Archive - The Transit Guy

49 Miles of the Fastest Track in America, and We're Running Diesel on It

On the Providence Line, the smallest improvements make the biggest difference.

Jun 10 • Hayden Clarkin

May 2026

What Amish Country Can Teach us About The Future of Rail

The Lancaster Model: Why a Small PA Town is Beating Your City at Rail

May 12 • Hayden Clarkin

April 2026

The Fault in Our Trains: Is the CAHSR Dream Dying in the San Gabriel Mountains?

26 Minutes or Two Hours? Exploring the “Interim” Plan to get CAHSR to Los Angeles.

Apr 1 • Hayden Clarkin

March 2026

Why the DC Streetcar Deserved its End

Redundancy by Design: The Train That Never Outran the Bus

Mar 2 • Hayden Clarkin

February 2026

The Lost BART of the Midwest: Detroit’s 1974 Radical Transit Dream

100 minutes saved, a Woodward Avenue subway, and the world’s largest BRT, the "too ambitious" plan that Detroit still deserves today.

Feb 13 • Hayden Clarkin

January 2026

Why the Northstar was not our North Star: A Tale of a Rail Line Doomed to Fail

Minnesota’s Northstar is officially dead. While advocates mourn the loss, we have to face the hard truth: we built a park and ride train for a 9-to-5…

Jan 20 • Hayden Clarkin

December 2025

What if the Polar Express went to Detroit?

A serious case for Michigan’s most obvious rail line

Dec 22, 2025 • Hayden Clarkin

A College Student, A Gambler, and a Coastguardsman Walk onto a Train

Why Eastern Connecticut’s rail future isn’t a $500 million pipe dream, it’s a $130 million reality we can build today.

Dec 12, 2025 • Hayden Clarkin

A Rail Line Grows in Charlotte

We finally bought the track. Now, why are we planning to run trains that are only 3 minutes faster than they were in 1938?

Dec 5, 2025 • Hayden Clarkin

November 2025

What if the Italians Built a Subway under Providence?

A Century Later, Providence Still Needs the Subway It Planned in 1914.

Nov 18, 2025 • Hayden Clarkin

The Busiest “Rail Line” You’ve Never Heard Of Is In the Suburbs of Atlanta

Atlanta’s 2.8-mile Plane Train quietly moves more people each day than most American transit systems, and might be the most efficient rail line in the…

Nov 7, 2025 • Hayden Clarkin

October 2025

What if the Staten Island Ferry was in Miami?

How a borough ignored by the subway built the most successful ferry line in the World

Oct 27, 2025 • Hayden Clarkin