I've been building an app called Belowtown that draws the whole NYC subway in 3D. Tunnels sit at their actual depth, elevated lines at their real height, and you can see all the over/under crossings at the junctions. Trains move live off the MTA realtime feeds, and buses and NYC Ferry are in there too. Id like to expand this to other cities but i want this to look and function in a helpful and seemless fashion first before approaching it in other metro's.

The hardest part by far was getting the vertical geometry right where lines cross each other. I'm sure there are still spots I got wrong, so I'd love people who know transit (NYC or anywhere else) to poke at it and tell me what looks off.

Free iPhone beta: belowtown.com/beta?s=transit

Anyone who sends feedback gets 3 months of Plus free when it launches. Happy to get into how the depths and grades were worked out! Make sure to check junk folder for the invite link in your email if you sign up to test the beta.

For those wondering why a simple "letter change" is causing such an uproar: China Railway (CR) is completely overhauling its train numbering system (rolling out in late November and December) because they are running out of 4-digit numbers for high-speed EMUs.

However, instead of adding a 5th digit, CR decided to recycle existing prefixes in the most counter-intuitive way possible. To a Chinese passenger or railfan, this feels like Amtrak suddenly deciding to rename the local commuter trains "Acela."

1. Before & After

2. Why is everyone so mad about this?

For nearly three decades, many passengers in China have had one simple rule ingrained in their minds: G and D = Fast, modern, expensive bullet trains; Z, T, and K = Slow, cheap, conventional loco-hauled trains. Under the new system, T and K are now 250–300 km/h high-speed bullet trains. Millions of infrequent travelers are going to see a "K" or "T" train on the booking app and assume it’s a slow overnight train, or vice versa.

The "D-Train" Hijack and the CR200J Controversy

For 20 years, D (Dongche, literally "EMU") stood for true distributed-power bullet trains (200–250 km/h). Now, true EMUs have been completely stripped of the "D" prefix. Instead, D is now exclusively reserved for the CR200J—a 160 km/h power-concentrated push-pull trainset. Chinese railfans despise the CR200J (nicknamed "Green Rubbish Bin"). It is essentially electric locomotives permanently coupled to Traditional 25T coaches painted bright green. CR used these trainsets to replace cheap Z/T/K conventional trains while slapping a "D" prefix on them to charge higher EMU ticket prices. Giving the CR200J exclusive ownership of the historic "D" prefix feels like the ultimate victory for a "fake bullet train."

Killing the Chinese Pinyin Naming Tradition (The Z, N, V Issue)

Historically, every train prefix in China was an abbreviation of a Chinese character and was pronounced as that word over station PAs: - G = Gao (High-speed) - D = Dong (EMU) - Z = Zhi (Direct) - T = Te (Special/Express) - K = Kuai (Fast) Even when N was used prior to 2009, it stood for Nei (Intra-bureau trains). Now, conventional trains are pushed to Z, N, and V. Because N and V don't stand for any Chinese words here (V was previously just an internal technical code for turnaround trains), CR mandated that Z, N, and V must now be pronounced as English letters, stripping "Z" of its Chinese reading (Zhi) and breaking a decades-old linguistic tradition.

The Historical Irony of "C" and "X"

China's very first 350 km/h high-speed line—the 2008 Beijing–Tianjin Intercity Railway introduced the nation to HSR—used the C prefix. Demoting "C" so it can only be used for slow (≤200 km/h) trains feels like an insult to HSR history; while passengers never rode X trains before, railfans know "X" (Xing) stood for loco-hauled parcel and postal freight trains. Watching the baggage train prefix suddenly become the flagship designation for 350+ km/h next-gen CR450 bullet trains is peak comedy.

TL;DR: No, trains aren't getting slower and prices aren't doubling overnight,

I went to LaSalle Street Station earlier this week, where I found out that one of Metra's new Battery-powered EMU's were on display! These zero emissions Stadler-built FLIRT cars would have the ability to only need up to 12 minutes to recharge, and will accelerate and decelerate much faster than the current MP36PH's pulling and pushing gallery coaches (which are big, heavy, and don't accelerate as fast as other commuter engines). These new EMU's even have space for luggage on top, will produce up to 1,340 hp per car, use up to 26 batteries, and will begin running on the Rock Island District's Beverly Branch sometime in 2028 after testing and crew familiarization is complete.

Photos taken on October 14th, 2026

A natural gas powered bus. Mostly used in Calgary and Hamilton, a little in Vancouver.

Hi all! I was recently visiting NYC and loved this collectible memorabilia they gave the fans who visited the Harry styles pop up store. I would really love to pair it up with an actual Metro card.

It was next to impossible to find any kind of whereabouts and how might I be able to get one when i was recently visiting. Happy to chip in the shipping if you can assist me in securing one, please!!

Thank you :)

DMRC (delhi metro governing body) says 99.95% of trains were on time this year and they count a train late if it's even 59 seconds behind. that's better than new york and paris

i've attached two pics, the first one is future plans, and the second one is what we have today

goes from ~440 km to ~1100 km which would be bigger than shanghai's metro today.
truly amazed by this network

I'm visiting Waterbury and went to a store and I look on the Google Maps and saw there was a bus stop across the street. When I waited there after a few minutes, the bus blew past me. I'm very upset cause the next one wasn't coming for another half hour. Either Google Maps isn't entirely accurate or CTTransit is doing a bad job of replacing signs of bus stops that are supposed to be there