Cameron on Transportation
Dudaweyll Dietmar Rabich

Faster Trains Are More Dangerous Trains, and When They Have a Lot of Railroad Crossings …

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Much has been written in praise of Brightline, the modern, stylish privately owned railroad serving Miami to West Palm Beach to Orlando with fast, comfortable trains. But the railroad also has the highest death rate of any railroad in the U.S., having killed 108 people since it began operations in 2017 — not its passengers but people crossing the railroad’s tracks. Last week alone at one grade crossing in Melbourne, Florida there were two accidents causing three deaths in as many days. Those “accidents” are under investigation by the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board. But all indications are these deaths, like the others, were caused by stupidity: people driving around the crossing gates that lower before the train roars through.

Cameron on Transportation
Brightline railroad train

Comparing a Shiny Florida Railroad to the Gritty Metro-North: Prepare To Be (Mostly) Envious

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The railroad world is abuzz with the opening of the new Brightline high speed rail service to Orlando, an extension of that private railroad’s existing train service down Florida’s east coast to Miami. This is really big news. The $5 billion expansion to Orlando was privately financed but with generous tax exempt bonds the railroad will have to pay back. Still, this is the first for-profit passenger railroad in the U.S. in forty years. How does Brightline compare with Metro-North?

Cameron on Railroads 2023
Commuters Riders at GCT Grand Central Terminal

Service Cuts and Higher Ticket Prices on Connecticut Trains — It’s a Done Deal

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How’s this for a double-whammy? The Connecticut Department of Transportation is proposing a cut in train and bus service while also raising fares — just as I predicted months ago. Blame both plans on Covid and what it did to ridership, still down about 30% on Metro-North compared with 2019 — but climbing, day by day. On Shore Line East, CDOT’s railroad from New Haven to New London, the ridership is down 68% from pre-Covid numbers. Low ridership like that, says CDOT, is unsustainable.

Opinion
Strike possible on Metro-North

Unions and Transportation Go Together Like a Horse and Carriage — Sometimes Good, Sometimes Not

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In perhaps no industry other than transportation does organized labor have so much power. And those unions are getting aggressive in their demands. The 340,000 members of the Teamsters who work for UPS are now voting on a new contract giving them better wages and working conditions. Under the union’s proposal, those big brown delivery trucks would finally get air conditioning, essential in such a strenuous job in an era of global warming. Less lucky were the 22,000 Teamsters who worked for 99-year-old Yellow Trucking.

Talking Transportation 2023
Essex Steam Train

Where You Can Find Out About Connecticut’s Railroad Heritage — and Have a Fun Trip with the Kids

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If you’re looking for family fun this summer, consider visiting one of Connecticut’s many living museums celebrating our state’s rail heritage. The Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven was founded in 1945 and now boasts more than one hundred trolley cars in its collection. It’s on the National Registry of Historic Places and is the oldest continuously operating trolley line in the U.S., still running excursion trolleys for a three-mile run on tracks once used by The Connecticut Company for its “F Line” from New Haven to Branford. You can also walk through the car barns and watch volunteers painstakingly restoring the old cars. There’s also a small museum exhibit and gift shop.

Cameron on Railroads 2023
IEEE.org old illustration vacuum transportation

Elon Musk’s Other Transportation Project

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Whatever happened to Elon Musk’s hyperloop? It’s hard to believe but this summer marks 10 years since the billionaire inventor first unveiled the idea for passenger pods riding like maglev trains inside giant tubes in a near vacuum. So it’s time to see how his vision of this super-fast transportation system is coming along. Spoiler alert: it’s not doing so great. History
First off, Musk was not the first person to suggest tube-like trains running in a vacuum.

Cameron on Railroads 2023

When Metro-North Let Riders Get Beaten by the Heat

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As summer arrives I’m reminded of one of Metro-North’s greatest “fails” of all time, recounted in this column I wrote days after it happened …

Friday July 22, 2011 was the hottest day I can ever remember. The pavement in Manhattan was 147 degrees, and I could tell that my commute home was going to be awful. Luckily, I wasn’t on the 1:34 p.m. train to New Haven. Three cars on that train lacked good air conditioning, so the remaining cars were standing room only. Just past the Westport station, an aging pantograph snared the overhead catenary (power) line, sagging in the heat, and the train lost power.

Talking Transportation 2022
Anise Hyssop White Coneflower

Beautified Train Stations Make for a Better Train Trip — and Could Help Housing Sales a Bit

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Every train journey, whether a cross-country adventure on Amtrak or a mundane daily commute on Metro-North, starts with the same thing: a train station. Consider Grand Central (Terminal, not Station). The architecture is so rich, the spaces so varied, that any time spent in this cathedral to transportation is time well spent. You can have a sit-down meal or grab a beer and a sandwich, pick up a newspaper, or a new iPhone — it’s all there. GCT is clean (mostly), well patrolled and filled with people, each giving the others a shared sense of safety and community.

Cameron on Transportation
Amtrak train crash

It Can Happen on Trains: ‘We Were Crashing. The Sound of My Own Scream is the Last Thing I Remember’

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When we get on an airplane we buckle up, read the safety card and are given a demonstration on the oxygen masks and emergency exits. Those things can save lives should something go wrong. But when we get on a train, either Metro-North or Amtrak, we settle into our seat and zone out. We assume we’re safe. That’s what passengers on an Amtrak train in Missouri thought this past week… until their train’s locomotive hit a dump truck on an unguarded private grade crossing and derailed.

Cameron on Transportation
SCMAGLEV at Yamanashi Maglev Line Facility in Japan

If Maglev Trains Come Here Your Commute Could Be Very Quick — or Very Far: Cameron on Transportation

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Imagine going from New York City to Washington, D.C. in one hour — not by plane, but by maglev. By comparison, today the same trip from the LaGuardia to DC’s Reagan airport takes about 90 minutes by air (not counting getting to and from the airports) and costs $276 one way. On Amtrak’s Acela, the fastest run, downtown to downtown, is three hours and costs $157. Or you could take the bus for $30, assuming you have 4½ hours to waste. A maglev is a train, of sorts, that floats on a cushion of air, suspended and propelled along a special track quite different from conventional railroads.

Cameron on Transportation
Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

In Praise of Oz Griebel, Who Successfully Pushed the State to Get M8 Rail Cars: Cameron on Transportation

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Every commuter on Metro-North owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to one man: Oz Griebel. He is the reason we can ride the new M8 rail cars. Much has been written since Oz’s passing (at age 71) recently from an auto accident while jogging, especially about his two unsuccessful runs for governor. I remember distinctly in the debates with Bob Stefanowski and Ned Lamont how Griebel would take off his suit jacket, roll up his sleeves and jump into the fray. His energy and passion were electrifying.

Opinion
East Side Access Project Grand Central Terminal side

Cameron on Transportation: CT Commuters to Get Screwed by New LIRR Station Below Grand Central

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We all know what happened when Boston decided to bury its downtown elevated interstate highway, known as the Central Artery. What was intended to be a seven-year, $2.6 billion project ended up taking a decade and costing $14.6 billion. Head’s up: New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority — the parent company of Metro-North — has similar designs for our beloved Grand Central. Nicknamed the East Side Access project, the goal is to bring some Long Island Rail Road trains into Grand Central. The plan would use the lower level of the already built 63rd Street subway tunnel, allowing some LIRR trains from Queens to enter Manhattan and then follow a new, very deep tunnel under existing Metro-North tracks beneath Park Avenue.

Opinion
Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

Arguably the Most Famous Train in American History: Cameron on Transportation

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The 20th Century Limited was arguably the most famous train in American history, running between Grand Central Terminal and Chicago, offering the finest in accommodations and services for 65 years. The first of these trains ran in 1902, making the journey in 20 hours, four hours faster than before. By 1905, the running time was reduced to 18 hours. The operator, New York Central Railroad, offered each passenger $1 per hour for any delays because it was so confident in its on-time performance. That was when a one-way fare was about $50 for a sleeping section.