^ thanks for the explanation!

Speaking of Canada, it might be nice to add Canada to the list.

If someone is interested in helping build that, I'd edit the first post to include it.

Not sure when the last time this project was mentoned may have been but San Francisco's Central Subway project (aka phase 2 of the T-Third St line) is making slow but steady progress (though it has fallen a bit behind schedule).

Existing T-Third line:

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4301/3...e6f23c82_b.jpg
https://www.sfmta.com/maps/muni-metro-map

Phase 2 extention (Central Subway)
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/J4zj...5_10.19.15.jpg
https://sf.curbed.com/2017/7/25/1601...central-subway

The Central Subway: Everything you need to know about it
San Francisco’s $1.5 billion route to Chinatown

For the future, it's largely a matter of money and somewhat one of vision (never a quantity in great supply here) but most transit-using San Franciscans hope there will be a phases 3 and 4 even though these are not yet planned--there is, however, a study underway):

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4323/3...4e09a498_b.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T_Third_Street

I can help. I already made a list in the Canada section.

Always thought it would be fun for this thread to be a North American thing but didn't want to impose myself.

Yeah I'd be down to see the two threads merged. I'm interested in transit developments of cities in both countries, would be easier to see everything in one place.

Canada is now included on the front page list

Here is what's included so far:

Heavy Metrorail:

• Toronto Yonge-Spadina extension - 5 miles (9 km)

Light Rail:

• Edmonton Valley line ph 1 - 8 miles (13 km)
• Kitchener-Waterloo ION line - 12 miles (19 km)
• Ottawa Confederation line - 8 miles (13 km)
• Toronto Eglinton Crosstown line - 12 miles (19 km)

Thanks to SkahHigh for sending me the list. If you know of updates going forward, please reply to this thread. The Transport Politic's Transit Explorer says Toronto's Finch West LRT & Montreal's REM are supposed to begin in 2017, so they could be impending additions.

Edmonton's Valley Line is under construction??

The project broke ground in April 2016.

What is the status Go RER in Toronto? Is there any work underway at the present time? This seems to be an evolutionary project but so important to Greater Toronto as Go moves increasingly from commuter rail to real rapid transit.

The next few years are going to be interesting in Canada as several more projects are expected to begin construction.

The list of GO transit improvements currently underway is long. RER is the largest public transit project on the continent right now, and construction is starting to ramp up. All of it except one is upgrades of existing lines to increase service currently however, only one of the planned extensions have started work. The Richmond Hill line is getting extended to Bloomington right now, which I believe is about 4km. Part of the Niagara extension should start before year end as well though.

Some stuff under construction right now in RER:
Stouffville double tracking
East Rail Maintenance Facility
Union Station Expansion
Union Station Rail Corridor signal & track switch upgrades
Barrie Line extra track
Kitchener extra track
Lewis Yard
Shirley Yard
Georgetown yard upgrades
Lincolnville Yard upgrades
Multiple station expansions and renovations
New Downsview Park station on the Barrie Line


Stuff starting by year end:
New 401 tunnel on the Kitchener line
Confederation GO (Niagara) extension
Multiple new stations
More Union Station Expansions
Full double tracking of the Barrie Line
More station expansions across the network

^any idea when electrification will begin?

SMART (north Bay Area) got FRA approval and will begin service August 25.

Great news, but they just started building the Larkspur extension.

How useful is SMART without the Larkspur station?

I'll admit the Larkspur station gets riders all the way to the ferry, where the ferry gets riders all the way to downtown SF, gets north bay commuters to there and home later probably quicker. There's around 600 thousand jobs in downtown SF, there's 130 thousand jobs in Marin County and 250 thousand jobs in Sonoma Counties.

You might also find this study interesting....... https://www.spur.org/sites/default/f...owntown_SF.pdf

There's almost as many jobs in the two north bay counties combined as there is in downtown San Francisco. Job growth in the suburban areas of the SF Bay area is increasing while the number of jobs in downtown SF has declined, at best has remained steady. There will be commuters who will take the train to the ferry, but they can also take a bus.

So I really don't think there will be that many commuters riding the trains to the ferry. The extension to Larkspur will increase the likelihood over time of seeing more reverse commuters from the ferry to the train to north bay.

Without Larkspur, the train could survive just accommodating north bay commuters within the north bay. That's why they decided initially to drop Larkspur to save on money, and get to it later.

The Maryland Purple Line, which has been ready to begin for the past year but was waiting to clear lawsuits, will finally break ground on Monday and will go onto this list at that time.

SMART rail in the Bay Area is officially open as of today!

SMART Train Debuts in North Bay
NBC Bay Area

OK. I've added the Maryland Purple Line and the Toronto Go extension to Bloomington. And I've moved San Francisco's SMART to complete.

Looks like they will be using the Siemens S70 trains which everybody on the east cost seems to be using (Charlotte, Norfolk, planned for Durham-Orange, Atlanta, etc.)

^
No. Some of the renderings do show that, but unless something has changed that I'm not aware of, they'll actually be using custom Urbos trams. They'll be longer/bigger versions of the Cincinnati & Kansas City streetcar vehicles.

Interestingly, they'll be the longest individual railcars in the United States.

https://ggwash.org/images/posts/201604-012215-1.png