Jim Cameron

Recent Posts

TALKING TRANSPORTATION: Building Great (And Really Expensive) Things

During construction of Grand Central Maison, 200 of the 900 construction workers digging the huge tunnels were being paid $1000 a day but effectively doing nothing. This was discovered in 2010 and the excess workers were laid off, but the incident was not reported to the public which is paying for the project. – Jim Cameron Continue Reading →

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TALKING TRANSPORTATION: Contemplating the Legacy of Robert Moses, Mid 20th Century Urban Planner

From the 1930’s to the 1960’s Moses directed the building of 416 miles of parkways (Long Island’s Northern & Southern State and Westchester’s Taconic, to name a few), many bridges (the Tri-Borough, Throgs Neck, Henry Hudson, Verrazano-Narrows as well as the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel) and designed Jones Beach and the NY State Parks system. He orchestrated two Worlds Fairs (1939 and 1964) and helped bring the UN’s headquarters to New York City. Continue Reading →

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TALKING TRANSPORTATION: Amtrak Struggles

“Staff shortages for on-board personnel mean that Café Cars may not be in service or sleeping cars can’t be used, despite demand. That means fares will remain high. Like Uber, Amtrak operates on a “surge pricing” model: the higher the demand, the higher the fares. At last check, one-way from NY to Boston on the days before and after Thanksgiving was $309… in coach!” – Jim Cameron Continue Reading →

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TALKING TRANSPORTATION: What Metro-North Does Right

The railroad’s TrainTime app is a game changer. You can not only check the timetable, and buy a ticket but also see how crowded your arriving train will be (so you can find a seat). The app gets downloaded 6000 times a day and is used by 90% of all passengers. And to their credit, it was designed in-house by the MTA’s IT team. Continue Reading →

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