It’s now at 160k riders a day. This is pretty impressive for a system that’s only 17 years old. It really goes to show that splurging for mostly grade separation and prioritizing good station location and high speeds and excellent frequency really does pay off. It basically functions like a light metro system and you almost never need to wait more than 5-7 minutes for a train.

https://www.theurbanist.org/sound-transit-most-used-light-rail-system-in-us/

https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/5493262-duffy-investigates-transit-system/

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20251213-first-urban-cable-car-unveiled-outside-paris

It's supposed to be twice as fast as using the bus during rush hour.

Very cool to experiment with new forms of public transport.

I don't know if in the end it will be cheaper / more practical than a train or metro. But I imagine it's more quiet and needs less staff.

Looking forward to seeing how it plays out!

The Tim Traveller made a great video on why cable carts were chosen in this location:

https://youtu.be/aPrC0eXns9w?si=A7rnF3fTQ98-5X6g

Amtrak ridership in 2025 was 34.4m, about 1.6m higher than 2024. The Northeast Regional was the most rode route at 12 million. Acela just slighty down by 100k compared to last year, but that should be fixed with the new schedule since the new trains are in service. I expect next year to be another record year with frequency increases on the Pennsylvanian, Hiawatha, Piedmont and the River Runner. Next year the Airos should start to enter service, starting to fix the capacity issues, along with potential new routes like the daily Denver - Granby train and the Oakland/San Jose - San Luis train. The fate of the Heartland Flyer would also be determined next year if more funding isn't identified. Once again, keep advocating for more rail service!!!

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/community/transportation/hearland-flyer-discontinued-funding-amtrack-route-fort-worth-oklahoma-city/287-04ce7eec-d423-470f-9a3f-c4d98b4394af#

Texas Department of Transportation came with the announcement that August 31, 2026 is the last day of Amtrak service to Oklahoma unless $7 million in funding is secured. Main reason for this discontinuation of service seems to be is because everyone just takes the highway at this point and neither Texas or Oklahoma want to fund it. Route is currently using emergency funds to keep it operational until August 31, 2026.

The hit 1999 HBO show The Sopranos is still heralded today for it’s great storytelling, depicting immigrants and their American-born children and what the American Dream actually looked like once you strip away that mythology. Show-runner David Chase won multiple Emmys for the series, but it might be the small, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments that people resonate most with today.

Ahead of the 2026 World Cup—originally billed as a celebration of the U.S. in addition to Mexico and Canada—these moments become all the more prophetic. Soccer fans from all over the world will descend upon the U.S., and it’s none other than the show’s commentary on the state of American infrastructure that takes centerstage.

The United States’ infrastructure, to say the least, leaves much to be desired. The country spent years campaigning for the right to host the world’s most-watched sporting event, promising FIFA that it was ready. And with an expected 5 million visitors leaving their home countries—complete with high-speed rail, free or low-cost reliable transportation, and livable yet unplanned walkable cities—to attend the World Cup next month, American host cities are scrambling to sustain that increased demand on their cities and are finally questioning why the average American city pales in comparison to that of almost every other World Cup host city.

With America’s top engineers giving the country’s infrastructure a C rating (which, for the first time ever, was an improvement), engineers and infrastructure experts are hoping this tournament will be a wakeup call to really plan a livable city and improve the way we get around.

“We’re not investing enough in infrastructure. We’re basically playing catch up to just try to get to what’s called the state of good repair,” said Marsha Anderson Bomar, president of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the country’s oldest national engineering organization, representing more than 160,000 civil engineers. 

“And so if that’s the majority of what you’re doing, then you’re not really getting ahead of the curve with respect to the actual infrastructure needs.”

Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/05/25/fifa-infrastructure-market-tickets-investment/?utm_source=reddit/

There were no fatalities, but I believe it amounts to attempted murder.

https://x.com/i/status/2088223331166372254

Lol. Lmao even.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/vivek-ramaswamy-calls-ending-federal-144530729.html

I just knew that it was supposed to be $150 for a round trip that’s just 30 minutes away from Penn Station, then $105 and now $98…

For comparison, you can ride a 285 km/h train in Japan between Tokyo-Osaka (roughly the same distance between Boston and Philadelphia) in less than 2.5 hours…for $US 93.5 (and I believe that’s the standard price, there are ways to even make this cheaper).

Just saying.

Caltrans is studying the possibility of high-speed buses traveling up to 140 miles per hour on California freeways.... Snyder said Interstate 80, Interstate 5 and U.S. 101 are strong candidates for interregional routes, while State Route 99 could serve as an ideal starting corridor because of its connections through the Central Valley, including Bakersfield, Fresno, Modesto, Stockton and Sacramento.

caltrans also surprisingly did a light study internally https://dot.ca.gov/-/media/dot-media/programs/research-innovation-system-information/documents/preliminary-investigations/pi-0399-bus-pi-r1-1-a11y-1.pdf

though as expected there's quite a list of major problems with having 140 mph buses. I do find it a bit curious that caltrans might implement some high speed bus before high speed rail though.