Khyber Sen
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Khyber Sen
@khyber.bsky.social
550 followers 200 following 1.3K posts
she/her | @etany.org | 🦀
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Reposted by Khyber Sen
etany.org
By learning from other countries and adopting international best practices, California High Speed Rail was able to cut its costs by $14 billion and cut 70% of tunnels.

This is a big lesson for transit projects both in NY & around the US: start by learning from other countries.

tinyurl.com/mvsmfxa2
Ian Choudri: Yes. When I came on board, like we looked at six or seven different areas of improvements and one of that was engineering of how we are building it comparable to the European and Japanese systems. And came to realize that as engineers, all the folks that were in the team being very conservative. They were going, "Let’s build it not that steep." And so we are going to do it as flat as we can. While that’s fun if you are in the desert, if you are going through Tehachapi or Pacheco Pass, you quickly realize you can't stay flat. So the decision was made to make it a little higher, because Europe is doing it, Japan has been doing it. Let’s not reinvent. That eliminated about 70 percent of the tunnels that we had to do. And that’s billions of dollars. Ian Choudri: I don’t blame anyone. These were not intentional mistakes. This was a lack of checking because we don’t have another high speed rail in this country. So we were using highway bridges or freight rail design concepts, which is all we know. And so we fixed it. It took us four months to realize that this is a big mistake and improve the cost structure. When we put our plan out, we said we saved $14 billion by optimizing cost by changing design standards and criteria, bringing them up to par with the European and the Japanese.
November 11, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
2avesag.as
One thing the mayor-elect could do between now and January 1 is to call on Kathy Hochul to veto the bill on her desk that would ban one-person train operations in the NYC subway. Mamdani was absent the day of the vote, and banning OPTO is incompatible with lower cost (or free) transit.
November 6, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
erininthemorning.com
1. In a major shadow docket ruling from the Supreme Court, the court has ruled against trans people's passports, giving a stay to the Trump administration.

The admin has previously indicated it intend to revoke some passports if it got this ruling.

Subscribe to support our journalism.
SCOTUS Rules Against Trans People's Passport Gender Markers In Shadow Docket Ruling
The administration has previously indicated it could revoke some trans people's passports if it got this ruling.
www.erininthemorning.com
November 6, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
cameroncorduroy.bsky.social
seeing this image used as an argument against driverless cars is hilarious considering the fact that we don't hold human drivers accountable for killing people unless they're exceedingly reckless (drunk, speeding, texting, etc.)
November 3, 2025 at 3:11 AM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
etany.org
However, the MTA hasn't yet confirmed that it's next train order, the R268, will be all open gangway—and recently, the MTA decided to order a majority of its new R211s as closed-end trains.

These trains will be in service for decades: the MTA cannot afford to live in the past.
October 30, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
etany.org
The MTA is installing experimental anti-subway surfing barriers on the 7 train.

While this is a good interim step, the real solution is to ensure that all new subway cars are walk-through (known as open gangway), as has been common practice across the world for years.

pix11.com/news/transit...
A protoype anti-subway-surfing barrier.
October 30, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
stephenjacobsmith.com
The MTA will try anything to stop subway surfing except ordering the same open-gangway trains that the rest of the world has been using for decades
October 30, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
etany.org
It's good to see MTA Chair Janno Lieber contemplating all-door bus boarding, an easy win for bus service.

All-door boarding and proof-of-payment enforcement speed bus service significantly. What's more, the agency is ready to go having already installed back door OMNY readers on all its buses.
Janno Lieber There was. There was all-door boarding. But let me just say this: All-door boarding is accomplishable in a paid model. We’ve been reluctant because we felt to get there, because I wanted to get fare evasion down to reestablish the position that the patterns of behavior that we lost during COVID, which is you get on the bus, you know, hopefully you say good morning to the bus driver, and you do something to pay. We can do all-door boarding in part because once we have OMNY — you know, true tap-and-ride, universal — and we can have fare enforcement agents, not armed, go up to people and say [to] anybody, “show me your OMNY card. Show me your phone, show me that you paid.” Josh Greenman But why not do it now and allow all-door boarding? Janno Lieber Right now, it’s associated with the avoidance of payment and I think we need an enforcement model that starts to, that says, wherever you got on, you’re going to be subject— because right now, somebody can get on the back and say, “I paid.” If they’re ever asked by an Eagle Team member, one of our fare enforcement people, let’s say, “I paid at the front, by coin, on the bus. You can’t validate every rider the same way you can a 100% tap and ride system. I want to get there. And then you have, universal, which is like what they have in Europe, where you can go up to anybody and say, “Please show me your fare payment.” So that’s what I think we’re waiting for to move towards all-door boarding, which I think is a positive if we can get there, once we get to OMNY.
October 29, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
etany.org
MTA Board Chair Janno Lieber on the NYS legislature's bill that would require two-person crews for every train: "I think would outrage a lot of people, and I don’t think it’s a serious proposal."

He rightly points out that shorter, more frequent trains can offer better service for many places.
How did that happen? Were you involved? Were you consulted? Janno Lieber No. In the end of the session, the legislature passes a lot of bills very quickly, and that one slipped through. It’s been proposed for 20-plus years, and somehow it was allowed to slip through at the last minute this time. I don’t consider it serious, because the idea that we would now have to put— again, the public— It’s not a secret. We believe in investing in the MTA. What we don’t want the public to feel is there’s enormous lack of productivity, a lack of efficiency, and forcing the MTA to put extra people on Times Square shuttle, Franklin Avenue shuttle, and the G train, and any, if in the future we were running shorter trains more frequently, which in some neighborhoods might be a good way to serve people, that the idea that you’re just featherbedding, I think would outrage a lot of people, and I don’t think it’s a serious proposal.
October 29, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
ndhapple.bsky.social
Not often you see the MTA let it all hang out re: Amtrak like this. Provided just 7 of 48 planned outages in the first two years; then only provided required Amtrak supervision for work about half the time for the subsequent outages. Requiring 17 Amtrak staff to supervise *each* gantry replacement.
October 27, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
sunny.ng
Excited to host the next Transit Techies with some transit data heavy hitters as speakers. If you’re free on November 5, come through! www.meetup.com/transit-tech...
Transit Techies #35: Aaron Gordon, Surya Mattu, Marie Patino / Elif Ensari, Wed, Nov 5, 2025, 6:30 PM | Meetup
This will be **Transit Techies NYC**'s final session of the year, and we have some amazing speakers to look forward to. Talks will start at 6:30pm, and we'll mingle over li
www.meetup.com
October 27, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
queenslink.org
Earlier this month, NYC's Independent Budget Office (IBO), released a report on the Rockaway Beach Branch. Among it's findings, the top destinations for commuters along the abandoned line would be served by QueensLink. In the meantime, head to the 🔗 in bio to tell leaders to #BuildtheQueensLink !!
October 23, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
alonlevy.bsky.social
We have a new website for the Northeast Corridor High-Speed Rail project, with illustrative graphics. nec.transitcosts.com
How to Build High-Speed Rail on the Northeast Corridor
An interactive site presenting the North East Corridor proposal by Marron Institute's Transportation and Land Use Group, authored by Alon Levy.
nec.transitcosts.com
October 20, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
typewriteralley.bsky.social
I just can't get over the differences in scale between Ballard Link's Westlake Station as proposed and the original Westlake Station, off to the left.
Ballard Link's Westlake has two separate entrances underneath separate buildings, with one showing a long tunnel to get to the train guideway. They are at least five stories deeper than the original Westlake, which is tiny and only around 10-15% of the size
October 8, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
ndhapple.bsky.social
Here are the Subway/Metro Station design guidelines that were compiled by UMTA/USDOT in the 1970s in an attempt to prevent WMATA-style cost overruns again.

It got shelved when everyone at UMTA got laid off and we forgot it. But it's prescient about cost drivers -- rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/11352
DOT ROSA P
ROSA P serves as an archival repository of USDOT-published products including scientific findings, journal articles, guidelines, recommendations, or other information authored or co-authored by USDOT ...
rosap.ntl.bts.gov
October 9, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
ndhapple.bsky.social
My column from last year about how we can use better train design to not only improve service but also save lives. A PSA campaign will never be able to keep up with TikTok serving up thrill seekers videos — www.curbed.com/article/subw...
October 4, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
calelectricrail.org
Today, CER launches our paper “ElectroLink: Modern Passenger Rail Service for Southern California.”

ElectroLink shows how electrification, level boarding and through running can speed up trips, improve access for all riders, and bind together the region. ⚡♿🚴
calelectricrail.org/electrolink-...
Electrolink: Modern Passenger Rail Service for Southern California Californians for Electric Rail September 2025 Cover shows a series of blue arrows in Metrolink livery and the Californians for Electric Rail Logo
September 15, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
etany.org
Once again, it seems that the MTA's EAGLE teams are punishing normal riders because they are not using the common fare verification tools (handheld scanners) used by almost every other proof-of-payment system in the world.

www.reddit.com/r/nycrail/co...
Got a summons on the select bus even though I paid using a physical credit card I took a select bus today and paid my fare using a physical credit card on the OMNY reader. One stop later the fare inspectors requested I show them my banking app to show proof of payment. I told them I used a physical credit card and that the payment wouldn't show up right away under pending transactions since my bank seems to have a delay of 20 or so mins and I had just gotten on and they didn't care. When I asked if they had the scanner to check my credit card they didn't have it and blamed me for not having proof. I got a written summons and was told to submit my proof to get it dismissed which I will do but this infuriates me since 1. I did pay my fare and 2. What if my phone died or was malfunctioning or I was the type of person to not be tech savvy? This seems to be discriminatory to those who don't or can't have access to a banking app and just want to use a physical card. I wanted to warn others so that they can prevent this situation somehow.
September 17, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
beyonddc.bsky.social
TIL parking restrictions date back to 700 BCE.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parking...
Screencap of link describing parking rules in ancient Nineveh.
September 16, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
floorarearatio.bsky.social
Development in NYC is heavily clustered, either in already-dense areas (Midtown) or recently rezoned areas (Long Island City + Downtown Brooklyn).

New developments since 2015 with more than 200 units, completion state as of 2025 (green = COO, red = no COO yet)

(Interactive map, link below)
September 8, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
etany.org
New York is a special place in a lot of ways, but that doesn't include the reality of how transportation works.

Cities all over the world have long moved to one-person and fully automated trains.

Indeed, we do it in NY right now on the G & M trains, with no effect on safety.
But Blair Lorenzo, the Effective Transit Alliance’s executive director, said experiences in other cities prove otherwise. ”We see this across the world and we see across the country that one-person train operation is incredibly safe, and often no-person train operation is incredibly safe, if designed well,” Lorenzo said. “It’s kind of hard to argue with the fact that there are so many places doing it right now.” Samuelsen dismissed experiences in other cities, noting New York City’s trains operate seven days a week, 24 hours a day. “ Other cities are other cities, and New York City is unique,” he said.
September 8, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
errs.io
I urge companies to take funding contributors seriously, in ways that aren’t tied to projects and goals. Being a generalist in the compiler meant that often I wasn’t working towards a roadmap, but my contributions *always* paid off in the long term extensibility of the language.
September 5, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Reposted by Khyber Sen
hikoukihikouki9.bsky.social
Capitalism is when you're good at building car, Communism is when you're good at building train. This is why the Soviet Union was Communist, Japan and China are mixed economies, and why America was capitalist but now is feudal.
August 25, 2025 at 2:47 AM