Ride it while it lasts: The D.C. streetcar “system” is set to be phased out.
Category: Transit in D.C.
Some links: 108
- D.C. Circulator buses find new homes far from the city
- Fact-Checking the ‘President Who Follows Science’ on his environmental record
- An Inside Look at the Subway’s Archaic Signal System in NYC
- An Open Letter to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Who Thinks My Daughter Is a Tragedy, by Anaïs Godard
Your version of the future has no room for her. Thankfully, she doesn’t need your permission to belong. She’s already here.
- Leo Mazzone is still rockin’: An Old-School Pitching Coach Says I Told You So
“All anyone in the majors watches now is how damn fast a guy can throw,” he told me, rocking on his heels. “Grunt and heave, grunt and heave. It’s not pitching; it’s asinine.”
- Oh, lovely, first the Colorado and now this: A Crucial River Treaty Is Tangled in Trump’s Feud With Canada
Negotiations over the Columbia River basin could affect the environment in Canada and electrical generation and flood control in the United States.
- Damn, those things are much bigger than I realized: a rubber bullet in the Museum at the Times
Hmm, the Times and the Post have different headline casing styles.
Metro Rewind, 2024
The graphics and statistics are a little goofy in this year’s incarnation of Metro in review. But it’s interesting to know that I’ve entered/exited 24 of 98 stations this past year.
Still looking to do a Metro Challenge one day. When all the lines are in full service, and the weather’s nice, and…
Some links: 102
- People movers (mobile lounges) at IAD are sticking around for at least 20 more years. I like ’em. Remember to hold on for when the lounge starts to move! (Eurgkkh, lots of clickbaity slop on this local TV news channel page.)
- Why did Tom Lehrer give up writing, recording, and performing? Francis Beckett doesn’t really answer this question, but he does offer a nice recap of Lehrer’s oeuvre for the younger folks.
- Jason Kottke reprises this lovely post about flying in a small plane with his father in the upper Midwest. Low on fuel. With a thunderstorm approaching.
But the thing was, I was never scared. I should have been probably…it was an alarming situation. I’d been flying with my dad my whole life and he’d kept me safe that whole time, so why should I start worrying now? That’s what fathers are supposed to do, right? Protect their children from harm while revealing the limits of the world?
- When I visited the Westmoreland Museum of American Art last month, I noticed that several works were labelled “artist once known.” Here’s an explainer from the Hood Museum of Art for that new convention.
I haven’t really decided whether I will continue posting at IEFBR14. In the meantime, here are two computing/math links:
- Researchers have applied gravitational wave detection techniques and Bayesian approaches to peer into the corroded innards of the Antikythera Mechanism.
- Communications of the ACM is now fully open access.
Some links: 101
- Casey Ruken on 1950s-era preparations for nuclear war in the capital. I’ve been collecting images of fallout shelter signs here in the DMV and elsewhere.
- Guest contributor J. M. Christoph to Greater Greater Washington explains why digging new tunnels for Metro is not as simple as coloring in new lines on the map. Because geology.
- I am at a loss to identify hawthorns (genus Crataegus). Turns out there’s a reason for that.
- For future reference: Ian Paulson’s annotated bibliography of pre-Peterson field guides to birds, leading with Florence Merriam Bailey’s Birds through an Opera Glass (1899).
WMATA, 2023
A laggard in the 2023 roundups: my year in Metrorail/bus trips.
8/300
Hoping to see one of these on my RIBS 2 (I still miss you, 551 and 5S!) line: Fairfax Connector’s first electric buses hit the road, with more on the way.
Numbers game
WMATA’s survey about renumbering plans for Metrobus routes only runs thru 28 September, and it hasn’t been well publicized, so respond promptly. I have some concerns about the fixed order in which choices are presented. And there’s no space in the survey for general feedback. But I am warming to the idea of numbering routes according to hands of the clock.
Some links: 95
- Peter Dreier for the Conversation: “five unsung labor movies, all based on real-life events, that, in my view, deserve more attention.”
- ChatGPT makes up stuff about John Kelly.
Perhaps the computer program trawled through the multiverse and found a timeline in which John Kelly had nabbed a Pulitzer for his “thoughtful musings on Twiggy, the water-skiing squirrel, and how weird it is that Sugar Pops are now called Corn Pops.”
- At Shorpy, a fine photo of a D.C. Transit streetcar (not a PCC this time).
- ICYMI: The U.S. Geological Survey is collecting dead lepidopterans found by community scientists in AL, GA, KS, NE, OK, and TX.
- An exploration of the oeuvre of Neil Breen (of Double Down and several others).
Silver Line progress report: 56
I can now report from firsthand knowledge that the Silver Line does indeed go to Ashburn, via IAD.
Silver Line progress report: 55
Running to IAD and Loudoun looks like Thanksgiving: a compromise between WMATA and the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission will make enough cars available for service so that the extension can open.
Silver Line progress report: 54
A first look at Metro’s newest map, with all the Silver Line stations colored in.
The Metro challenge is about to get much longer.
Silver Line progress report: 53
MWAA is expected to turn over Phase 2 of the Silver Line to WMATA in “the next several weeks,” with revenue service… sometime this year.
Of course, it would be great if there were 7000-series cars back in service to run on the 11.4-mile extension. And if all the train operators are recertified. Oy.
Silver Line progress report: 52
Phase 2 has hit the “substantially complete” milestone. But not so fast—
Metro can begin some testing, but other pre-service evaluations can’t start until work on the rail yard is complete. According to the rail yard project’s most recent monthly update, the estimated timeline for completion is February 2022.
Silver Line progress report: 51
The date for “substantial completion” of the second phase has been bouncing around. Latest estimates are for Labor Day weekend. This is the date that the construction contractor turns the work over to Metro. If the date holds, passenger service to IAD and beyond in early 2022.