Uday Schultz
@a320lga.bsky.social
I may write about this more formally at some point, but the degree to which NS's cut-service-and-hike-rates strategy completely kneecapped their Crescent Corridor partnership with states to decongest I-81 is nuts. After billions in govt investment, train service is now *slower* than it was before.
January 5, 2026 at 8:12 PM
I may write about this more formally at some point, but the degree to which NS's cut-service-and-hike-rates strategy completely kneecapped their Crescent Corridor partnership with states to decongest I-81 is nuts. After billions in govt investment, train service is now *slower* than it was before.
Reposted by Uday Schultz
So, Brendan, Why is the Millennium Line Bad?
January 5, 2026 at 4:59 AM
So, Brendan, Why is the Millennium Line Bad?
Earlier this fall, I noticed something odd going on with rail service on Los Angeles's C line. So, I wrote about it, because I could not have asked for a more perfect encapsulation of how schedule design can drive service outcomes.
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2026/01/03/a...
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2026/01/03/a...
A Study in Schedule Design
From time to time, I enjoy browsing the LA Metro subreddit. A creature of the East Coast, I am forever fascinated by the Los Angeles’s preculiar mix of ambition and ambivalence around transit…
homesignalblog.wordpress.com
January 3, 2026 at 5:39 PM
Earlier this fall, I noticed something odd going on with rail service on Los Angeles's C line. So, I wrote about it, because I could not have asked for a more perfect encapsulation of how schedule design can drive service outcomes.
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2026/01/03/a...
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2026/01/03/a...
All the Toronto streetcar discourse has had me looking at a lot of TTC stringlines, and I must say, it seems there's an incredibly opportunity for quick improvement there with some basic terminal ops fixes.
Why was nearly every streetcar *entering service* on this random wednesday late?
Why was nearly every streetcar *entering service* on this random wednesday late?
December 27, 2025 at 6:00 PM
All the Toronto streetcar discourse has had me looking at a lot of TTC stringlines, and I must say, it seems there's an incredibly opportunity for quick improvement there with some basic terminal ops fixes.
Why was nearly every streetcar *entering service* on this random wednesday late?
Why was nearly every streetcar *entering service* on this random wednesday late?
A few years ago, I wrote a long piece about why NS wanted to bulldoze part of a neighborhood on Chicago's South Side to expand an intermodal yard.
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2023/07/18/c...
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2023/07/18/c...
Chicago’s Railroad Problem
In February 2023, two thousand feet of Chicago’s South Normal Boulevard disappeared. The street’s end came at the hands of Norfolk Southern’s 47th Street intermodal terminal, a facility which moves…
homesignalblog.wordpress.com
December 20, 2025 at 7:41 PM
A few years ago, I wrote a long piece about why NS wanted to bulldoze part of a neighborhood on Chicago's South Side to expand an intermodal yard.
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2023/07/18/c...
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2023/07/18/c...
Reading the UP/NS merger app alongside CP/KCS, you really get a sense for how railroad managements' read of the pax rail environment differs now vs 2021
In 2021, "expansion of psgr svc" made an appearance in the CEO's statement. Now? Just procedural assurances that the merger won't break anything
In 2021, "expansion of psgr svc" made an appearance in the CEO's statement. Now? Just procedural assurances that the merger won't break anything
December 20, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Reading the UP/NS merger app alongside CP/KCS, you really get a sense for how railroad managements' read of the pax rail environment differs now vs 2021
In 2021, "expansion of psgr svc" made an appearance in the CEO's statement. Now? Just procedural assurances that the merger won't break anything
In 2021, "expansion of psgr svc" made an appearance in the CEO's statement. Now? Just procedural assurances that the merger won't break anything
Such an elemental yet overlooked reality of planning. If you don't:
- Design a new route to add value to the network overall
- Make changes to the existing network to incorporate the new asset
...you're kneecapping yourself. A key part of transit hist:
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2024/07/12/t...
- Design a new route to add value to the network overall
- Make changes to the existing network to incorporate the new asset
...you're kneecapping yourself. A key part of transit hist:
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2024/07/12/t...
December 1, 2025 at 4:49 AM
Such an elemental yet overlooked reality of planning. If you don't:
- Design a new route to add value to the network overall
- Make changes to the existing network to incorporate the new asset
...you're kneecapping yourself. A key part of transit hist:
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2024/07/12/t...
- Design a new route to add value to the network overall
- Make changes to the existing network to incorporate the new asset
...you're kneecapping yourself. A key part of transit hist:
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2024/07/12/t...
A few weeks ago, PATH announced a series of service expansions that will finally reverse this trend. Though paired with a rather steep fare increase, these changes will finally put weekend PATH service levels above where they were 25 years ago. Huge congrats to all the advicates who made this happen
November 30, 2025 at 3:26 PM
A few weeks ago, PATH announced a series of service expansions that will finally reverse this trend. Though paired with a rather steep fare increase, these changes will finally put weekend PATH service levels above where they were 25 years ago. Huge congrats to all the advicates who made this happen
Reposted by Uday Schultz
This is insane. ICE raided an apartment building in South Shore (a 90%+ Black neighborhood) at 10pm, using chainsaws to gain access and throwing flash bangs.
According to witnesses they just handcuffed everyone, with people who weren’t arrested being held for over five hours.
According to witnesses they just handcuffed everyone, with people who weren’t arrested being held for over five hours.
“‘I was out there crying when I seen the little girl come around the corner, because they was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other…He said, “f*** them kids.”’
[…]
’They had the Black people in one van, and the immigrants in another van.’” abc7chicago.com/post/ice-chi...
[…]
’They had the Black people in one van, and the immigrants in another van.’” abc7chicago.com/post/ice-chi...
ICE agents raid South Shore apartments; Trump says Chicago could become military training ground
ICE agents raided a South Shore apartment building overnight as the city braces for a possible military deployment.
abc7chicago.com
October 2, 2025 at 2:44 AM
This is insane. ICE raided an apartment building in South Shore (a 90%+ Black neighborhood) at 10pm, using chainsaws to gain access and throwing flash bangs.
According to witnesses they just handcuffed everyone, with people who weren’t arrested being held for over five hours.
According to witnesses they just handcuffed everyone, with people who weren’t arrested being held for over five hours.
hello from the central valley
October 1, 2025 at 3:27 AM
hello from the central valley
Reposted by Uday Schultz
I created stringline diagrams for the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit schedule, following up on discussions about why SMART can't run a 30 minute Takt. It's currently running a 32-minute Takt after opening the Novato Downtown and Petaluma North infill stations.
September 2, 2025 at 11:50 PM
I created stringline diagrams for the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit schedule, following up on discussions about why SMART can't run a 30 minute Takt. It's currently running a 32-minute Takt after opening the Novato Downtown and Petaluma North infill stations.
Reposted by Uday Schultz
New story about trains and corporate mergers, and why you should never ever stop spending money on the railroads. medium.com/p/c6ab8375d4f0
Who are the Railroads For?
On Mergers, Electrification, and Nationalization
medium.com
September 3, 2025 at 3:14 PM
New story about trains and corporate mergers, and why you should never ever stop spending money on the railroads. medium.com/p/c6ab8375d4f0
Tangential to Stephen's point, but we really need to bring back the art of the high-profile government-sponsored market research report. At the height of Progressive scientific management fever dream-ism, this sort of thing would become a 1,000 page report called "The Grocery Question" or something
Went to my neighborhood NYC co-op/chair grocery store (nothing special, C-Town) after a few months of almost exclusively going to Wegman’s, and holy crap, everything is like 25-125% more expensive
August 18, 2025 at 12:26 AM
Tangential to Stephen's point, but we really need to bring back the art of the high-profile government-sponsored market research report. At the height of Progressive scientific management fever dream-ism, this sort of thing would become a 1,000 page report called "The Grocery Question" or something
A lot has happened to PATH in the past 25 years -- 9/11, major construction work, COVID, etc. But consistent across all of these events have been ensuing reductions in off-pk service levels: since 2005, the number of PATH trips crossing the Hudson on Saturdays has fallen by *50%*
July 27, 2025 at 4:19 PM
A lot has happened to PATH in the past 25 years -- 9/11, major construction work, COVID, etc. But consistent across all of these events have been ensuing reductions in off-pk service levels: since 2005, the number of PATH trips crossing the Hudson on Saturdays has fallen by *50%*
You really begin to see the divergence between the US and everywhere else when you compare this map (18% double track, 1950) to Italy, where about 26% of the network was double track in 1956.
July 26, 2025 at 2:57 AM
You really begin to see the divergence between the US and everywhere else when you compare this map (18% double track, 1950) to Italy, where about 26% of the network was double track in 1956.
At a high level, this is a good thing. Railroads suffer massively from the friction inherent to carrier handoffs. Mergers can mitigate that, potentially opening new markets and allowing more effective competition w already continent-spanning trucking companies.
Exclusive: Union Pacific is in talks to acquire its smaller rival Norfolk Southern in what would be a megamerger in the railroad industry.
Railroad Operator Union Pacific Exploring Deal for Norfolk Southern
Two companies are holding preliminary deal talks.
on.wsj.com
July 18, 2025 at 1:20 AM
At a high level, this is a good thing. Railroads suffer massively from the friction inherent to carrier handoffs. Mergers can mitigate that, potentially opening new markets and allowing more effective competition w already continent-spanning trucking companies.
A few months ago, I paid a visit to Boston and spent some quality time with the MBTA’s bus service. After spending a while digging through T’s (excellent) open data, I had some Thoughts to share about the experience—and bus operations in general.
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2025/06/29/h...
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2025/06/29/h...
How a Bus Route Falls Apart
All opinions in this post are solely my own, and do not represent the positions of my employer or any organizations of which I am part. About two months ago, I found myself waiting for a 77 bus in …
homesignalblog.wordpress.com
June 29, 2025 at 3:26 PM
A few months ago, I paid a visit to Boston and spent some quality time with the MBTA’s bus service. After spending a while digging through T’s (excellent) open data, I had some Thoughts to share about the experience—and bus operations in general.
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2025/06/29/h...
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2025/06/29/h...
Going to publish a much longer look at bus operations soon, but it is just _incredible_ how significant the trip-level effects on performance are, even on fairly frequent routes. Two examples from the MBTA's network:
June 6, 2025 at 2:18 AM
Going to publish a much longer look at bus operations soon, but it is just _incredible_ how significant the trip-level effects on performance are, even on fairly frequent routes. Two examples from the MBTA's network:
For my money, one of the greatest gaps in benchmarking practice surrounds the *tactics* of service management — how different systems respond to incidents, gaps, congestion and so on. Gaining that knowledge just got a good bit easier, thanks to this incredible new tool:
A little thing I've been working on recently: real-time stringlines for the London Underground, using data from the Trackernet API: trackernet-stringlines.choochoo.systems
Trackernet Stringlines
Graphical Service Analysis for the London Underground
trackernet-stringlines.choochoo.systems
June 1, 2025 at 8:45 PM
For my money, one of the greatest gaps in benchmarking practice surrounds the *tactics* of service management — how different systems respond to incidents, gaps, congestion and so on. Gaining that knowledge just got a good bit easier, thanks to this incredible new tool:
Reposted by Uday Schultz
No only there will be zero accountability.
There will be zero lessons learned from the errors of this project because we will never know what went wrong.
So we will start from zero and make the same mistakes again and again and again...
There will be zero lessons learned from the errors of this project because we will never know what went wrong.
So we will start from zero and make the same mistakes again and again and again...
The worst part about a P3 is that it means no one has to actually tell the public how badly things have gone off the rails. More oversight and more frequent updates are crucial to keeping projects on track and management accountable -- www.thestar.com/news/gta/met...
Metrolinx quietly drops Deutsche Bahn, Aecon from multibillion-dollar GO expansion project
Deutsche Bahn, the German national rail company, and construction firm Aecon had been contracted out to operate and maintain GO transit in Ontario starting this year.
www.thestar.com
May 17, 2025 at 5:35 PM
No only there will be zero accountability.
There will be zero lessons learned from the errors of this project because we will never know what went wrong.
So we will start from zero and make the same mistakes again and again and again...
There will be zero lessons learned from the errors of this project because we will never know what went wrong.
So we will start from zero and make the same mistakes again and again and again...
Continuing my series of posts on the railroad industry's immense challenges managing complexity and market alignment, I have (finally) finished some thoughts on the trajectory of railroading's growth engine: intermodal
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2025/05/11/w...
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2025/05/11/w...
Why Railroading’s Growth Engine Might Be Stalling
Over the past year, American railroads seem to have discovered the value in growth. After over a decade of Wall St-fueled cost-cutting and service reductions, regulatory and financial pressures aro…
homesignalblog.wordpress.com
May 11, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Continuing my series of posts on the railroad industry's immense challenges managing complexity and market alignment, I have (finally) finished some thoughts on the trajectory of railroading's growth engine: intermodal
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2025/05/11/w...
homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2025/05/11/w...
Reposted by Uday Schultz
“Mommy, no. Mommy.”
Daughter captures the moment masked ICE agents smash the window of her mother's car in order to take her into custody.
The government claims the 52-year old seamstress is an associate of the MS-13 gang.
www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/lo...
Daughter captures the moment masked ICE agents smash the window of her mother's car in order to take her into custody.
The government claims the 52-year old seamstress is an associate of the MS-13 gang.
www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/lo...
Rejected at her door, ICE nabs a Maryland woman in her car after smashing her window
Video shows a U.S. ICE agents breaking the window of a Maryland woman, Elsy Noemi Berrios, after failing to detain her at home.
www.thebaltimorebanner.com
April 9, 2025 at 10:49 PM
“Mommy, no. Mommy.”
Daughter captures the moment masked ICE agents smash the window of her mother's car in order to take her into custody.
The government claims the 52-year old seamstress is an associate of the MS-13 gang.
www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/lo...
Daughter captures the moment masked ICE agents smash the window of her mother's car in order to take her into custody.
The government claims the 52-year old seamstress is an associate of the MS-13 gang.
www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/lo...
This is an excellent post, well worth your time to read.
When contrasting this history to the US, it's hard to overstate the deleterious impacts of fragmentation on investment. Marco's emphasis on the importance of nationalization is critical!
When contrasting this history to the US, it's hard to overstate the deleterious impacts of fragmentation on investment. Marco's emphasis on the importance of nationalization is critical!
Here is my latest long post on Substack about the Long Modernization of the Italian Railways.
I tried to capture how the railways in Italy (and elsewhere) remained relevant to today's world and what this history teaches us.
I hope you'll enjoy it.
open.substack.com/pub/marcochi...
I tried to capture how the railways in Italy (and elsewhere) remained relevant to today's world and what this history teaches us.
I hope you'll enjoy it.
open.substack.com/pub/marcochi...
The Long Modernization of the Italian Railways
Why High-Speed Rail is not the only modern rail.
open.substack.com
April 6, 2025 at 4:11 PM
This is an excellent post, well worth your time to read.
When contrasting this history to the US, it's hard to overstate the deleterious impacts of fragmentation on investment. Marco's emphasis on the importance of nationalization is critical!
When contrasting this history to the US, it's hard to overstate the deleterious impacts of fragmentation on investment. Marco's emphasis on the importance of nationalization is critical!
Theoretically, dispatching buses to a timetable w/ accurate running times should yield similar levels of service consistency on most routes as pure headway management (so long as timepoints are well-placed). But I feel like I'm missing something--anyone have reading recs?
March 26, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Theoretically, dispatching buses to a timetable w/ accurate running times should yield similar levels of service consistency on most routes as pure headway management (so long as timepoints are well-placed). But I feel like I'm missing something--anyone have reading recs?