Time for an all-too-infrequent “thing I did recently” update! (thanks to a sick day for providing the time to write this!) Last week I had the pleasure to speak in a personal capacity* at a a Zoom event co-sponsored by Seamless Bay Area and Friends of Caltrain, called “Beyond Commuter Rail: transforming Caltrain and Bay Area rail after the pandemic.” Friend of Caltrain (and of the blog) Adina Levin has been after me for years now to speak at one of her events, and I’m thrilled to have finally had the chance to do so.
*I should probably write one of these days about how I now work at the MBTA, huh?
You can watch the recording on YouTube:
My talk was basically a more concise, sharpened version of the core arguments from my master’s thesis: that commuter rail in North America has always been understood through lenses of class- and sometimes racially-based distinction, and that this ideology is a key to understanding why we have struggled to modernize suburban/regional rail like most of the rest of the developed world. Unfortunately, because of the huge amount of good content the panelists brought, and the volume of questions from the crowd, none of us were able to get all the way through our presentations. So I’m posting my presentation here in PDF format, with my speaking notes attached. I personally think it’s quite good and punchy, so I hope folks find it useful.
While my analysis is cynical, I end with some hope, and I really do think we’re at a time when agencies and policymakers are starting to ask fundamental questions about the importance and purpose of mainline rail, and envision a broader set of possibilities about how it can and should function within a more equitable broad transit system. Here’s to more such exploration.
Itinerant Urbanist 