Transit Tangents

Denver’s transit network has a problem that most riders can name instantly: transfers. When a normal trip demands two transfers and long waits, RTD stops feeling like a real option for everyday life and starts feeling like something you tolerate. From Union Station, we sit down with June Churchill, Denver City Council candidate for District 10, and James Flatham, co-founder of Greater Denver Transit, to get specific about what fixes the system and what actually funds it. We dig into the prac...

Austin’s public transit is changing fast, and some of those changes are going to sting before they help. We break down the newest CapMetro updates across the Red Line, MetroRapid, and system-wide fare increases, with an eye toward what’s driving the decisions and what riders can realistically expect in 2026 through 2029. If you ride CapMetro, we want your take. Subscribe, share this with an Austin transit friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show. Send us Fan Mail Support t...

A 30-mile Kansas City monorail that runs from KCI to downtown, then stretches toward the Plaza and the Kansas City Zoo sounds like something out of a retro-future postcard. But once you look past the “wow” factor, the real questions show up fast: Where’s the map, what does it actually cost to build, and is this the best way to spend limited transit dollars in a city that already has momentum with its streetcar and buses? We walk through how this proposal is getting to voters through a petiti...

Brightline finally filed for bankruptcy and the internet rushed to declare private rail dead. We slow it down and unpack what’s actually happening: why trains can keep running through a restructuring, how a tangled ownership setup changes the story, and what $5.5B in debt teaches us about building passenger rail with long timelines and interest ticking from day one. We also go straight at the worst take we’ve seen online: that bankruptcy proves Americans don’t want trains. Ridership is risin...

SEPTA just put real numbers and real ideas on the table, and it changes the conversation about Philadelphia public transportation overnight. We’re joined by Jay Arzu, executive director of the Roosevelt Boulevard Subway movement, to translate the SEPTA Accelerate Plan into what it actually means for riders: faster trips, simple service, and a system that works for more people, more hours of the day. We get into the most exciting promise first, regional rail that runs every 15 minutes on key ...