Regional rail and governance
How other regions turned separate railroads into one network, models of what through-running could do here, and the history of New York’s attempts to govern its region as one place.
Cities that run trains through
Where regional rail already passes through the center, and what it took.
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The Through-Running Atlas
Thirty-five regional rail systems in 20 countries, mapped by whether trains run through the center, a through link is not yet open, or the system still ends at terminals.
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Paris RER: how through-running reshaped regional rail
Tunnels under central Paris joined separate suburban railways; the phased build and cross-system trains are the closest model for Penn Station.
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Thameslink and the moving constraint
How a short reopening beneath central London became a thirty-year reconstruction of trains, stations, junctions, and signaling.
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How Philadelphia built America’s first through-running regional rail system
The 1.7-mile Center City Commuter Connection, with a concept schematic of 15-minute Regional Rail service.
Tools and models
Models of access, service, and infrastructure across the region.
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Six rail routes, timed on rebuilt track
Scranton to New York in 2:59, Allentown in 2:23, Bethlehem to Philadelphia in 1:24, with a map of every station and curve. Banking curves costs a fourteenth as much per minute saved as faster track.
Who runs the region’s railroads
Seventy years of bi-state and tri-state bodies, and a proposal for the next one.
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The case for a Tri-State Regional Rail Authority
Fragmented governance, not engineering, is the larger obstacle to through-running; an interstate compact could create one authority.
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The failure of metropolitan coordination in the New York tri-state area
How the Tri-State Regional Planning Commission rose and dissolved in 1982, and what its collapse shows about metropolitan governance.
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New York–New Jersey Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission
The 1955–58 bi-state commission that proposed an integrated transit network that was never built.
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Regional governance timeline
The bodies, compacts, and plans that shaped the region’s transportation governance.
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Regional governance in the news
Newspaper coverage of the region’s planning and transit debates.
Working on Penn Station or regional rail?
I take on records research, operating analysis, and visualization for campaigns, reporters, funders, and legal teams. Reporters can use the same form for interview requests.