A Needham Line train enters Ruggles Station by Adam E. Moreira licensed under Creative Commons.

Boston commuter rail sees ridership rebound by prioritizing off-peak service. How tree planting efforts can reflect historic distrust in city programs. Cities are learning lessons from New York’s High Line and pursuing their versions of the project. Plus, a quote on Governor Hochul’s 11th-hour reversal on road pricing.

Boston commuter lines rebound: MBTA commuter rail lines are now close to recovering ridership to pre-pandemic levels. One of the changes that contributes to this positive trend is the agency’s decision to run more mid-day train service, which means all the trains aren’t tied up in peak hour rush. They are also adding more night and weekend service for people going out for entertainment or sporting events. (Dan Vock | Route Fifty)

Trees can be a point of distrust in cities: Low-income communities in cities around the county are less likely to have urban tree canopy that can cool their neighborhoods because of historic disinvestment by local governments. However, many of the folks who live in these communities are skeptical of tree-planting programs because of the distrust that developed after cities and their programs failed to deliver on their promises in the past. These communities are often left out of decisions about where trees are planted and have seen disinvestment in tree maintenance over the years, leading to overgrowth and unusable sidewalks. (Jingnan Peng | Christian Science Monitor)

The High Line effect: In the 2000s, an abandoned elevated rail line in New York City was transformed into a linear park, called the High Line, which drew new development and praise from around the world while also raising concerns about gentrification and displacement. Now, cities around the country are drawing lessons from the High Line to redevelop neglected infrastructure while employing strategies to deliver benefits to longtime residents who faced decades of disinvestment. Efforts have sprung up in cities like Miami, Houston, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. (Ankitha Gattupalli | ArchDaily)

Colorado’s new approach to highways: In 2022, the head of Colorado’s Department of Transportation called off the expansion of I-25 through the center of Denver. The policy change was the result of a 2019 law that required the state to reduce emissions by 90% in 30 years, which was signed by Jared Polis, the state’s climate-focused governor. Now the state’s largest Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) and transportation agencies must demonstrate how projects will reduce transportation emissions or risk losing funding. (This article may be behind a paywall). (Megan Kimble | New York Times)

The strange villainization of the walkable city: French scholar Carlos Moreno started sketching the idea for the “15 Minute City” in the 2010s after understanding that tech-focused approaches to planning would not create more sustainable cities. But the idea of having everything you need within a short walk of your home got twisted during the pandemic as tin foil hat conspiracy theorists took hold of the ideas and used them to scare up opposition to urban policies that center people over cars. (Michael Friedrich | The New Republic)

Quote of the Week

“It is nonsense budget politics. Hochul says that she has delayed congestion pricing because she is worried about the city’s recovery from the pandemic, but regardless of her reasons, she has now left a $1 billion hole in the transit authority’s budget. The New York Times reports that she wants to fill that hole by raising taxes on the state’s businesses. But that means that she has taken a tax formerly charged to some New York residents and businesses — but which would also fall on New Jersey and Connecticut residents and businesses — and shifted it entirely to in-state entities.”

Robinson Meyer in HeatMap describes the political and fiscal folly of New York Governor Hochul’s congestion pricing betrayal.

This week on the Talking Headways podcast, we’re joined by Cleveland journalist Ken Prendergast to talk about the competing interests of Brightline and Amtrak and the history of passenger rail planning in the region.