Good day my good friend.

Plain and simple for you today. Just be good to one another, and enjoy these stories.

Oh, and if you are in the UK and in an area with a local election today, remember to get out and vote!

If you have any suggestions for interesting news items or bits of research to include in this newsletter, you can email me.

James

We’ve been thinking about housing all wrong

More recently, I have been looking at the issue of housing and how it relates to transport. We currently are in the middle of a global housing crisis (just in case we don’t have enough crises already). This was prompted by Tom Forth’s excellent post on the need for more vacant housing, and this recent journal article on different ways to think about urban housing adds to the housing debate.

Simply, it states that we need to stop thinking about housing in terms of pure numbers, and actually show how we think how housing is valuable. Its something important to consider for us transport professionals. Not only do housing developments affect travel patterns, but the dynamics of the housing market really impact how individuals make travel choices through determining locations where they live. Its simple and obvious, really!

New and expensive rail projects in cities are opening

Yesterday, it finally happened. We got an opening date for a rail project that will transform a major global city. It will slash journey times, ease overcrowding on public transport routes, and make travelling by train a much more attractive proposition. And the project has been subject to repeated delays, cost overruns, and poor work. I am, of course, talking about the opening of the Sha Tin to Central Rail Link in Hong Kong on 15 May.

Oh, and some minor rail link in London is going to open on 24 May.

What I find interesting about both of these projects is not just their sheer scale – the Elizabeth Line was Europe’s largest construction project for many years and the Sha Tin to Central Rail Link is 46km long with 16 stations. But its about how a key part of their value is releasing capacity on adjacent lines. The Sha Tin to Central Link releases capacity on 3 adjacent lines (the East, Kwun Tong, and Tsen Wan Lines), while the Elizabeth Line will relieve congestion on at least the Central, Circle, and Hammersmith and City Lines, and the DLR. More capacity = more capacity for growth = good for the economy. Simple.

Random things

These links are meant to make you think about the things that affect our world in transport, and not just think about transport itself. I hope that you enjoy them.

• What you need to know about carbon dioxide removal (Yale Climate Connections)

• Pandemic pet boom breeds desire for dog-friendly offices (Washington Post)

• AI research is a dumpster fire and Google’s holding the matches (The Next Web)

• The Aerospace Industry Is Grappling With A Titanium Supply Shortage (Oil Price)

• Data centres now consuming more electricity than rural homes – CSO (The Irish Times)

Something interesting

Yep. EVs are here.

If you do nothing else today, then do this

Crossrail is here! Well, nearly, as the Elizabeth Line in London will finally open on 24th May. It will open in stages, and this post by Transport for London shares all the details on how this will be done.