Yonah Freemark looks at how to increase rail ridership without adding trains.
There will be no new tunnel under the Hudson for the foreseeable future, so New Jersey Transit and Amtrak must take other measures in order to grow, says Freemark. He argues that New Jersey Transit should remove a dozen seats per car on their commuter trains to up capacity from 1,400 to 2,000. Amtrak, he says, should lengthen its trains on intercity routes-the Acela only has six passenger cars when most stations it stops at can accommodate eight.
Both companies must rethink how to do business without ARC, or they risk leaving potential passengers behind, writes Freemark:
"New Jersey Transit and Amtrak have a unique opportunity to take advantage of the limitations in tunnel capacity to reform the way they do business, to improve and speed up operations in ways that will bring some benefit to their customers but also seriously increase the number of people that can travel under the Hudson River to work every day."
FULL STORY: ARC Project Definitively Canceled, But There Are Other Ways to Improve New Jersey’s Transit Future

Maui's Vacation Rental Debate Turns Ugly
Verbal attacks, misinformation campaigns and fistfights plague a high-stakes debate to convert thousands of vacation rentals into long-term housing.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

San Francisco Suspends Traffic Calming Amidst Record Deaths
Citing “a challenging fiscal landscape,” the city will cease the program on the heels of 42 traffic deaths, including 24 pedestrians.

Adaptive Reuse Will Create Housing in a Suburban Texas Strip Mall
A developer is reimagining a strip mall property as a mixed-use complex with housing and retail.

Study: Anti-Homelessness Laws Don’t Work
Research shows that punitive measures that criminalized unhoused people don’t help reduce homelessness.

In U.S., Urban Gondolas Face Uphill Battle
Cities in Latin America and Europe have embraced aerial transitways — AKA gondolas — as sustainable, convenient urban transport, especially in tricky geographies. American cities have yet to catch up.
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