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Urban Wonk

How Public Transit Celebrates the Holidays

How Public Transit Celebrates the Holidays
Flickr/Todd Lapin

Continuing a bit of a tradition on this blog, here are some really fun photos of holiday festivity on public transit and rail systems. You'll notice some themes, including the Chicago Transit Authority's famous Holiday Train, and the amazingly photogenic holiday train from Canadian Pacific railroad, which not only crosses the length of Canada but also dips into America at times. Both the CTA and CP trains support those enterprises' work to collect and distribute food to the needy.

You'll also notice a lot of Santas. 

CTA's Holiday Train (by: thirdrail/Tony, creative commons license) CTA's Holiday Train (thirdrail/Tony/Creative Commons)

The CP Holiday Train (by: Di Benard, creative commons license)The CP Holiday Train (Di Benard/Creative Commons)

 Santas head underground in NYC (by: Eric Jaeger, creative commons license)Santas head underground in NYC (Eric Jaeger/Creative Commons)  

Streetcar Christmas, San Francisco (by: Telstar/Todd Lappin, creative commons license)Streetcar Christmas in San Francisco (bTelstar/Todd Lappin/Creative Commons)

The CTA Holiday Train (by: Devyn Calwell, creative commons license)The CTA Holiday Train (Devyn Calwell/Creative Commons)

Santas rock the subway at Grand Central (by: Sam Berlin, creative commons license)Santas rock the subway at Grand Central (Sam Berlin/Creative Commons)

 CalTrain in San Francisco (by: Telstar/Todd Lappin, creative commons license)CalTrain in San Francisco (Telstar/Todd Lappin/Creative Commons)

 The CP Holiday Train (by: Bench Just Because, creative commons license)The CP Holiday Train (Bench Just Because/Creative Commons)

 The CTA rounds a curve (by: Devyn Caldwell, creative commons license)The CTA rounds a curve (Devyn Caldwell/Creative Commons)

 Streetcar Christmas in San Francisco (by: Telstar/Todd Lappin, creative commons license)Streetcar Christmas, San Francisco (Telstar/Todd Lappin/Creative Commons)

 The CP Train makes a music stop (by: Di Benard, creative commons license)The CP Train makes a music stop (by: Di Benard/Creative Commons)

 The CTA Holiday Train (by: Devyn Caldwell, creative commons license)The CTA Holiday Train (Devyn Caldwell/Creative Commons)

 The CP Holiday Train (by: Eric Begin, creative commons license)The CP Holiday Train (Eric Begin/Creative Commons)

Many thanks to these great photographers. For more photos like these, see my holiday transit posts from 2009 and 2010.

This post originally appeared on the NRDC's Switchboard blog.

Kaid Benfield is the director of the Sustainable Communities program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an adjunct professor at the George Washington University School of Law, co-founder of the LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system, and co-founder of Smart Growth America coalition, and author of several books on cities, smart growth and sprawl. Watch for Kaid’s forthcoming book, . All posts »

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