Philly215jawns

Have they considered expanding MARC? For me, I think a few things should be no-brainers to start: 1) Build a line from Baltimore to Frederick going thru Ellicott City, Catonsville, and then mostly parallel I-70 along the way. 2) New line first connecting Baltimore to Annapolis and then to DC maybe. 3) Extend the Penn Line to Newark, DE to link up w/ SEPTA and this would bring back rail to Elkton. 4) Weekend service on all lines - run smaller trains if ridership is lower. 5) Electrification of system? 6) Link together Penn & Camden stations and have through-routing. And maybe if MARC can get more funding and they're willing to do it, Maryland's Eastern Shore could use some rail, esp. places like Salisbury or Ocean City. You can run limited services if cost is an issue.

Do they have to use that specific ROW or can they build tracks elsewhere?

So could they rebuild that station? Downtown Detroit seems missing a major multi-modal transit hub. Add that to the already existing New Center station and MCS and you'd have 3 major train stations for Detroit's central area.

Now with the RenCen being redeveloped, do you think they can build some towers along Detroit's riverfront? Also, I just have a thought that the new space from the demolished buildings could be used for a transit hub and commuter rail station.

Couldn't they at least built something that looks nice? Bronx needs to get rid of its ghetto image and prove it's a nice place to live.

Actually thinking about it, Seattle should've made expansion plans for the monorail when it was first built so they would get a Skytrain-like system before Vancouver did and be further ahead in transit today instead of having to build a costly light rail system from scratch.

This might sound far-fetched but I thought the Red Line could be expanded and turned into a multi-line hybrid metro/commuter rail system. It already looks more like a commuter rail as it uses overhead lines instead of 3rd rail. Also, could they build a commuter line to Akron and other nearby cities?

Maybe you know more about it than I do, but Seattle should expand the monorail to make it a legit transit line instead of an amusement ride.

No offense, but Boston is lame and boring compared to Philly. One block of Philly is more vibrant than the entire city of Boston, if you can even call it a city rather than a glorified college town.

Not my idea, but I do agree with this video making a case for Philadelphia having the best transit system in the US. Feel free to argue but Philly's SEPTA is the gold standard for all transit agencies as it has been problem free for so long and not riddle with wasteful spending and half-assed and inefficient expansion projects way over budget like we've seen with NYC.

I wonder if mrnyc's jealous about Philly stealing New York's limelight lately. Philly is probably the only major city that right now is more vibrant than pre-Covid while other cities are struggling with bringing people and businesses back and having their downtowns ruined by looting and homelessness. While Philly this summer just cleaned every street in the city with the new mayor's agressive plan to make the city the best in the US and a paragon of good urbanism.

I'm curious about Chicago as the city keeps putting up big projects and building like heck but population continues to drop. So who's occupying the new buildings and are they hiding something because there isn't intense widespread decay throughout the city? Even the south and west sides look more intact than the other Rust Belt cities and while there are rough looking 'hoods it's not apocalyptic or anything.

The 2026 World Cup really messed up and missed a big epic chance of NOT giving Philly the final. We're the only city to have a direct subway connection to the stadium from the city center and also only city to have a walkable path all the way from City Hall to the Linc. Imagine a parade down Broad St. as a lead up to the final match.

I wish they would stop building on Manhattan and preserve all the historic architecture. They can instead fill up the other boroughs, especially Long Island City and Downtown Brooklyn or Williamsburg and turn them into vibrant places on par with Manhattan.

Cincinnati seems to have a stronger economy and has population growth and a denser urban form (at least downtown and OTR) than Cleveland, so why did Cleveland build rail and not Cincinnati? There should be serious plans for a light rail system in Cincinnati because the city and surroundings definitely need it and with the success of the streetcar ridership there are certainly people that will ride it. Could they do something similar to St. Louis and get Kentucky involved so the rail system would also serve Covington, Newport, etc.?

They should do it for the subway too. It generates some more revenue and corporate ads look better than graffiti tagged trains.

I'm just curious why Cincy isn't serious about building a proper light rail system. The city is similar in feel to Pittsburgh which has built a light rail and unlike PGH Cincy's urban fabric is more seamless as it doesn't have 2 rivers cutting through the city limits (Covington isn't part of the city, but I think it should be connected by rail in the future anyway).

I wonder why they opened the middle in the first place instead of just turning it into 1 square. Having busses go around it isn't a big hassle, is it?

Seeing the Public Square do you think it would be better if they just made it into a true square and close the middle even for busses?

I'll bump the thread, not sorry. The problem with SEPTA is it's severely underfunded by a state that hates Philly and had been run by the GOP until recently. Imagine if SEPTA had the funding NYC, Chicago, Boston, DC. etc. gets it would blow the rest of the country out of the water in transit quality. Sometimes I think the state of PA and rest of the country are secretly jealous of Philly's greatness and want to undermine it so they can feel better. SEPTA with proper funding can be as good as Europe and much better than NYC's MTA or even Toronto. We have the ONLY through-running commuter rail system that can easily turn into an S-Bahn or RER but SEPTA doesn't have the money or planning acumen to do so. And the Market Frankford El probably has the best non-peak frequencies in the country (if there's another line that's better please enlighten us).

I'm curious about what a rebuilt Hill District would look like. P-burgh should have a seamless urban fabric from downtown to Oakland and that one can walk between them uninterrupted. Then they should extend the T light rail to Oakland and maybe Shadyside.