Trains of Thought

We in Los Angeles have been thinking a lot about trains recently. For decades now, San Francisco has had BART, New York, the MTA, and Washington, its Metro. Finally, L.A. is on the road to getting cars off the road, and it is doing so by building its own subway system (yesssss! ~ see "The Last Train Home," Jan. 2013). It's an exciting advance for us here, and there are less obvious but equally exciting advances and ideas being talked about for trains everywhere: http://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21578516-transport-new-train-technologies-are-less-visible-and-spread-less-quickly