Rail Photo of the Month: September 2025

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Acela Express Power Car 2030

Location: Boston South Station, Boston, MA
Operator of Vehicle: Amtrak
Date of Photo: December 26, 2000

Last week, Amtrak’s “NextGen” Acela entered service on the Northeast Corridor, marking the beginning of the end for the original Acela trainsets that have been in service since late 2000.  I had the opportunity to ride Acela for the first time two weeks after it entered service and have been on it countless times since.  The first generation Acela was definitely an upgrade over the Metroliner service that it replaced, but it is still a far cry from what high speed rail travel is like in places such as Europe (where I’ve been) and Japan (where I have not).  That said, the Acela trainsets did not age well.  Additionally, the experience of riding them was always impacted by the fact that unlike high speed trains in the aforementioned locations, Acela shares tracks with slower conventional trains and the Northeast Corridor has many curves and other speed restrictions, limiting the amount of time on each journey that the train can reach its maximum speed.  

I don’t have any firm plans to ride the NextGen Acelas yet, but I’m sure I’ll have an opportunity in time.  What about you?

For more photos of Amtrak Acela Express, please click here.  

Rail Photo of the Month: August 2025

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Silverliner V 703

Location: Temple University Station, Philadelphia, PA
Operator of Vehicle: SEPTA
Date of Photo: April 19, 2012

SEPTA, the Philadelphia area transit agency, has been in the news quite a bit lately, and it isn’t for the best reason.  Due to an expected budget shortfall of over $200 million and seemingly no state funding coming through, the agency is prepared to cut service by 45 percent in the coming months.  A 20 percent service cut is planned for August 24, 2025, with an additional 25 percent service cut planned for January of 2026.  Among the proposed cuts for January is the discontinuation of five regional rail lines (Cynwyd Line, Chestnut Hill West Line, Paoli/Thorndale Line, Trenton Line, and Wilmington/Newark Line), served by Silverliner rolling stock such as the train pictured here.

SEPTA isn’t the only agency in the Commonwealth of Pennyslvania facing financial challenges right now.  Each of the state’s 67 counties has public transit service of some kind.  I don’t typically wade into politics here but should this funding gap not be addressed, it will drastically change the amount of public transit available across the entirety of the state in ways that frankly, I find unimaginable.  

For more photos of SEPTA Regional Rail, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: August 2025

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New Flyer XD40 17070

Location: Paca Street at Lombard Streetת Baltimore, MD
Operator of Vehicle: MDOT MTA
Date of Photo: November 23, 2018

I’ve lived most of my life in Maryland and don’t entirely understand the fascination that some people have with its state flag.  However, I find it very appropriate that the Maryland Transit Administration has opted for the past eight years or so to lean in heavily to the colors of the state flag in designing its current bus liveries.  Considering the literally “vanilla” liveries that preceded this one (the vehicles were white with a single blue stripe or a relatively small Maryland flag image depending on the livery), this is certainly an improvement from an aesthetic standpoint, in my opinion.  What do you think of it?

For more photos of MDOT MTA Core Bus services, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: July 2025

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Orion V 545

Location: Main Street at Roosevelt Avenue, Flushing, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: June 27, 2003

June 29, 2025 was a major day for bus network redesigns.  On this single day, Winnipeg, Canada, WMATA, TheBus, and to an extent Ride On in the Washington, DC area, and Queens, NY (and maybe elsewhere, too, but those are the ones I am aware of) all implemented new bus networks.  In “honor” of the occasion, I posted about the now former L2 route in DC last month, so I thought for this month I should shift the focus to somewhere else.  I don’t have so many photos of buses in Queens, but I did find this one from 2003.  The Q15 still exists post redesign phase one, but with some minor rerouting, and a new limited stop Q61 also parallels portions of its route.  However, the Orion V pictured here won’t be operating on any of the revised routes as it was retired from the New York City bus fleet in the mid-2010s.

For more photos of MTA New York City Transit Orion Vs, please click here.  

Rail Photo of the Month: July 2025

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TGV Paris Sud-Est trainset 83

Location: Paris-Gare du Nord, Paris, France
Operator of Vehicle: SNCF
Date of Photo: May 18, 2008

While Americans wait (and wait) for the second generation Acela trainsets to enter service, they can always look at the French National Railway and wonder “what if” with regards to the development of high speed rail in the United States.  The second generation Acela trains were expected to enter service between 2021 and 2022, and as of this writing, they are not in service.  Once the second generation Acela trains are in service and delivered, the first generation fleet will be retired after approximately 25 years in service.  Meanwhile in France, the TGV Sud-Est such as the one pictured here debuted in 1981 on France’s first TGV line between Paris and Lyon and remained in service for about 38 years until December 2019.  Additionally, the TGV has a higher maximum speed (200 MPH versus 150 MPH for the first generation Acela) and uses dedicated high speed tracks, providing for faster trips over longer distances than the Acela can manage.  

Have you been on the TGV and/or the Acela?

For more photos of TGV trainsets, please click here.  

Rail Photo of the Month: June 2025

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Alstom 9000 Series

Location: Sagrada Familia Station, Barcelona, Spain
Operator of Vehicle: Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB)
Date of Photo: June 6, 2028

I thought I might have had an opportunity to visit Barcelona for a second time earlier this year, my first time having been back in June of 2008.  Things didn’t work out that way, which is OK, but I figured since it has now been 17 years since that trip, I might as well share a photo from it.  These 9000 Series trains were brand new when I rode them on Line 2 back in 2008.  They now operate on Line 4, Line 9, and Line 10 as well.  The trains on Line 2 and Line 4 are “semiautomatic” and have a staffed driver’s cab, while the trains on Line 9 and Line 10 are fully automatic with no on board driver.  TMB plans to gradually convert existing lines to full automation in the coming years.  So far only Line 11 has been converted, but preparation for converting Line 4 was started in 2023 and expected to take about 5 years.

For more photos of the Barcelona Metro 9000 Series Rolling Stock, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: June 2025

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New Flyer XDE 7150

Location: Connecticut Avenue, NW at Porter Street, NW, Washington, DC
Operator of Vehicle: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Date of Photo: May 30, 2025

Could this be the last photo I take of my first “home route”?  It is certainly possible.  As I wrote three years ago, a home route is the route that goes by where you live and therefore take at the start or end of most trips.  For many people, their first home route isn’t one they can necessarily choose, as infants or toddlers have no agency in deciding where to live.  This was certainly the case for me, as my parents lived right at the Van Ness Metro when I was born and we remained there until April 1992.  It was my home route again from November 2017 through November 2023.  

In just a few weeks on June 29, WMATA will launch its redesigned bus network.  For the first time since WMATA’s inception over 50 years ago and when it acquired four formerly private bus operators under the Metrobus umbrella, the DC area bus system is being entirely redrawn to meet the needs of today’s traveling public.  I won’t comment about what I think of some of the changes that will be taking effect at the end of this month, but if you really want to sleuth, they are part of the public hearing record leading up to the Board of Directors approving the redesigned network.  And the new Connecticut Avenue bus, the D70, isn’t going to be all that different than what the L2 does today (though arguably it will have more in common with the old L4 route that hasn’t operated in over a decade).  But this is the end of what I considered to be the first bus I regularly relied on, even if I was a very young child at the time.

Despite all the fretting in advance of these network redesigns, especially with regards to changed route numbers, people end up adjusting.  I lived in Jerusalem when that city’s Route 4 was renumbered to be Route 77 in 2014.  The 4 had been the 4 for longer than the State of Israel had existed at the time.  There was a feeling of “how could such a historic bus route have its number changed?”  But the change went through as planned, people have adapted to the new route number, and I don’t think most Jerusalemites even know where the now current Route 4 operates.  I expect the same to happen in Washington DC.  

For more photos of the WMATA New Flyer XDE40 Buses, please click here.  

Rail Photo of the Month: May 2025

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Comet I 5113

Location: Southern California Railway Museum, Perris, CA
Operator of Vehicle: New Jersey Transit
Date of Photo: January 19, 2020

Railcars can sometimes wind up far from where you expect them to, especially in their retirements.  The “Comet” railcar is a locomotive hauled commuter rail car, originally developed by Pullman-Standard.  They entered service for New Jersey Transit in 1970.  However, they were only able to serve low level platforms and only some of the fleet received modifications to serve high platforms in 1987.  Therefore, New Jersey Transit opted to lease or sell them to railroads in the western United States that exclusively have low level platforms on their commuter rail systems.  This particular cab car, along with some other Comet Is, were sent to Metrolink in the Los Angeles area.  Following their final retirement by Metrolink, some of them were acquired by the Southern California Railway Museum in Perris, California, where they are now part of the museum collection.  

For more photos of the New Jersey Transit Comet Is, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: May 2025

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Gillig Phantom 5409

Location: Montgomery Mall, Bethesda, MD
Operator of Vehicle: Ride On Montgomery County Transit
Date of Photo: July 1, 2003

Eagle eyed observers will notice this is the second Ride On Bus Photo of the Month in as many months, but Ride On is marking a significant milestone right now and therefore it seems worthy of a “repeat” feature.  This month, Ride On is hosting an event to celebrate its 50th anniversary.  The service began in March of 1975 with just two routes serving Silver Spring and Takoma Park.  Ridership almost immediately exceeded projections.  Since then, Ride On has grown to a system of over 80 routes and approximately 350 buses.  

In 2000 to mark its 25th anniversary, Ride On painted two buses silver and anyone who happened to catch one of those buses only had to pay 25 cents to ride instead of the standard fare.  Even after the 25th anniversary promotion ended, the buses would keep their celebratory paint schemes until their retirement.  Ride On would also decorate buses for its 40th anniversary, but there was no special fare promotion associated with them.  

For more photos of the Ride On Gillig Phantoms, please click here.  

Oren’s Reading List: An Inside Look at the Subway’s Archaic Signal System

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Last week, the New York Times ran an interactive article called “An Inside Look at the Subway’s Archaic Signal System”, which provided one of the most “behind the scenes looks” at the signal towers (and CBTC systems) that keep the New York Subway system running.  Check it out, though you may need to find a friend with the ability to gift access to see the entire article.  

Oren’s Reading List is an occasional feature on The Travelogue in which I share articles that I’ve read that might also be of interest to the readers of this website.