thus passes the city of brotherly love
DelDOT officials have confirmed what many suspected when Interstate 495 was closed late Monday after an inspection: shifting support pillars have left the Christina River Bridge unsafe to drive on, and the bridge will remain closed indefinitely until major repairs are complete. That means Interstate 495, the main highway link between Southeast Pennsylvania and points …
Continue reading “Carmageddon Delaware: I-495 bridge to be closed “for weeks”.”
Devin Turner, Friend of the Blog, is up with an article on this old city about the promise of transit-oriented development (TOD) along the Haddon Avenue corridor in South Jersey, and why DRPA should be looking to redevelop its massive parking lots along the PATCO line. But something Devin glossed over (because it’s old hat …
Part 3 of a 3 part series. Last time, before I got sick, I explored the various ways in which state investment could improve rail service between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. But even an optimistic projection of funding for new trainsets and track upgrades couldn’t bring PHL-PGH trip times much below six hours. Six hours is …
Continue reading “The night time is the right time – Pittsburgh by sleeper”
Sorry to everyone still waiting on Part III of the Pittsburgh Trilogy, but I’m currently fighting off Mutant Death Plague, on liquids and bedrest, and not very good at writing or analytical thinking. Meanwhile, there’s too much news today to let it all go past without mentioning. Inga Saffron, the Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Architecture Critic and …
Part 2 of a 3 part series. So, the question I posed yesterday was, “How can intercity rail help fix the mess that is travel between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia today?” The key to implementing any program of improvement to the Keystone West line (the term of art for trains that continue west of Harrisburg), will …
Continue reading “The iron road to the Steel City: Keystone West”
Part 1 of a 3 part series. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh would probably be inextricably linked together even if history hadn’t lumped them together into the same state. As it stands, though, we have a lot more than an ugly blue flag and a bunch of corrupted mountebanks in Harrisburg in common. Both cities fell hard …
Continue reading “Two cities separated by a common everything: Pittsburgh and Philadelphia”
Shortly after my update on the state of play went up last night, TWU 234 president Willie Brown came out of the negotiation session saying that a deal for a short-term, two-year contract was “close”. Talks are scheduled to resume this morning at 11:00. In terms of an actual contract deal, I’m taking an “I’ll …
Continue reading “Strike Watch remains in effect, but resolution may be close”
Conditions are favorable for the development of negotiation breakdown capable of producing a strike. If deadlock has either produced a strike or radar has indicated intense walkout activity, then a Strike Warning will be issued. With City Transit Division contracts expired, and Suburban Transit Division contracts expiring Monday, this blog rates the probability of a …
Continue reading “STRIKE WATCH: SEPTA City and Suburban Transit”
Tying a few recent threads together, there have been a lot of jokes on the internet in the wake of the recent derailment of a CTA Blue Line train at O’Hare Airport station in Chicago. But of course, as Eric Jaffe pointed out in The Atlantic Cities, we have the luxury of laughing because the …
Good morning everyone. I’ve got this post set to go up early this morning, because I have two really big, really important asks on your time today that really need to go together. So I’m setting the timer early so you have plenty of time to watch, read, and process. The first is this video …
Continue reading “Longform Sunday: Freedom vs. the Opposite of Freedom”
Sic Transit Philadelphia 