Sacramento & Anchorage wildly different transit systems, same goal
From Alaska to California, transit always has the same goal
This week we continue our series of podcast and Transit Unplugged TV episodes from Paul’s recent tour of California and Alaska. And what a study in contrasts we have for you to see and hear.
We featured Henry Li, CEO of Sacramento Regional Transit District (SacRT) last week on the podcast, this week on Transit Unplugged TV we premiered the full episode from Sacramento, and on the podcast this week we have part one of our two-part podcast series from Alaska featuring Anchorage.
But before talking about these episodes, we have some numbers for you, just to give you a perspective on these episodes.
California is the largest state in the U.S. by population (about 39 million people), but Alaska is the largest state by land area. California is also the fifth largest economy in the world.
The entire population of Alaska is 734,000, but the Sacramento metro area alone is 2.4 million people (the City of Sacramento proper is 528,000 people).
Those are some massive differences in scale. But here’s the thing, the thing that matters.
No matter the transit system, in interview after interview, from the largest to the smallest transit networks, two things always come out loud and clear:
- Transit systems are essential connectors for the communities.
- The people who run the systems are passionately driven to make their communities better.
So as we look at the multi-billion dollar light rail project in Sacramento and the system in Anchorage where dealing with moose on the road is just another day, we can remember that both systems are doing the exact same things for their communities.
Sacramento’s deep connection with rail
So you know by now that Sacramento is the Capital of California. And you’ve heard Henry Li’s episode on the Transit Unplugged podcast. Now you get to see and experience it all for yourself with our Transit Unplugged TV episode from Sacramento featuring SacRT, amazing farm-to-fork food at Mulvaney’s B&L, massive transit oriented development (TOD) projects powered by expanded light rail, and even a taste of wine country.
Sit back and see how 150 years of rail history and rich agricultural land has made Sacramento the city that it is today.
This week on the podcast: Jamie Acton and Bart Rudolph from Anchorage
In part one of our two-part series from Alaska, join Paul in Anchorage to learn about life and transit in Alaska’s largest city. This was Paul’s first time visiting Alaska and you can hear the wonder and awe in his voice as he describes the trip.
We start off the show with a little primer on the largest state in the U.S. before diving into how transit is different in the Land of the Midnight Sun (and Paul got to experience the Midnight Sun for himself). Then Paul talks with Jamie and Bart about life in Alaska in general. What’s it like when you have 22 hours of daylight in summer but only 4 in the winter? What’s it like when you are literally 15 minutes away from true wilderness? And how these self-reliant folks all come together when people need a hand or disaster strikes.
This is unlike any other podcast episode we’ve had yet, well at least until next week.
Coming up next week on Transit Unplugged: Fairbanks, AK!
We stay in Alaska next week with Corey DiRutigliano, Michelle Denton, and Dey Johnson part of the team at FAST Planning and Fairbanks North Star Borough. Because Fairbanks is so unique we turned the tables a bit on the episode. First Paul and Corey talk about how Fairbanks got its start with gold and later oil. Then they visit a bird sanctuary in the middle of the city to talk about how the environment is so closely intertwined with every facet of life in Fairbanks.
We continue with Michelle and Dey from the transit agency to talk about their system, new facility, and just how do you deal with winters that dip to -60F and summers up to +95F?
