This is my first post to the subreddit, so apologies if this isn't the best spot for this inquiry.

My brother and I are travelling with our bikes to Copenhagen in June. We are ultimately trying to make it to London, and were interested in any possibilities for travelling by ferry from Norway to the UK.

It seems like the last available line for this route (DFDS, here) closed in 2014; however, there appears to be routes connecting Esbjerg to the Hook of Holland, and then the Hook of Holland to Harwich in the UK.

Is anyone familiar with these ferry routes, and whether bicycles can be brought on them? Or, are there any other possible routes? We are considering other options as well (including trains and even riding from Espjerg to, say, Amsterdam), but for several reasons ferry might be the easiest.

Thanks very much, for any help!

Hello r/transit !

Seeing that BART is selling transit card stickers from their anime mascots made me think about decorating my own transit card. I was wondering if anybody here puts any stickers on their cards? Do you have recommendations for fun/cute ways to decorate your card to give it a bit of personal touch? I'm open to creative ideas! Even contemplating doodling on it with a sharpie.

Afternoon all!

I've got a transit trivia night that I'm putting together for my coworkers (at a transit consulting firm for context) and wanted to see if any of y'all had any interesting trivia questions I might be able to borrow!

I've divided the trivia into six sections: Trains and Rail, Aviation, Cars, Bus and BRT, Maritime, and Misc.

If anyone has any interesting trivia questions in those categories feel free to respond! International trivia and historical trivia is especially welcome.

It seems electrification has been getting some momentum in many systems especially here in north america. Caltrain in San francisco, Metra in Chicago, mbta in Boston & go transit in Toronto Canada all have something in common. They've either looked into the option or are currently in the process of buying the needed equipment for electrification. I wanted to see here what people thought of this. When these infrastructure projects are announced, especially in the US, things can get complicated with political issues, private citizens oposoed to the projects, funding issues & countless other issues. That leads me to a few questions I wanted to debate here.

1.Realistically speaking which projects have the best chance of actually being commissioned & completed?

2. Which systems mentioned above need electrification the most? How do we decide this? Do we go by population sizes for the areas served or the number of users who actually use the system versus total population since it could be argued more people would use the system if it fit the schedules/use cases of people not looking to commute.

3. What are the best options for rolling stock & general equipment needed once diesel engines are replaced? Would emus be best for one system over another? Can a bemu be a solid choice over full electrification with wires?

4. Can other agencies that already electrified their system produce any helpful insights or uses for non electrified systems like giving old equipment for test runs or reduce waiting times for systems just starting out with electrification? For example could Philadelphia's septa help in the ways mentioned above? Could agencies make a group bulk order for equipment to reduce costs & time for procurement?

5. Financing is probably the biggest single factor that could make or break a system converting to electrification. How can that be accomplished in a way that best benefits everyone from the riders to the state or agency? For example the mbta has struggled with funding for years. How can this kind of project move forward if funds can't be secured? Agencies need a funding solution that makes sense for their system.

Side note

Septa is the only system I can name offhand that has a really good picture of what our end goal is with other systems for reference. In other words it's about getting other agencies to be like septa in terms of equipment, logistics, scheduling etc. As someone not familiar with them I hope this makes sense since they might not be what im looking to replicate. If you're a septa user then definitely chime in to give insight. It might not be exactly what I'm aiming for.

Alright enjoy the discussion. Looking forward to hearing others opinions.

I was wondering how many public busses are in the united states? I look around and I cant find constant data because they will only tell you how many busses are federally owned. Not how many are operating in the US as a whole. I I don't mean charter busses or privetly owned busses, just publicly owned busses.

I talk about LA a lot on here, but that's largely for 2 reasons: 1) It's one of only four cities in the US that is largely making meaningful transit expansion (the other ones being Seattle, Portland, and the Twin Cities), and of those four, is expanding the fastest. 2) Los Angeles was historically the textbook example of sprawl in the United States, and is essentially "ground-zero" for the future of transit in the United States imo.

Meanwhile, both Chicago and the Bay Area have had problems with transit expansion and improvements. Chicago hasn't opened an 'L' extension since 1992, and the Bay Area has largely stalled on expansion as well due to funding and local opposition, seeing very limited growth compared to the 70s and 90s, and compared to LA today. I'm not too well-versed with the current status of the CTA governing board, but I have heard they've had issues with corruption, which is one of the biggest reasons they've had issues with expanding the system since 1992. Unless drastic changes happen, I can't help but feel the CTA will go the way of the MBTA in Boston.

To put in perspective how slowly Chicago and the Bay Area have moved in rail expansion, BART opened in 1972, and the Chicago 'L' has existed in its current state since 1992, at 129 miles and 103 miles respectively. Los Angeles didn't even have a rail line until 1990, but since then has grown to 109 miles. And yes, I know that track mileage isn't everything, however the lack of expansions will definitely hinder growing ridership. LA Metro actually already has a higher ridership than BART, and the future rail extensions should exponentially increase ridership. It is also slowly but steadily changing land use patterns around stations to increase ridership as well.

What do you guys think, what did I get right or wrong?

What are the best and worst announcement systems in the US in your opinion? Of course these are only systems I have ridden on so I can't speak for others. Here's my opinion on this:

Nice and Professional:

• MTA New York City Subway
• DC Metro, DC MetroBus
• MARTA Bus, Rail, and Streetcar
• LA Metro (Bus)
• SF Muni Bus & Rail
• BART
• SacRT Light Rail
• CTA Trains and CTA buses
• SunTran Streetcar & buses.

Too Talkative

• LA Metro Rail (Holy crap yes I realize you can use the LA Metro Transit Watch app! at every single stop!)
• Miami Dade Metro (I am going to "Check my area" at every stop!)

Robotic but understandable and professional

• Valley Metro Bus and Valley Metro Rail (Phoenix) -- My Home system, but the voice sounds like iPhone 4 Siri.
• VTA Bus and Rail -- Same system as Valley Metro, same iPhone 4 Siri voice.
• MTA New York City buses -- And same here....iPhone 4 Siri voice.
• Coincidentally all of these systems use Clever Devices as their CAD/AVL system, and what do you know? iPhone 4 Siri voice is common among them.

Too unprofessional and terrible sounding

• San Diego Trolley (MTS) --these are among my least favorite announcements. It just sounds like a stuffy nosed lady talking into a speaker, and not professional at all. Also there is a way to have the Spanish more integrated with the English, so you aren't just saying the English names with a Spanish accent, and calling it Spanish! Houston does a good job at putting Spanish mixed in with the English.
• RTC Las Vegas bus -- Terrible voice, and not professional at all.
• TheBus Honolulu -- same issue as Vegas.