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Alex
Alex "Tropical" Forrest 🚉🌴
@380kmh
#TrainTwitter - trains & train stations - passionate opinions on public transit & civic design - transit bureaucrat, but all opinions here are my own
May 27, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Found something remarkable when looking at Japanese mode split data (which looks at all commercial transport, but not personal cars, bikes, or walking)--this chart shows the percentage of trips between prefectures made using the national rail system (including Shinkansen) Image To be sure, the VAST majority of rail trips happen within and between major cities--but they control the highest mode split on obscure, low-ridership, super-long-distance/time trips
May 25, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
I take for granted that good transit should be a competitive option even for car owners, but many don't share this opinion, so let me step back a minute and entertain the idea that the car is *always* preferable if possible--what then? In that case, your transit market is every household in which the number of residents exceeds the number of cars. This automatically covers any household without a car, but also most with one car, and even many with two or more!
Mar 5, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
took the midnight bus back from Amherst last night, thoroughly buzzed off Harpoon and Landshark--was a little worried about falling asleep (the bus is very relaxing lol) and liable to motion sickness if I just stared at my phone the whole time, so I kept my focus on the windows the bus was completely empty when I got on in Amherst center, but when we pulled up to UMass there were maybe 20 people waiting--the first to get on was a group of 12 or so girls who, much to my surprise, immediately took all the seats closest to me
Mar 4, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
TELL EM Image peak pieck Image
Feb 24, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
In my case the event that opened my eyes wasn't living somewhere with good transit, but moving back to somewhere with bad transit--more precisely, moving back from Japan to the USA when I was 4 years old At first I didn't really notice much difference--I was still barely in kindergarten after all--but two things stand out in my memory...the first was me thinking "wow, these trains are REALLY loud," the second was a parent warning me against touching a wall because of the grime
Feb 24, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I wonder if there is a neotenizing tendency in evolution Was thinking about the evolution of chordates and about brain-body size ratio in humans and started wondering
Feb 24, 2023 • 18 tweets • 4 min read
Tangentially related--one of my issues with what I call "freight mindset" when applied to passenger trains is that customer/operator incentives are basically inverted... Freight wants a few big customers who need to move huge amounts of goods at very specific times--it's easier to plan for one big customer who needs entire trainloads of freight moved at a time (a uranium ore mine, for example)...
Sep 6, 2022 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
10 minutes walk from a bus stop (or 35 minutes from a train station) following the route towards the train station...
Sep 5, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
correct the greenest bus is a full one!
Nov 29, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
yeah and it probably has multiple trains per day, which is more than can be said for most Amtrak stations (and ofc most Americans don't live near *any* station to begin with) reminder that the point of a station isn't to look big and imposing, but to let people catch trains
Nov 26, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
revisiting death note--I maintain that it's not *deep,* but it's definitely *fun* nausicaa, by contrast, is deep, but isn't really fun

one piece, of course, is deep AND fun
Oct 6, 2021 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
what a fuckin day. time to wake up at 6 again. why is it specifically my earliest appointments that are the ones i can't do remotely
Oct 5, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
trains ARE charming in all seriousness the answer is that power lines take up more of your field of vision (one of the most common objections I hear on twitter to electric trains is that people don't like how the catenary wires look)
Mar 25, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
idk it's just the first thing that came to mind when i saw the nose masks
Mar 24, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
yes! when I'm on the clock, i think about transit; when I'm off the clock, i enjoy transit - the #TrainTwitter way spotted one of the new long-range electric buses at Union Station on my way home
Mar 23, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
LMAO we blew thru Mansfield before i noticed and could get the camera out. f entering BOSTON
Mar 23, 2021 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
approaching the bridge over the connecticut river the shore passes by like a dream...
Mar 23, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
the quiet car belongs to trainman not really, there's a single other passenger in here
Mar 23, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
back at penn station from downtown, an hour until my train....i guess i will stay here until then, don't wanna miss it i forget what building this is but i really like the terraced design Image
Mar 23, 2021 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
🙏 there are portals
Mar 23, 2021 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
back at it let's go