Talking Headways Podcast: The Annual Prediction Show with Yonah Freemark

This week we’re joined once again by Yonah Freemark for our annual two-part discussion of the state and future of transit in the United States.

This week, we discuss our predictions from last year — what we got right and wrong on high-speed rail and transportation funding — and make new forecasts for the coming year that include Seattle and Mexico.

Check out last week’s episode here and last year’s predictions here.

Scroll down below the audio player for an edited excerpt of our conversation, or click here for an unedited, AI-generated transcript of the entire conversation.

Jeff Wood: Alright, your turn.

Yonah Freemark: Okay. My prediction is about Mexico inter-city rail. So it hasn’t been talked about too much.

Jeff Wood: A little bit. In our circles.

Yonah Freemark: A little bit, a little bit, yeah. Canada has been doing all this inter-city rail stuff with their new high-speed rail line, but Mexico has been doing lots of cool stuff. They have the new Maya Train, they have this inter-oceanic train, and they’ve started to build some trains coming out from Mexico City.

And I’m gonna predict that they’re gonna make an announcement that they’re going to plan a high speed rail corridor from Mexico City to Guadalajara by the end of the year. So that’s my prediction.

Jeff Wood: Alright. I like that. You know, Claudia Sheinbaum, the president, I mean, before, with the previous president and her, I feel like at the beginning of her presidency there was, you know, crayoning all over the place. Maps coming out about what the system would look like and what they wanted to see, so I, I like that prediction. That’s a good one. Definitely is possible to happen.