakeland firmly claims the area and refuses to either run more service or let NJT take over, so rail expansion is the only option (and the NYS&W will not let NJT run on its rails).

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The challenge with that is that it's not in NJ's interest to subsidize more SEPTA service. NJT already has two services (the 409 and River Line) that make more or less the same trip as the Trenton Line, both with comparable end-to-end travel times while also serving NJ along the way.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The US is extra unusual in this regard as the territories have zero voting representation in the federal government. Other common-law federal nations have representation for territories (albeit apportioned differently from states), so all citizens have full voting rights at all levels.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Original constitutional design in of itself is not a good argument to keep the status quo; the US is unusual in treating this as almost sacred. Virtually every other federal country has its capital as an entity that is not a state but otherwise has representation and powers similar to one.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

This is not correct. An electric locomotive will accelerate faster than an identically-weighted and -rated diesel as short-duration power availability is higher with an external power source, absent any restrictions on power draw. Dual-modes are notably quicker in electric mode than diesel mode.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

That would be an incredible own goal. Expelling countries from the UN has the side effect of of rendering them not bound by any treaties for which the UN is the depositary, giving them free reign to throw customary international law out the window. You thus would have over a hundred "rouge states".

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

One other related alerts issue: The ex-DeCamp routes (101, 102, 105, and 109) still don't get the PABT-wide alerts sent out whenever there's a problem in the Lincoln Tunnel (etc.), while all other routes running out of there do get them. Could this be looked into, for consistency?

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I've seen "preservationists" argue against ADA compliance at a train station on the grounds that having disabled access in any form is not historically accurate.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

They already have the data (the station departure screens at some stops do display them if appliciable, including at Newark, and Trenton has a separate arrivals board, but these screens are a separate frontend), so hopefully they could translate this data to DepartureVision.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

QLine is unusual among Obama streetcars (but like Kansas City) in that its IOS is intended to connect the downtown core with the rail station well outside walking distance. These types of services tend to perform well compared to downtown circulators.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I prefer DepartureVision, as it's functionally a virtual departure board (and used at some stations as such). Side note, it would be appreciated if MyLightRail in the future could show all upcoming scheduled departures like DepartureVision instead of just the vehicles that are out like MyBus.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

That's more or less my point. Some people are better off with a weekly, some with a monthly. OMNY is weird by refusing to support anything other than PAYGO with a fare cap, considering that TAPP and FARE-PAY have loadable products. I'm on the fence about annuals because they're horribly inflexible.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The most important takeaway from these renders are threefold: High platforms instead of the previous low ones, no barrow crossings, and having the platforms inside subway fare control instead of a separate POP area (which makes access much more convenient at some transfer stops).

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

This only worked because a combination of them returning leased buses after letting inspections lapse, termination of busy but unprofitable local routes they owned, and a bankruptcy court letting them unilaterally terminate contracts so they could consolidate 3 garages into 1 and sell the other 2.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The stickers are being used because conquestors keep stealing the sign rolls to resell to collectors. It's not worth the expense to replace them so long as theft is a problem.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The only place I've actually seen intentional ridership reduction have been NJ private commuter buses, cutting local services to the bone/"suspending" them and rerouting others to force most riders to use park-and-rides in order to reduce the number of buses and drivers by ~45% and sell off garages.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

This doesn't pencil out at the scale the MTA operates. Fixed costs of infrastructure maintenance and providing service at all are high enough relative to variable/labor costs there's not much gained financially in creeping service cuts versus actually increasing ridership.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

It isn't, but with a monthly pass expenses can be staggered so transit passes come from the paycheck(s) not going towards rent. Forcing transit to be paid on a weekly basis with no monthly option guarantees that transit has to be paid for the same week rent is due.

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CapTengu @captengu.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

You're not getting 30+ story towers further out outside of actual edge cities like New Brunswick, but 6 stories are commonplace anywhere allowed and more urbanized areas easily see 10+.

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