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The BRTA bus he wanted to take from the railhead to his destinations was canceled all day due to not enough drivers. Creating an even more irregular shuttle route on top is not going to fix that problem.

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What kind of destination are you thinking of here? The examples in the article are Block Island and the Berkshires, both of which have pretty good seasonal transit service on paper already, but as described in the article it's super unreliable.

The article describes how there's actually a pretty decent system on paper already, it's just super unreliable.

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But the roads probably also aren't sized for the peak demand weeks, so the bus will be stuck in traffic, and there's not necessarily room to reasonably stripe a lane for it.

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Even aside from the externalities that's a lot less capacity. And don't forget the left turns onto Bowery needed between Canal and the Willimasburg Bridge in either direction.

Doesn't sit on such high-value land, doesn't mix them as much with Manhattan-bound traffic, half the air pollution blows out to sea.

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Yeah, that's circuitious but it seems better than trucks on Canal St. I would guess that currently more trucks go via the BQE & Verrazano than via Canal St, but if they are using Canal St then separately they should be encouraged to stop doing that. Or do you mean via the Deegan & GWB?

It's also usually cheaper than rebuilding the freeway, which in theory could free up money for better things elsewhere, though I think rarely does in practice.

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It might be worse but be worth it because it's easier to further downsize (in part because of the political consequences of the ways that it's worse). I'm not really a fan of such accelerationist strategies but I suspect some advocating for boulevard replacements have such considerations in mind.

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lexande @lexande.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Sure but the question is how to get trucks from Queens (particularly the industrial areas around Newtown Creek) to the Verrazano, NJ and points south. The Belt Parkway is honestly a better route for this than sending them through downtown Brooklyn but it would need to allow trucks.

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Is it viable to allow trucks on the Belt Parkway?

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lexande @lexande.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

It's a potential path of incremental improvement, right? First replace the freeway with a wide boulevard, then narrow the boulevard, then traffic-calm the narrower boulevard and add bike and transit lanes.

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BWI the runways and taxiways already essentially reach the rail line, I think the answer there is to build a replacement terminal and apron at that end. EWR is harder though there's something to be said for expanding the apron to reach the rail line there too.

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"Can't" is relative. AMS, ARN, BER, BRU, CAN, GMP, HEL, OSL, PER, SHA, & ZRH (plus others I'm not thinking of) all have purpose-built tunnels to enable thru-running mainline trains to stop at their main terminal cluster. Many others have purpose-built mainline branches to a single terminal cluster.

I think actual best practice (as seen e.g. at AMS though I could give dozens of other examples) is a single arrival terminal cluster adjacent to both the apron and the rail line, with any other circulation happening airside.

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There needs to be a way to get your bags between terminals without you no matter how the people mover is configured. bsky.app/profile/lexa...

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And you need a solution for getting passengers' bags between terminals separately from the passengers anyway because passengers are often connecting between flights at different terminals!

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Much of the point of security is to screen for objects that are allowed in checked bags (e.g. knives). If you can retrieve them while still inside security and then board another flight or pass them to another passenger then that breaks the whole model.

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Name a single rail-accessible airport in the EU where access isn't better than at EWR.

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The "landside monorail to a sealed middle-of-nowhere transfer station" idea is also bad. Sometimes it's hard to do better with the rails and runways you've got but it's still not a pattern followed by airports with actually good transit access.

Yeah the walks from train to terminal at IAD, MDW and SEA are notably schleps. (Though not outdoor, there's a pedestrian tunnel under the parking lot at IAD.) But we're still talking less than 500m, it's not unusual to have to schlep that far on foot *within* the airport however you arrive.

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If I wanted to take a bus I'd take a bus. The question was about rail links, not buses.

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Only runs every 30 minutes.

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The shuttles spend a lot of time stuck in traffic on the terminal roads, I don't think this is comparable to a direct train at all.

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Only runs every 30 minutes.

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Only runs every 30 minutes.

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Baltimore light rail comes right to the BWI terminal. It only runs every 30 minutes but MARC is even worse on that score.

Only runs every 30 minutes.

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The light rail only runs every 30 minutes to BWI, and MARC is even worse.

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Only runs every 30 minutes.

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Full list of US airports with direct terminal-to-downtown trains running at least every 20 minutes during the day: ATL CLE DCA DEN IAD DFW MDW MSP ORD PDX SEA SFO SLC STL

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It's possible to walk from the airport all the way to Cambridge too, I've done it, pretty sure that doesn't count for this question though.

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Silver Line regularly gets stuck in I-90 tunnel traffic, don't embarrass yourself by pretending it's anything like a train. It's also not "logical direct route to downtown", it literally crosses itself; you can save time by getting off at one stop, going downstairs, & getting the bus ahead of yours.

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Only runs every 30 minutes.

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Boston doesn't have a train at all! Enjoy being stuck in traffic in the Ted Williams Tunnel.

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lexande @lexande.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

The AirTrain is slow and cramped and now doesn't even reach all the terminals, and then you have to wait for NJT commuter rail with half hour schedule gaps. I usually prefer the 62 bus to Newark Penn and then PATH.

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You also need dispatching so you don't get three buses leaving the start of the route at the same time.

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lexande @lexande.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I'm on my way to Coimbra right now and have resigned myself to just finding out when I get there exactly how much of MetroMondego is running.

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lexande @lexande.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I recall some similar issues when only one of the Boston green line extension branches had opened? (Also before that, Science Park and Lechmere were shown normally during their multi-year closure.)

lexande @lexande.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I noticed this week that Porto's metro maps all show the under construction Metro line G without any indication that it's not open yet, but at least in that case you'll notice that the station isn't there before you wind up waiting for a train that won't come until next year.