BUILD. MORE. METRO. LINES.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

Glad Istanbul was briefly mentioned! Yes, it's true, Istanbul has one of the oldest underground transit lines built, the Tünel. It's unique not just because of its age, but also because it's actually an underground FUNICULAR! Created by French engineer Eugène-Henri Gavand after noticing people struggling up and down Yüksek Kaldırım Avenue and opened in January 1875. Making it the second-oldest fully underground urban railway in the world after the London Underground, and oldest in continental Europe, beating the Budapest Metro since Budapest's didn't open until 1896. The Tünel funicular is also rubber-tyred. The original rolling stock consisted of two wooden two-car trains. One car was reserved for passengers, with its two classes provided divided into separate sections for men and women. The other car was used to transport goods, animals and carts. Motive power was provided by steam engines. The wooden carriages were replaced in 1971 with two electrified steel cars running on pneumatic tires over concrete tracks, thus becoming a rubber-tyred funicular (La Havre's funicular is also rubber-tyred). In 2007, they got a new generation of rolling stock, with each car carrying 170 people at a maximum speed of 22 km/h (14 mph). A trip from top to bottom takes about 1.5 minutes, with normal waiting time 3.5 minutes. Istanbul's Metro system opened in 1989, trams returned in the 1990s as heritage and modern trams, a second funicular opened in 2006, Metrobus BRT opened in 2007 (52 km line with 44 stations in dedicated bus lanes), and the Marmaray commuter rail connecting the European and Asian sides opened in 2013. The Marmaray Tunnel beneath the Bosporus is 13.5 km long, became the deepest immersed tube tunnel in the world with 60 m (200 ft) below sea level at its deepest point, has three stations, is also used for HSR and freight, and was the first standard gauge rail connection between Europe and Asia. There is another interesting underground funicular system, Haifa's Carmelit. As the name implies, it runs through the religiously important Mount Carmel. It has a total of six stations and connects downtown Haifa with Carmel Center, and connects to places like the Haifa Zoo, Haifa Center railway station, and the beautiful Baháʼí World Centre. It's the oldest subway system in the Middle East as it opened in October 1959, but because of its small size, it's also one of the world's smallest subway systems as well, as the tunnel is just 1.8 km/1.1 miles long! During the time the Carmelit opened, the part of Haifa it serves was once the most important part, but now as Haifa's population has grown so much since then, that is no longer the case. So it struggles with ridership. There have been talks of extending the tunnels to reach more people, but this has not been done. It also doesn't help that when it was built, the technology forces it to have an even number of stations at approximately equal distances, meaning some stations are not close to major centers, but were situated for technical reasons.

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

As the famous saying goes, if you build it, they will come. Look at Pyongyang, DPRK for example. After US raids during the war in the 1950s, the city was effectively destroyed and needed to be rebuilt. Pyongyang was redesigned to become the ideal socialist city. Before the war, the city had trams, but said tram system was destroyed, so it built a new system from scratch. Before this system was built, trolleybus lines and a metro system were created. The trolleybus system first opened in 1962, with opening of a line from the Three Revolutions Exhibition at Ryonmot-dong to the Pyongyang railway station. Today, the system has 12 lines with a length of 56.6 km, serving Pyongyang and its suburbs. The Pyongyang Metro has two lines, the Chollima Line and the Hyŏksin Line, with the lines opening 1973 and 1978 respectively. This means the Pyongyang Metro opened one year before the Seoul Subway Line 1 did in 1974. The trams finally opened in 1991 as a solution for overcrowded trolleybuses, with three lines, and the Kumsusan shuttle that connects Samhung station with the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun. A ban on bikes was lifted in 1992, and now many people also bike alongside taking transit, and the government has built bike lanes and even introduced Ryomyong bikeshare. DPRK urban-planning includes limited urban sprawl, as new developments in DPRK cities tend to take the place of older areas of the city, rather than building new developments further out. In Pyongyang, this is the case with the developments of Mirae (Future) Scientists Street in 2015, Changjon Street in 2012, Songhwa Street in 2022, Hwasong Street in 2024, and Ryomyong (Dawn) Street in 2023. Micro-districts are made up of residences alongside their supporting amenities like public spaces, offices, shops, and schools. A key aspect is both the equality of the residential buildings and the encouragement of people to spend more time in the community, hence the focus on parks and playgrounds People shouldn't be making excuses for keeping cities car-dominant. It should be the goal to go from car required to car optional. Everyone should have access to all life has to offer regardless of whether you own a multi ton hunk of metal. Getting to school, medical appointments, and visiting family/friends shouldn't hinge on needing a car. If critics against urbanism actually cared about affordability/the working class, then they would know by not relying on a car, you're saving so much money not having to care about tolls, gas, maintenance, etc because you're taking a train or bus instead. And making this progress is very much possible in mid-sized North American cities. Look at Jersey City! In 2020, JC had a population of 292,449, in a land area of just 14.75 sq miles. Like Glasgow, Jersey City got a subway that was built many decades ago, the PATH or the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad as it was formerly called. While NYC's first subway line was built first, the planning for the H&M actually predates it, it was planned in 1874, but it was not possible at that time to safely tunnel under the Hudson. Construction began on the existing tunnels in 1890, but soon stopped when funding ran out. The goal of this system was to connect NYC with the different rail terminals on the NJ waterfront as before NY Penn's domination, different railroads had different terminals. This is why the PATH has stations at Newport, Exchange Place, and Hoboken, because of the former (except Hoboken which still exists as an active rail terminal for NJT) terminals! Jersey City has monopolized on its PATH stations with Citi Bike stations, protected bike lanes, and lots of TOD surrounding them, like at Journal Square, a major PATH and bus hub. And that's not all, there's a light-rail system the HBLR opened in 2000, serving places like Jersey City, Hoboken, Bayonne, Weehawken, and Union City. The system uses mostly repurposed old rail right-of-way, and even in downtown JC it's still in its own right-of-way except for Essex Street which is street-running. With a section of the HBLR downtown just like most of JC's PATH stations, that also means Citi Bike stations by these HBLR stations, bike lanes, and TOD as well. Not just downtown JC or Journal Square either, as new housing has been built by Liberty State Park, 9th-Congress, Bergenline Ave in Union CIty, stations in Bayonne, and Port Imperial in Weehawken. Jersey City has experienced an Austin-level housing boom, in a city MUCH smaller than Austin! And with Jersey City implementing Vision Zero just like neighboring Hoboken, JC experienced ZERO car-related fatalities on city-owned streets in 2022! Goes to show you what can happen to your city when you have so many who believe in it!

[@darrenncanton1836]

The biggest issue in the US is the stigma around public transportation in general. City and state governments practically bankrupt themselves with massive road projects in the name of "solving" or "easing" traffic congestion when the Braess Paradox of Induced Demand has been known and documented for nearly a century, yet those projects don't receive nearly the amount of blowback or skepticism from the public that transit does precisely because of the notion that "only poor people will use transit". All of the economic benefits (not to mention traffic congestion relief by removing cars from roads) don't move the needle when that stigma is unaccounted for.

[@michaelkinsella1559]

As Glaswegian the subway is great but the reason why I don’t need a car is the compressive train network as well as cycle and walking routes. I feel smaller cities can get big gains from the multi-modal systems.

[@threesixnine369six]

Glasgow has a lot of urban and suburban rails. They're far from perfect but they really go almost everywhere and carry a lot of people, they even go to the much smaller and further away Prestwick Airport but of course they don't go to GLA because why would they. There are about 200 train station in greater Glasgow, more than Manchester or Birmingham, second only to London. I did wonder if the size of Glasgow's rail network ever made it feel less urgent for the city to invest in a slightly different but way costlier type of rail.

[@nerdynerdynoob3733]

Glasgow does have a proposal called Clyde Metro, which is a combination of new metro (rapid transit) and tram lines. It unfortunately will not begin construction until like 2028 at the earliest

[@di_nervous]

The Glasgow subway gets a lot of attention for expansion which obscures the fact that Glasgow actually has a pretty amazing public transport system. What is actually holding back true mass transit in Glasgow is a lack of ticketing integration across the modes of transport, the infrastructure is actually all there and if some disused lines were re-opened with accessible entrances the city would be easily navigable if buses, subway, and trains all worked on one ticket.

[@MartinFarrell1972]

I agree with you. Visiting my sister in London I had an oyster card - rail, undregound, buses

[@lazrseagull54]

​​​​@@MartinFarrell1972London isn't the best example of an integrated ticket as you actually pay less if you only use buses and trams, which are subject to a flat fare, while the various rail modes are subject to a zone system and you pay different fares depending on how many zones you pass through. On the continent, there usually aren't tickets that are only valid on buses or only on trains. A single is valid on bus, tram, subway and local and regional trains for 90 minutes - 2hrs as long as you don't go back on yourself, while daily, weekly and monthly tickets are valid on all those modes in any direction until the ticket expires.

[@lazrseagull54]

I agree. The seperate tickets for bus and rail is my pet hate on UK public transport.

[@FlyingOverTr0ut]

Ironic that a car commercial played before this video. If we treated cars anything like cigarettes, we'd ban or severely restrict advertising them for causing 42k deaths/year in America.

[@golemofiron7250]

True, but with the suburbs we currently have, we have people who really want cars. I think we shouldn’t limit it until cities become dense enough in north America at least to where you don’t need a car

[@darrenncanton1836]

@@golemofiron7250 The conversation always seems to be some variation of "People live in the suburbs because people like the suburbs and they drive everywhere because they prefer driving." Lost in all of this argument is conversation about how so much of cities are mandated to be zoned R-1 single family, how minimum lot size is mandated, and mandatory parking minimums force developers to take up more space and sprawl outwards. It's not that more Americans prefer suburban sprawl to tighter, denser living. It's that the latter has been all but outlawed in many parts of the country through zoning restrictions and parking minimums.

[@Rhys-x4e]

The answer to stuff you don’t like is not always banning them

[@vacatiolibertas]

Love the Glasgow jump scare to start the video

[@tomq6491]

I think most of us would agree expansion of the Subway would be practicacable

[@bahnspotterEU]

It wouldn‘t be, no matter how many “ca” you add to that word

[@tomq6491]

@@bahnspotterEU and I am sure that Ulrikakakakaka Jonsson on a Canadian website would agree with that!

[@johngallacher7360]

As many others have pointed out Glasgow is very well served by local suburban rail, having the UK's second largest network with almost 180 stations on 13 lines.

[@klobiforpresident2254]

I live in a city around the population of OKC (proper, not metro, my town's metro area is weird). We have a fully at-grade tram system and a halfway-separated "metro" system. It runs in tunnels through the city centre and at grade elsewhere, but unlike the tram the metro usually has dedicated lanes at least. I'm quite happy with what my city has. I know such halfway solutions are frowned upon, though I wonder if they could be a good fit for mid-sized cities.

[@bahnspotterEU]

So a tram and a light rail/Stadtbahn?

[@klobiforpresident2254]

@bahnspotterEU, yes, that's the best way to phrase it for any readers who know what a Stadtbahn is. I assume outside of nerd circles it's a relatively unknown word and in hindsight I wonder who but transit nerds would watch a video with this title. ^^

[@mmrw]

They are a much better fit imo

[@klobiforpresident2254]

I am not from either, though I'd heard of Frankfurt before, at least. Maybe one day I can visit Ukraine. Edit : this responded to a comment asking if I live in Frankfurt or Kryvyi Rih. The comment seems gone.

[@danielzavala8014]

fun fact, there’s a fictional metro map for okc in the full circle bookstore! every time I see it, the urbanist in me dies bc it would be a dream to have it

[@eryngo.urbanism]

We love Full Circle

[@nuansd]

Gonna go cop that!

[@eryngo.urbanism]

It’s up on the wall, not sure it’s for sale. Please don’t steal from lovely local bookstores 😆

[@lindablackford1882]

I enjoyed this video for more reasons than I can get into here! Glasgow is a little more attractive than I remembered, but I still vastly prefer Edinburgh, which has nothing to do with the video! I can see what a challenge it is for a city to decide to construct any kind of mass transportation system, which is a shame because so many would benefit from it in lots of ways.. On a personal note, it was good to see Marigold and guess how many times the lovely Kaitie was going to get on the subway! Good job, Kyler!

[@andrewmcilwraith1997]

One wee thing, at the time the subway was built in Glasgow the city wasn't a small city - it had a population of 760,000 or so, 8th biggest in Europe, and with a huge conurbation. Populations weren't calculated like they are now and so large towns like, Paisley, Coatbridge, Hamilton, Motherwell, Clydebank, Renfrew and Rutherglen, all encircling Glasgow, were separate burghs and not counted. i.e. the city centre was the centre of a VERY large population for the time. The city was within the top 20 cities in the world at that time. So, it was not strange that they thought it should have a subway. It was privately financed. Never made a penny. If your medium sized American cities don't find it viable to build an underground metro, it is not surprising.

[@goldenstarmusic1689]

Never forget Sioux City had an elevated railroad as well! 1891, one of the oldest elevated passenger railways on the planet!

[@elizabethdavis1696]

Please consider doing a video on gentle density and economy’s of density

[@EForrest88]

worth noting as well was that Glasgow once had a huge tram network that sprawled out across the central belt (literally as far as Loch Lomond) up till the 60s/70s when it was all ripped up for buses.

[@tomlockett6421]

Great video and love the Glasgow Subway, but you've missed out the Liverpool Overhead Railway from your list of the first metro systems in the world. It opened in 1893.

[@eryngo.urbanism]

Whoops! Sorry about that

[@bark9396]

I've always loved how short the rolling stock is, never visited but I'm pretty sure I would get a headache from all the head-hitting lmao

[@MartinFarrell1972]

The second circle idea seemed like a good one. It was proposed with a Glasgow Crossrail and Glasgow airport link. All rejected by the SNP government for the Edinburgh trams, delayed and vastly over budget. The electirfication of some of the older overgound trains was delayed due to budget. My Town will be closing our rail for the month of January for electrification. First proposed 20 years sgo

[@contrapunctusmammalia3993]

that being said, scotland's ability to deliver rail electrification on-time and on-budget is an unobtainable fantasy for us south of the border. What's most impressive is that it seems like nobody was um-n-erring about batteries or discontinuous electrification, lines were wired even if they were single track. I trust it's East Kilbride you're talking about

[@andrewmcilwraith1997]

In a rare excuse for the SNP government, the Edinburgh trams were approved by Labour and the SNP only allowed them to go ahead. The construction had already started.

[@andrewmcilwraith1997]

@@contrapunctusmammalia3993 The Tories took northerners for saps who would put up with anything, and anyway they didn't vote Tory. Labour's in now. Don't take anything for granted. You HAVE to insist that northern powerhouse (or something similar) goes ahead. If they just blame the Tories for leaving them helpless, then parties like the Yorkshire Party will need to attract more votes. Do something. You are shat on constantly.

[@BalooUriza]

Here's a topic idea... induced demand. Yale Avenue between 81st and 91st is a great example. They widened that from 1 to 3 lanes on a side (with no public transit or bicycle facilities and an absolute joke of a sidewalk situation) and traffic is now worse than ever before. Or Memorial Drive at the Creek Turnpike. The diverging diamond's already failing from overload and backing up onto the turnpike again because Memorial Drive is over capacity, lacks transit and bicycle facilities and has a complete joke of a sidewalk situation.

[@darrenncanton1836]

"One more lane! One more lane will fix it! Just one more lane!"

[@electro_sykes]

What you haven’t touched on is Glasgow does have an expansive rail network.

[@linesteppr]

A little disappointed you didn’t wear the hiviz for the Glasgow segment. ;-)

[@TheFrogfather1]

Nice video. I was over in Glasgow last weekend and had my first ride on the shiny new Stadler trains. Hopefully when they become driverless the system won't close down at 6pm on a Sunday anymore!

[@DoubleHCreations]

We need the Roosevelt Blvd Subway

[@ellenowlin]

i'm just imagining now like integrating a subway stop inside penn square mall or quail springs, having both of those areas become similar to some of japans subway stations with tons of shops and restaurants. i'm sure it couldn't happen because they're privately owned properties.....but like can you imagine...

[@drumcorpslot]

Could you make a video discussing the monorail and how these could maybe be solutions instead of a subway?

[@therealscottadamsTM]

Chicago isn’t the second oldest, The Chicago 'L' dates back to 1892, making it one of the oldest elevated rail systems. However, the subway portion opened in 1943, far later than many older systems worldwide. So it can’t be the second-oldest subway system by any metric. The Chicago 'L' might have been mistakenly cited as the second-oldest overall rail transit system in the Americas, but Boston’s 1897 subway predates it underground

[@eryngo.urbanism]

Good catch. This is why we said it’s the second oldest grade separated metro system, not the second oldest subway.

[@therealscottadamsTM]

@ great video, we need to challenge motonormativity. I’m originally from Glasgow, which is still the largest city in Scotland, so it’s weird hearing it described as a small city, though it’s still larger than Nottingham where I live now.

[@Nicholas-ks8xp]

Halifax, Canada is going through a passionate debate since we're quickly growing with a population of 518,711 as of July 1st, 2023. Roughly 3% a year over year for the last five years. We have plans for Bus Rapid Transit corridors and ferries but the province doesn't want to fund it since it'll take lanes away from cars. It's looking around $420,000,000 Canadian dollars. Yet we're also going to launch a feasibility study on light rail. There's also talk to implement Regional commuter rail that could extend to regional express rail (RER) service. But as usual there's no political will or appetite for funding proper rapid transit in North America.

[@bschubert17]

Great video -- really enjoyed it!!

[@piccana_]

Nice video, well presented 👍 If you're in need for some more Glasgow related non investment in public transport content, you might want to look into the non existent Glasgow Airport Rail Link 🤦

[@Chris-55]

30K riders a day is REAAAALLLY low tbh

[@Sethepicchain1]

I live near glasgow!

[@mdhazeldine]

Coming from England, the wild thing to me is that you guys across the pond have SO MUCH SPACE to build transit. Your arterial roads are ridiculously wide. You could literally remove 2 lanes from every arterial road for a tram/LRT line and traffic would not suffer hardly at all (actually it would improve because of the light rail). You'd only need to build tunnels right in the downtown cores, which could come later, once a surface line has been established. in England we have an excuse, because everything is so narrow, but you guys are looking a gift horse in the mouth and turning away from it. Such a wasted opportunity.

[@RitwickChatterjee14]

The Glasgow-Edinburgh region (Central belt of Scotland) has an excellent public rail coverage, no doubt in that. But as you pointed out, a metro/ligh rail network within the densely residential districts connecting to such major transport hubs is the way forward economically & environmentally. Glasgow is dying, honestly. You made it look very beautiful in your video but in reality the city center is in worst condition post pandemic with empty retail units and sub-standard public space. Glasgow needs economic boost and for that moving people within the city-suburbans safely/reliably and bringing people from outside connections is very critical. Once you get these connections right, businesses shall willingly invest to provide services, generating revenues for the city. Right now such links are most served by buses, which in reality have limited capacity with limited frequency - becoming un reliable over longer routes which in return pushing Glasweegians more towards cars - which ultimately more costly per household to maintain. Significantly reducing spending capacity.

[@grahamturner2640]

How exactly is Oklahoma City worthy of having the tallest skyscraper in the country? I’d expect that a lot more out of Las Vegas. I’d also expect it more out of Phoenix than Oklahoma City, if the location of Sky Harbor Airport didn’t force any downtown height restrictions, which as of yet, nobody has built up to.

[@eryngo.urbanism]

Sometimes developers have ideas

[@nathanhamilton6951]

OKC resident here, what are your thoughts on the RTA's vision for transportation in the metro area?

[@eryngo.urbanism]

Looking forward to it! The Edmond - OKC - Norman commuter line is long overdue, and the airport light rail is a great idea, especially if we're looking to promote more tourism. The RTA BRT lines should also fit in nicely with the MAPS 4 ones currently in progress (the RTA seems to be shooting for a center-running alignment which will make their routes actual BRT), and the central hub for all of it being right next to the new Thunder arena just makes sense. It's going to be a long and arduous process to get all of these done, but it'll be well worth it in the end. Expect a video on this from us at some point in the future!

[@nathanhamilton6951]

@@eryngo.urbanism " (the RTA seems to be shooting for a center-running alignment which will make their routes actual BRT)" Didn't know that! Certainly glad to hear it. Thanks for the reply!

[@hank3368]

What’s the smallest US city that could justify a subway?

[@eryngo.urbanism]

Based on nothing but vibes, I’m gonna go with Merced, CA

[@sglenny001]

I actually say Glasgow did expand its system look at the argyle line technology not a subway line but acts like one Glasgow is best compared to philly in how it's public transport works

[@mikeymullins5305]

We will never have transit in america as long as politics is driven by money.

[@mchparity]

Yes, but I don't trust Auckland Council.

[@DoubleHCreations]

I stopped watching the news a couple weeks ago

[@kevinbarnes218]

probably the best thing to do atm