Cameron on Transportation

You Can Still Ride the World’s First Cog Railway in New Hampshire: Cameron on Transportation

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New England is home to many railroad “firsts,” but none is more impressive than the Mount Washington Cog Railway, the world’s first cog rail line. And it’s still running, at a profit, 152 years late, using some of the original equipment. Unlike most railroads, “The Cog” doesn’t pull its coaches along a relatively flat line with flanged wheels on two parallel tracks. A cog railroad’s locomotive directly connects its gears to a center rack of iron teeth, pushing the train up the mountain very slowly, but surely. On a normal railroad the train can handle a 2% grade (or climb) at best.

Cameron on Transportation
Jim Cameron

Government Agencies Ignoring Our Safety — Two Glaring Examples: Cameron on Transportation

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What do Metro-North and the Merritt Parkway have in common, I mean, aside from often crawling at a snail’s pace? Well, both seem to be hotbeds of unenforced safety rules. Anybody who has driven the parkway knows that its 1930s design cannot accommodate trucks, but they are there all the time. Tom Lombardo, a fellow board member on the Merritt Parkway Conservancy, recently conducted an unscientific survey to quantify the problem. In a single hour one weekday morning he logged 212 trucks, buses and commercial vehicles traveling in both directions on the highway.

Cameron on Transportation
Jim Cameron

Lots of Work Needed to Keep the New Haven Line Running: Cameron on Transportation

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In 1955 a New Haven Railroad commuter train could run non-stop for the 36-mile distance from Stamford to Grand Central in 48 minutes. Today that Stamford-to-NYC run takes 59 minutes at best, despite Governor Lamont’s long-promised dream of a 30-minute trip time. But now there’s a new effort to speed up the New Haven line: CDOT’s ambitious “Time for CT” $8-to-10-billion plan. It promises 10-minute faster running times from New Haven to New York City by next year and a 25-minute quicker run by 2035. While some dream of a new high speed rail system running from Washington to Boston at 200+ mph speeds, CDOT and Metro-North are taking, in my view, a much more realistic approach to fixing our existing system.

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

Biden’s Infrastructure Proposals Have a Months-Long ‘Journey’ Ahead: Cameron on Transportation

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Hurrah! It’s finally “infrastructure week” in Washington. In his first 100 days as President, Joe Biden has delivered a plan that his predecessor just kept teasing us with for four years: a complete rehabilitation and expansion of the nation’s infrastructure. Of course, Biden’s “American Jobs Act” goes way beyond just rebuilding roads, bridges and rails. It also covers our water supply, electrical grid, internet, sea and airports, our housing stock and our very jobs.

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

Here’s What Metro-North Customers Say Would Keep Them Riding (in an Unscientific Survey): Cameron on Transportation

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How are we going to get riders back on the trains and save Metro-North from ballooning deficits, potential service cuts or fare hikes? That’s the question I crowd-sourced on social media last week and found dozens of great answers! Most respondents said they won’t be commuting as much as before because they will continue working from home. It’s not that they are shunning the rails out of fear, just that commuting won’t be necessary. “Most of us have figured out how to work without riding a train every day,” one rider opined.

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

All Aboard for Budget Fantasyland: Cameron on Transportation

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The Governor’s proposed biennial budget for transportation just doesn’t add up. Thanks to reduced rail ridership, he’s projecting cost savings in the CDOT budget of $82 million over the next two years but promises no further cuts in service beyond those already taken during the pandemic. But how does that jibe with Metro-North parent MTA’s projected $8 billion operating deficit through 2024? Even pre-pandemic when ridership was at record highs, Metro-North still lost money. And taxpayers made up the difference.

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

Vastly Inflated Construction Costs Are No Way to Run a Railroad: Cameron on Transportation

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Why is transportation construction so expensive in our area? What kind of honor was it when New York City recently surpassed Zurich (one of the most expensive cities in the world) as No. 1 on the most-expensive-place-to-do-underground-construction dishonor roll? The highly respected Regional Plan Association has studied that question and offers some explanations and frightening examples. Focusing on three recent MTA mega-projects in New York City — the Second Avenue Subway, the No.

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.

Opinion
Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

Commuters are NOT Coming Back. A New Train Riding Era Now Begins: Cameron on Transportation

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I have one belated prediction for the new year and you’re not going to like it: After we all get vaccinated and things “return to normal,” regular weekday commuters on Metro-North will not be coming back as hoped. Why should they? Who wants to spend $400-plus a month and waste two-plus hours each day, five days a week riding a train into New York City if you don’t have to? If this pandemic has shown us anything it’s that going to an office isn’t necessary to doing our jobs. Sure, there are some people who have to show up in person to do their work (healthcare staffers, auto mechanics etc.), but that’s never been the bulk of Metro-North’s ridership.