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NS has written Pan Am a very strongly worded letter that they (NS) will get the STB involved if CSX and Pan Am start working more closely together. Possibly Pan Am is trying to make NS realize that they didn't know what they had until it was gone.

CSX has become formally interested in purchasing Pan Am Railways. https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2020/11/09-csx-seeks-to-buy-new-england-regional-pan-am-railways?fbclid=IwAR1wLywUj9eirgYzHJjLdx4c7uc-gRCe-UIq4iSvn0fjHz8hsw9-9ujnDWo

Apparently a decent-sized sinkhole has opened up underneath the Mass Coastal's tracks in East Sandwich. An alert neighbor stopped a train from being eaten as well, and repairs are ongoing and are expected to be completed within the month. (Via the Cape Cod Times)...

Does anyone have any updates on the Harvard Busway renovations?

Apparently the incident itself happened during the night on Friday/wee hours of Saturday morning, but cleanup stretched into Saturday proper.

The Watertown Branch Rail trail will be really nice once it's paved. Right now it's a mudhole, but the bones are there.

You still then need to solve the problem of grade crossings. Light rail would not only serve the area better but would also be cheaper to build for the same (or better) service levels.

Might be popping down to the project site on Wednesday; are there any bits of this project that people want pictures of?

Apparently, in the late 1960s, British rail used to run services from London to Weymouth in a very interesting way. According to the clip linked below (skip to seven minutes in), the EMUS ran under their own power from London to Bournemouth (where the third rail ended), then were coupled to...

The real once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is offering that same north-south connection with a transit mode that can actually service the neighborhoods the Grand Junction runs through, and is flexible enough to not require a zillion at-grade crossings that have to be negotiated at five miles an...

If they're doing all that, they might as well convert Porter Square to full high-level platforms while they're at it (presumably if the existing high-level segment on a curve doesn't mess with Porter's status as an emergency freight line, neither should anything else?)

How unique is Massachusetts' police detail system? How is it different from, say, ones in NJ or PA, or New York for that matter?

Now that the grading on the inbound side has been done, both Union Square track berths heading into East Cambridge Junction (?) are now clearly visible.

Piles of ties, lengths of welded rail, and a completed track segment on the Union Square branch near F.W Russel disposal.

I just missed it at South Station.

What's the most cost-effective way to fix the "Quincy Pinch" and get the Old Colony fully double-tracked all the way from South Station to Braintree? I suppose since this is in "reasonable transit pitches", Quincy Center can remain single-track.

Sometimes it's the little things. Here's a gap in the new Broadway Bridge (in this picture, covered with a piece of plywood) that will soon be a set of stairs running down to the Ball Square platform.

Those same red line plans depended on the station itself being plopped down on a parcel of land currently occupied by a three-story nursing home. Without tearing the nursing home down, the only way to build any Arlington Heights station on the surface is to take land on the Arlington Coal and...

In Arlington. Can confirm. My crazy transit pitch is that the only extension that's really in the cards in the near future is a fully underground one to Arlington Center. The parking situation at Arlington Heights was never really resolved, and the Minuteman Bikeway is too valuable to convert...

Look, I'm not saying it's likely. It's not like I'm an optimist or anything. All things considered, it's hard to figure out whether to feel good or bad when presented with hard evidence showing us that Cambridge can build bike infrastructure quickly when it wants.