Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 10hIt's funny how NIMBYism is such a religious conviction for some people that developers will just say this worldwide without fear of repercussion. 721450
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 10/10/2026I do like that they're the same population except sweden which is 2X the other 3. (We don't need to think about Iceland) 260
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 07/10/2026lmao the Brenner base tunnel is gonna be bi-voltage, because why not? 4230
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 07/10/2026I think it always strikes people in the transportation business as surprising, but a lot of people travel very little. In England last year about 3/4 of people took a rail trips less than once a month and about 2/5ths didn't take a rail trip at all last year. 020
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Three rights of way all faster between Chicago and the twin cities than the train is today. 2150
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026“I inflicted a set of choices on myself, and I want to inflict them on others!” 020
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026I mean the comparison with Japan however you slice it is going to be unfavorable (in 67 it was 22 million!) But the basic conclusion "lack of political will" seems bang on accurate. 140
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Looks like Lula is going to hit his polling almost spot on (45% in the last Datafolha), Flavio looks like he'll outperform his by 5 points. Como se diz "shy Tory" em Português 3366
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026it's a very nice piece of infrastructure 4-tracks, with grade separated approaches for each of the ring and radial elements. 030
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 04/10/2026There will be a second round according to the Folha de São Paulo 180
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 04/10/2026To me at least this fight between a leftist lawyer who presumably drives everywhere because he lives in the middle of nowhere New Mexico, and a self described "moderate" who walks and takes the metro is an endlessly amusing contrast. 1111
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Side note: without tunneling the airport really fucked it lol. That curve is insane. It's like a 10 mph curve. 150
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 03/10/2026The financial position has gotten much better in the last decade (even before the gambling.) There was so much theft and incompetence happening that even a little bit of professionalism let the Brasileirão drain the entirety of South America's other leagues for talent. L 020
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 03/10/2026I think you can fly to Tokyo and not NYC right now. Just a weird airport. 360
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 02/10/2026For example this traffic signal not all that far from Joey could probably be replaced with pedestrian islands and maybe a pedestrian signal, but instead the light spends 45 seconds “green” to allow through traffic into a building’s driveway and so people can left turn onto Connecticut. 020
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I think this case has convinced me less. This claim in particular strikes as particularly odd. The RER A's busiest branch was purpose built, while metro lines taking over rail lines (too many to count frankly). 100
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Not my area of expertise but this language seems like it might. Not sure about related things like 106 and 4(f) which I think also feature changes 110
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Don’t want to call anyone out, but this sentiment is, if not ubiquitous, common in mass transit advocacy, but I think is just inaccurate. Everyone crooned over Josh Shapiro after he “fixed” I-95, but USA highway departments have shown a total inability to deal with complex structure issues. 4232
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 30/09/2026The Serra das Arraras is the single reason Brazil gave up on passenger trains between Rio and São Paulo, as it's a massive climb of around an 8% grade if you attack it directly. Worse yet, you never go back down. Meanwhile the road manages to be far more direct and is being upgraded right now. 1141
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 30/09/2026The only established truth is that the new tunnels will come in south of the new ones. This means they will be able to serve the current terminal platforms as well as extant east river tunnels 1 and 2. This map from our study accurately sums up the currently funded state of things. 1131
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Looks like a very achievable profile over the 9 km. Cuts Oslo-Arvika from to around 110 km so saves you 65 km easy. Given that the average speed is around 92 kph over that stretch that's 40 minutes of time savings with no increase in average trip speed. 120
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 29/09/2026For example this initial quarter of the line would probably be in a tunnel for less than 1/3 150
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Ok talk me out of this It looks like a High Speed bypass from saves 70 km and something like 1.5 hours between Stockholm and Oslo. Feels like something the countries should be looking at, or is the geography just totally impossible even for the Norwegian tunnelers? 3121
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Switzerland has had a much more modest road building program, has its two largest cities well over 250 km apart instead of 60 km, and in general is much better at public transit coordination and integration. Like look at these highway interchanges. Switzerland doesn't have that road network. 360
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 28/09/2026These lists probably should have some sort of modifier for "my countries geography sucks" (Finland and Norway), but it's probably the best "crude" method for judging rail usage. 1170
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Germany is quite a strong performer globally! (note: south Korea should probably be several places higher, and Japan's lead larger) 4211
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 27/09/2026If wikipedia is correct, this basically means every train sells every seat at least once. This is very impressive! 3292
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Given the financing regime his career occurred under, I think he was correct to regard fierce fiscal discipline to being absolutely essential requirement for project development. Of course the picture has radically changed since the 90s. Investment in real terms is much higher today than the 70s. 1200
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Just saw this @garethdennis.uk post on twitter dot com, and think it’s valuable to remember the vastly different contexts that exist today compared to when Donald Heath was put in charge of the ECML electrification project 2403
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 26/09/2026hmmm. I heard that DC owned them, but it seems like you may be right. But also since the feds technically own "everything" in dc.... 120
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 25/09/2026In a normal country this would be the location of the new london Airport. 110
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Would love for someone to acknowledge that in NYC Amtrak already has these powers in a more extreme form than proposed for addition to the surface transportation reauthorization in NYC thanks to use 49 24902 (j) which lets amtrak basically build whatever it wants on the NEC. 2160
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 22/09/2026One of the oddest things I've ever seen, an at grade railroad (newly constructed), next to a grade separated cycle path. 5664
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 21/09/2026your first statement is just pretty obviously not true. This station sees dozens of departures and hour into the evening with a level crossing. 230
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Like this is everything within half a mile and thus roughly a ten minute walk of the Foggy bottom station, tons of it is also served by I-66. There are important destinations in southern Foggy Bottom not covered by this, and to my understanding the Fed and State department both run shuttles to Foggy 140
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 20/09/2026To give a DC example where I agree with Stephen's principles, I would happily replace the southwest freeway with a 4 lane tunnel to match the extant 395 tunnel. East of the tunnel 695 is sorta a highway to nowhere so what should we do with it is interesting. 210
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 20/09/2026For example this alignment saves ~3 miles (about 35% of the current alignment) and probably would be less disruptive to construct since you'd do it all via tunneling. 151
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 20/09/2026If you look Friedrichstrasse isn't a particularly good place to construct such a chord. You have to deal with two other north south tunnels (U-6, and the S-Bahn), one of which is going to branch off right around where you're going to want to branch off your tunnel. 110
Nilo @nilo.bsky.social · 20/09/2026I probably should have included how elegant the station is. There are intercity platforms below, oriented North-South; the visible commuter platforms above, oriented East-West; and a freight bypass (a high line) to the west of the station. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Ph... 4440
