The Train Cowboy

Google tells you if your bus is going to be late... Thanks Google

2011-06-08T14:56:00.000-07:00

This looks like it could be a pretty useful, cool feature. They need to expand it to more cities, but it is definitely a start! Thank you Google!

from Mashable.

and coverage from Fast Company.

Expo Line Train Test

2011-04-05T23:03:00.000-07:00

Metro tested the rails today for the Subway to the Sea. The Train Cowboy cycled over to take a look! (but this video was shot by LA Metro.)

Pretty cool stuff, and progress on the train line that no one thought could be built!

This line will be a welcome addition for many reasons, one of them paradoxical. Anyone who has commuted in LA will tell you that the largest volume of traffic moves from downtown, westward on the 10 freeway, to the westside. This is kind of different from most cities, where the traffic moves INTO downtown... Ahh, Los Angeles has to be different!

the Super Bowl!

2011-02-05T10:43:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the Super Bowl! Your Train Cowboy does not always watch football, but his hot girlfriend has invited him to a Super Bowl party, so he will be happily making guacamole and eating bbq tomorrow.

The Super Bowl brings up a major point of discussion, one that has been touched on before in this blog, the need for good public transportation to service large public events.

Here is a good article on the PubTrans situation for the big game tomorrow in Dallas.

I am sad to hear that DART is not actually adding extra trains. The DFW area is not particularly great for public transportation. This brings up the point that most traditional, warm weather Super Bowl locations are not very good public transportation cities.

In 2014 the Super Bowl will head to New York City/New Jersey, to the Meadowlands Stadium. At present that stadium is only served by a shuttle service, but the Train Cowboy really hopes that a full rail stop to the stadium will be added.

Of course the problem for a football stadium, as opposed to baseball and basketball stadiums, is that football stadiums are only used once or twice a week at the most, so building the train lines is a tougher call. To me, the trick is to plan out your train lines so that they go by a stadium, but continue on past, so that others are served by the line as well as the stadium goers.

Alright, this is not normally my area of expertise, but it seems every Super Bowl column must include a "pick"... Packers 35, Steelers 27

Thoughts on the BCS Title Game mass transit options available

2011-01-10T19:46:00.000-08:00

So, the BCS title game is going on, and your blogger has one ear on the radio, but I cannot help thinking about something. I've mentioned in past posts how great using mass transit is for big events (sports, concerts, demonstrations... etc). In a way, mass transit is almost made for big events... which brings me to the BCS Title Game.

The BCS Title game is played in rotating warm weather locations (Miami, New Orleans, Phoenix, Los Angeles). While the events are beautiful and well run, they are pathetic from a mass trans standpoint. Perhaps this is a feature of the host cities, which, with the exception of New Orleans, are sprawling extended suburb cities. Don't get me wrong, these are great cities, but they are not particularly great for mass trans.

I would like to see the BCS try having their title game in a city with good mass transportation for once... I bet they would find the people movement of the game a LOT easier! Atlanta, Houston and Seattle all seem like a pretty good (warm weather) option if you ask this Cowboy!

New Orleans

2010-12-21T19:55:00.000-08:00

The Train Cowgirl (who is absurdly hot) and I visited New Orleans last weekend. We had a wonderful time in The Big Easy. I was most impressed by the people we met, but the feel of the city, and the food were both wonderful!
N.O. presents some very interesting mass transit challenges and solutions. Because the city is kind of a swamp, they cannot dig subway tunnels. (In truth it is probably very good that there were not subways when Katrina happened.)
As a result, N.O. has developed a streetcar system. What is really cool is that these are not the tourist trap streetcars of San Francisco, they are certainly used by everyone, including tourists.
We rode the streetcar out to a Christmas Lights Event at City Park. Our car was a wonderfully jolly bunch, singing carols and old tv show tunes (think Flintstones).
At another point, we rode a streetcar late at light and sat with a group of waiters, just off their shift, and a group of sisters and sister in-laws, who had been partying hard.
As a city, I give New Orleans a 10 out of 10. Great people, great food, great architecture.

Trains/Streetcars: 7 out of 10 (gained a point for cool factor, but lost points for coverage.)
Buses: 8 out of ten
Cleanliness/Art: 9 out of 10 Clean enough, wood interiors in remarkably good shape.
Usage: 7 out of 10
Timeliness: 7 out of 10
Crown Jewel: Riding with happy, drunk party people mixed with waiters and musicians just off work. +5
Total: 93% A-

Shanghai

2010-11-29T20:10:00.000-08:00

Shanghai is an extraordinary, futuristic city. It feels like the city depicted in Blade Runner.
Everything feels very high tech, and the subway system is no exception. An added bonus is that the mass transit system, specifically the trains, is built into the infrastructure of tourist attractions and malls, making tourist life easier. Regarding the general, daily movement of the residents of the city, it also does a good job. It lacks the coverage of NYC or Tokyo, but is still very good. Points gained for being so clean and organized.

Trains: 9 out of 10
Buses: 9 out of ten
Cleanliness/Art: 8 out of 10 Clean, but not Tokyo.
Usage: 7 out of 10, there are 1.3 Billion people there, and though the trains are crowded, they are not that crowded!
Timeliness: 9 out of 10
Crown Jewel: The views from the Huangpu River Ferry boats. Unbelievable. +3
Total: 95% A

Mailbag

2010-08-22T20:17:00.000-07:00

You guys are crazy.

First, some answers to your questions:
Yes, I do own a car. I tried living in LA without one and found it impossible. Still I ride the trains often and do a good job of walking as much as possible. Over the years, I have always lived in LA locations that have subways stops nearby.

No, I do not think LA should impose a huge car tax. I would simply prefer to see better mass transit options available, and the city is moving in that direction, albeit slowly.

No, I have not seen any major movie stars on the subway or on buses in LA. I have seen a lot of them around, just not on mass transit. I've always said that pro-mass transit celebrities like George Clooney should ride mass transit in LA... that would get people to ride mass transit all the time! 8>)

and finally, thank you to the Asian couple who emailed me a picture of themselves having sex on a subway car. I think they are in Tokyo... there's another reason to advocate for mass transit!

Happy National Train Day!

2010-05-08T00:23:00.000-07:00

Today is National Train Day!

http://www.nationaltrainday.com/

The Train Cowboy will be celebrating!

Driving all day today

2010-04-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

despite some excellent options for getting downtown for a party tonight, The Train King will be avoiding trains today... April Fools!

Sleeping on the Train

2010-03-21T00:37:00.000-07:00

So... The Train Cowboy really likes to sleep... he recently ranked it has his second favorite activity... his favorite activity is not the subject of this blog, but you are welcome imagine... but we digress! Sleep is wonderful. In Tokyo, commuters literally learn to sleep standing up, while riding the trains. There are several favored technigues. One is to grab a handle or bar above your head, make an 'L' with your arm, and tuck your face into your arm.
If the train is particularly crowded, then you can literally sleep in the crowd, at least between stops. The other people kind of support you, in fact, many of them are often sleeping as well!
Many people also sleep in seats, if they have managed to get one.
On the whole, The Train Cowboy salutes Japan for having a country where it is safe to sleep on trains. TTC does not think one should sleep on trains in many of the world's cities, for fear of waking up without your watch, shoes and belt... or worse...
alright that's enough blog for tonight... time to go to sleep (in The Train King bed 8>)

Transit Forum

2010-02-01T12:01:00.000-08:00

Heads up Angelinos, here is a Transit Forum on Subways to the West Side where you can speak your mind!

The Westside Subway Extension project is hosting a lunchtime open house on Tuesday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 2029 Century Park East in the Concourse Level Conference Center.

http://thesource.metro.net/2010/02/01/reminder-subway-project-holds-open-house-in-century-city-on-tuesday/

Transit Forum for SoCal

2010-01-29T16:07:00.000-08:00

This is a full day forum, very cool. I have to work, but highly recommend attendance if you can!

http://www.octa.net/southern-california-transit-forum.html

The 101, The Worst...

2010-01-20T12:21:00.000-08:00

The Train Cowboy lives in Hollywood, close to the 101... and he might have been able to guess this, but here is evidential proof...

here is one quote with stats:
"Research has found that the freeway has 686 hours of weekly bottleneck congestion with the worst bottleneck found at Vermont Avenue in southbound lanes (we agree!). That bottleneck tends to be .64 miles with the speed of 14 mph."

http://laist.com/2010/01/19/hollywood_freeway_ranked_1_for_wors.php

We raced down the 101 for My Way or The Highway and Joe the Car Guy was definitely slowed to a snail's pace on the 101 at Vermont... while the Train Cowboy cruised along on the LA Metro, playing Sudoku and listening to Mozart! 8>)

attention Mass Transit Foodies! The Gold Line...

2009-11-12T14:18:00.000-08:00

LA Metro is opening the Gold Line on Saturday November 14th, 2009. The Train Cowboy will be there for the inaugural ride. Here is a fun article on all of the great food available along the Gold Line.

http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-goldline11b-2009nov11,0,4084038.story?page=1

LA Metro Gold Line Celebrations

2009-11-11T16:20:00.000-08:00

The LA Metro is opening the new Gold Line! Hoorah!

http://laist.com/2009/11/10/parties_more_planned_around_metro_g.php

New York City MTA Transit Museum

2009-04-15T21:49:00.000-07:00

This is super cool. New York City has a Transit Museum. NYC is the logical place to have a transit system museum, since it has the USA's best public transportation system. (see NYC's Grade post from March)

http://www.mta.info/mta/museum/

Check it out and email me to let me know what you think!

New York City

2009-03-27T13:49:00.000-07:00

Of course the New York City metro system is America’s most used. Every day 7.6 million people use the NYC subway system. But how does it actually rate? Many people have a kind of nostalgia for the grittiness of the NYC subway, and movies and television have perpetuated this idealization. For a long time the truth is that the NYC subway system was truly revolting: dirty, pungent and crime ridden. It was kind of a symbol for how badly the City itself was run.

Fortunately, starting with Mayor Rudolph Guliani’s administration, and continuing with Mike Bloomberg’s, the NYC metro system as a whole has improved immensely. This is a current blog, so our ratings will be for the NYC system as it is now. In contrast to places like Washington DC, and Los Angeles, NYC’s metro does not feel quite as uniform and controlled. This is partly a result of the long history of the subway in NYC, and gives the system a certain quirkiness and definite character.

In keeping with the feel of more organic growth, there are a lot of excellent pieces of art, that feel as though they were just pushed in here and there. Though the legendary graffiti artists who used to beautify (at least in the eyes of this beholder) the subway cars with spray painted art are a thing of the distant past, there is beautiful art in the form of murals and mosaics all over the metro, and much of it really does feel like some artist slipped in and did it for love and without permission.

Another added benefit is that the NYC metro is used by a huge percentage, and cross section of the population of NYC. This means that NYC’s wonderful diversity and multiculturalism are on display everyday for a rider. The Train Cowboy also does not mind that there are so many beautiful, sophisticated NYC chicks on the trains.

Some negatives, whoever came up with the naming system, using numbers and letters, is an idiot. And whoever is responsible for continuing this system is far to set in their ways. Seriously, a simple color coded system (Green line, Purple line, Orange line etc) or a destination line (the Queens express etc.) should be implemented. NYC may never make this smart move because so many New Yorkers love to refer to their lines “oh, I just take the 6 train all the way there…” and in truth this remains the ever more tourist friendly, Disney-fied NYC’s last bastion of the “welcome to New York, now leave” attitude of the past.

The system is reasonably clean, and the efforts to keep it clean are obvious, with cleaning workers often visible at work, still given the volumes of people, the system is often a bit grubby. Still given the number of commuters, the train king will accept a little grime.A benefit is that while there are some long walks within stations, often it’s a very short walk from the train platform to the street above.Finally, there is no question that this is a system that runs well and on time. There are delays, but given the volume of trains, buses and riders, it must be noted that NYC’s percentage of on time arrivals is absurdly high.In summary, this is America’s best metro system.

Trains: 9 out of 10
Buses: 9 out of ten
Cleanliness/Art: 7 out of 10 not as clean as it should be, but the art is fun and organic.
Usage: 10 out of 10
Timeliness: 9 out of 10
Crown Jewel: Taking the train to Yankee Stadium on a gameday. +5
Total: 98% A+

Tokyo

2009-02-04T20:08:00.000-08:00

Tokyo is Japan’s New York, Los Angeles and Washington, DC, all rolled into one giant megalopolis. Although 50% of Japanese adults own cars, Tokyo is a public transportation city, and the system is a very good one.

The Tokyo metro system uses trains, subways and buses. Make no mistake, this is a massive operation. The Tokyo metro is a giant bear of a system-- the Amazon river of train systems, stretching out forever. In truth, Japan itself almost feels like an extension of the Tokyo train system with train lines running out of the Kanto plain to all over Japan. There are trains that take you right to the beaches in Kyushu, the ski slopes in Sapporro and trains that take you right to the base of mountains for hiking. There is not a train right to the base of Mt. Fuji, but the Train Cowboy believes this is more a gesture of respect to Fuji-san’s surrounding nature, than a shortcoming of the system. (Fuji-san is well served by trains to a nearby town and by buses to the trails.)

Like everything in Japan, the Tokyo Metro is incredibly clean. Everything is spotless. This is the cleanest metro system the Train Cowboy has every seen. Add to this the fact that the Japanese as a people have something of an obsession with cleanliness both environmentally and personally, and the whole experience is rather sweet smelling. While many metro systems feature a lot of body odor, Tokyo’s smells great. Everyone on the train is clean, well groomed, and quiet.

The Tokyo subway is however incredibly crowded. Shinjuku, the city’s most busy station, handles well over 2.5 million people everyday, making it the busiest metro station in the world. Occasionally, there are even strong young Japanese men, wearing white gloves, who are employed to push people onto the train. Incredibly, this works rather well and gets people onto the trains more efficiently. (The Train Cowboy chuckles at the idea of New Yorkers being pushed onto their trains.)

The Tokyo trains are so crowded in fact, that you really cannot move. Add to this the facts that the average train commute in Japan is 90 minutes each way and that many Japanese must get up extremely early to get to work and an interesting phenomenon occurs. Frequently, people will fall asleep standing up. The Train Cowboy actually mastered the technique. The general practice is to put one hand up on a bar or handle above the head and then cracle one’s head in the elbow crook. In truth, many people manage to sleep even without having an arm up to hold their head.
(In addition, there are always many people snoozing away in seats they have managed to grab.

The ultra low crime rate in Japan means this is safe—don’t try it on most metro systems… you may wake up without a watch, belt, shoes or worse…

On an historic note, Shibuya station is the home of a statue honoring Hachiko the dog. The story of Hachiko is one of loyalty. Hachiko would meet his owner, a University of Tokyo professor, each day at Shibuya station. Sadly, his master died at work one day. Hachiko continued to come to Shibuya station at the precise time to meet his former owner's evening train. Hachiko continued to do this for 10 YEARS. Now, there is a statue, commemorating the loyalty of this sweet dog. The statue, which is very beautiful, is now a vibrant meeting place for young and old. At any given time there are more than 50 people around the statue waiting for their pals. There is a wonderful atmosphere. The Train Cowboy loves to tell people, “I’ll meet you at Hachiko at 9pm!”

While most people keep to themselves on the Tokyo metro, The Train Cowboy likes to get to know the locals, and as a gaijin, this is easy, and accepted. (In fact, the Train Cowboy has met some very beautiful women on the Tokyo trains… but that is material for a different blog… 8>) Still, if you are visiting, this is a fun aspect of the trains of Tokyo. Another cool ritual of the Tokyo system involves the employees, who benefit from an excellent esprit de corps. One example involves the drivers of buses, who always wave to one another as their buses pass, and the caboose monitors on the trains, who wave to their caboose counterparts as trains trail off away from each other in opposite directions.

The Tokyo metro has pretty good coverage, with the city’s central region particularly well serviced. The circle running Yamanote is the system’s most famous, and for many the most desirable subway “address”. One negative is the great size of the system, and number of different trains has lead to some integration problems. The Train Cowboy was shocked to have to leave the rail system and walk several blocks to reach a privately run subway system. These stations should be integrated and connected, even if you have to pay for entrance separately.The other negative is that the trains do not run all night, stopping around midnight most nights and not starting up again until 5am. This results in late night partiers having to stay in their nightclubs, even after they just want to sleep. A city with Tokyo’s global stature should have trains that run all night.

Trains 9 out of ten (one point taken for not running all night)
Buses 10 out of tenCleanliness/Art 9 out of 10 The cleanest and sweetest smelling metro system in the Universe! But lacks art.
Usage 10 out of ten
Timeliness 10 out of ten, the trains run to the second.
Crown Jewel: Hachiko the Loyal Dog.
Total: 100% A+

Washington, DC

2003-10-25T23:22:00.000-07:00

The DC Metro is pretty good. Very clean, reasonably well organized. It also happens to be filled with a lot of very smart people, many of whom are reading cool newspapers or books. This not only makes one feel very smart, but also, allows someone with good eyes, like The Train Cowboy, to read the facing pages and catch up on news.

A major negative though is the escalators. Far to many of them are broken far too often. I find myself wondering if they were built by some corrupt contractor who bribed his/her way into the contract and then did a very, very bad job. They seem to take a long time to fix as well.

Another negative is the overall lack of coverage. If you live on the Metro, and are going to somewhere else on the metro, you are all set (duh, right?) But if you are going somewhere off the metro, it will be tough to train it alone.

The DC buses, unfortunately are not that great. Once you learn them, they can be managed, and the buses running at actual commuting times for a 9 to 5er, tend to show up approximately on time.

Trains 7 out of 10, points taken for escalator outages

Buses 6 out of ten, not frequent enough, not on time enough

Cleanliness/Art 8 out of 10 very clean, could use more art, one extra point given for plant life (!)

Usage 8 out of 10

Timeliness 7 out of ten. The Trains run on time (Mussolini would be proud) but the buses don't always.

Crown Jewel: Union Station +2

Total: 76% C+