Inside the Wild World of Transit Fandom

In this episode of Transportopia, Rick L'Amie dives into transit fandom—from viral personalities like Francis Bourgeois and creators like Miles in Transit to virtual communities on Roblox, simulation games like Mini Metro and Subway Builder, and transit-inspired art and collectibles.

He explores how these hobbies create emotional connections to cities, transform transit into visual culture and community, and show how movement, memory, and design bring people together.

Show Notes / Links

Transit Fandom Articles

The New Yorker - Where Transit Fans Unite

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/rabbit-holes/where-transit-fans-unite

San Francisco Standard - Muni and BART superfans

https://sfstandard.com/2025/11/13/muni-bart-public-transit-fans-merch/

Creators

Francis Bourgeois Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/francis_bourgeois43/

Miles in Transit YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/@MilesinTransit

Seniac YouTube

https://youtu.be/QdAMHBmx_m0?si=IePBQY13DXrnbaF_

Saugat Transit

https://www.saugatransit.com

Saugat Transit Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/saugatransit/

Games and Simulations

Mini Metro

https://dinopoloclub.com/games/mini-metro/

Subway Builder

https://www.subwaybuilder.com

Metro Board - Design Rules Co.

https://www.designrules.co/

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Next, on the Transpertopia podcast.

(00:11):
That's precisely what I wanted.
Amtrak's Acela, the perfect train for business people doing business things.
But what do business people doing business things need more than anything?
Lounges.
This is the Transportopia podcast,

(00:35):
featuring engaging and sometimes humorous conversations
about transit's past, present, and future,
with the people shaping it every day.
Now, here's Rick Lemme.
Welcome to another edition of the Transpertopia podcast.
I'm Rick Lemme.
This week's episode is a little different.

(00:58):
Usually, we talk about transit policy and funding,
planning, technology, and the future of mobility.
But this week, I want to explore something lighter,
more cultural, and honestly pretty fascinating once I started digging into it.
Transit fandom.
Because once you start looking into it,
transit fandom makes you realize there's an entire online culture
built around buses and trains, subway maps,

(01:21):
transit games, photography, even collectibles.
And it's much bigger than I expected.
If transit fandom has a modern celebrity, it's probably Francis Bourgeois.
And it's properly thrashing as well.

(01:51):
That's precisely what I wanted.
Oh, God.
His train-spotting videos became wildly popular online
because his enthusiasm is so genuine.
Watching him react to passing trains feels less like internet performance
and more like somebody experiencing pure joy in real time.

(02:12):
And somehow, millions of people,
including people who don't really care about trains at all,
absolutely love watching.
Part of that is because the internet is usually drenched in irony and cynicism.
Francis is the opposite of that.
He's completely sincere.

(02:47):
Then there's another popular YouTuber, Miles in Transit,
who approaches transit culture from a completely different angle.
Miles has built a following around bus routes, transit adventures,
urbanist humor, and deeply nerdy transportation challenges.
Amtrak's Acela, the perfect train for business people doing business things.
But what do business people doing business things need more than anything?

(03:10):
Lounges.
Well, I visited them all in one day to find out.
One week, he's riding obscure bus systems.
Another week, he's trying to determine whether a route is practical,
ridiculous, or secretly brilliant.
The videos are funny, self-aware, and surprisingly informative at the same time.
Together, creators like Francis and Miles show how transit culture has evolved online.

(03:35):
It's no longer just traditional railfans standing beside tracks with cameras.
It's become internet culture, entertainment, community, and even identity.
People collect maps, debate systems online,
travel to famous rail lines, and they obsess over rare rolling stock
the same way sports fans chase memorabilia.
Some enthusiasts are called railfans.

(03:56):
In Britain, they're train spotters.
And among enthusiasts themselves, the ultra-hardcore fans
are sometimes jokingly called foamers.
Which still may be my favorite subculture term ever invented.
But underneath all this is something surprisingly human.
People forming emotional connections to cities and the systems that move them.
Transit culture is all over Instagram now.
There are entire accounts devoted to buses, trains, rolling stock,

(04:20):
station architecture, and transit photography from cities around the world.
Some creators photograph buses the way car enthusiasts photograph exotic sports cars.
And honestly, some of the imagery is beautiful,
and some, well, it's a little amateur.
But it's still delightful.
Transit systems create movement, rhythm, color, and atmosphere
in ways that are surprisingly cinematic.

(04:42):
What started as transportation infrastructure has quietly become visual culture.
One online platform I stumbled across was Saga Transit.
And that opened up another layer of modern transit fandom entirely.
Saga Transit is based on Roblox.

(05:03):
It's essentially a giant online platform where users create their own virtual worlds and games.
And inside Roblox, transit simulation has quietly become its own thriving culture.
Saga Transit is centered around a virtual transit agency
directly inspired by the real-life MiWay public transit system in Missauga, Ontario, Canada.
Players recreate routes, operations, fleet details, announcements,

(05:27):
and entire transit environments modeled on the real system.
And what's fascinating is how seriously people take the realism.
The buses, liveries, route structures, and operations are recreated in remarkable 3D detail.
What older generations did beside rail lines with cameras,
younger fans are now doing inside collaborative virtual transit worlds.
And honestly, that's kind of amazing.

(05:52):
One of the rabbit holes I completely fell into this week was Mini Metro on Apple Arcade.
At first, I didn't get it at all.
The interface is extremely minimal.
You're basically drawing subway lines while tiny passengers start piling up across the system.
Within minutes, my transit network was collapsing in a spectacular fashion.
It was weirdly stressful.

(06:14):
But eventually I stopped fighting the game and actually worked through the tutorials.
And then something clicked.
You suddenly start understanding bottlenecks, transfers, passenger flow, and rush hour pressure.
And once you understand the logic, the game becomes strangely hypnotic.
The music is calm. The design is elegant.
You start making tiny adjustments to the network and watching the whole thing breathe and flow in real time.

(06:37):
Until eventually, the system implodes because too many passengers are stranded on platforms,
which feels uncomfortably realistic.
If Mini Metro feels minimalist, Subway Builder goes in the opposite direction.
Created by developer Colin Miller and launched in 2025,
the game uses real-world census data, topography, ridership demand,

(07:00):
and realistic construction costs to let players design entire subway and regional rail systems.
Colin explains why he built his game in this clip from a YouTube video.
So, why did I make Subway Builder?
I was taking the 6 train back home, and I don't know why, it just stopped working.
I was going from Brooklyn Bridge City Hall to Spring Street,

(07:23):
and it got stuck somewhere in the middle for like 10 minutes or something like that.
I was annoyed, but then I started thinking about subways,
and I thought, well, it would be cool if there was a game where you could make your own subway system
that didn't have that problem.
So, I started brainstorming, like, okay, what are the things I wanted for my game?
Like, what's the bare minimum?

(07:45):
So, you need functionality to create routes and tracks and stations and all that.
The game has developed a passionate following among thousands of urbanists,
gamers, transit advocates, and rail fans.
Players build fantasy transit systems for real cities
while trying to solve actual planning problems.
And what's interesting is that the realism seems to be the appeal.

(08:08):
Transit simulation games aren't just entertainment anymore,
they've become a way for people to imagine the cities they wish they lived in.
My name is Cediac, and welcome to Subway Builder,
a game where you're given the task of starting a new transportation company,
and you have to build a subway network in very, very busy cities.

(08:31):
From transit planning to art,
one company that perfectly captures modern transit fandom is Design Rules Company.
They make transit-inspired art, collectibles, and audio projects
that sit somewhere between industrial design, nostalgia, and urbanism.
Their MetroBoard maps look like beautiful subway wall art at first glance.

(08:52):
Then you realize the trains, the lights on the art, actually move.
The maps connect to live transit feeds
and display real trains moving through systems in real time
in cities like New York, Chicago, and London.
It's part art piece, part data visualization,
and part living portrait of a city in motion,
and honestly, it's mesmerizing to watch.

(09:17):
I'm opening a pack of trading cards.
It says it's the Great American Subway Collection Transit Trading Cards.
Let's see, there's one, two, there's six cards in here.
Washington, D.C., Boston, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago.
This may have been the moment I realized transit fandom

(09:39):
has fully evolved into its own universe.
I just opened a pack of transit trading cards.
Yes, actual transit trading cards, and honestly, they're brilliant.
They're lenticular cards that animate when you tilt them.
Trains move into stations, transit scenes shift,
and the systems come alive in your hand.
Then you flip the cards over and discover actual transit stats in the back,

(10:02):
like baseball cards, except these are ridership numbers,
system details, and network information.
They feel like baseball cards for urbanists,
and the fact that they exist says something important.
People don't just use transit systems anymore, they identify with them.
Another fascinating Design Rules product is called City Sounds,

(10:25):
ambient recordings inspired by transit systems and urban environments.
Listening to them instantly transported me back to cities I've visited
and traveled through because every city has its own soundscape.
The echo of underground platforms, crossing bells, train brakes,
station announcements, all intermingled with sound and music.

(10:48):
The sounds become memory, part of an identity,
and maybe that's ultimately what transit fandom really is,
not obsession with infrastructure, but attachments to cities and humanity.
What strikes me most about transit fandom
is that it's rarely just about trains or buses.
It's about movement, memory, design, and shared public life.
It's about people connecting emotionally to cities

(11:11):
and the systems that help hold them together.
And honestly, in a moment where so much public life feels fragmented and isolated,
there's something fine and hopeful about all of this,
maybe even a little joy.
That's precisely what I wanted.
Oh, God.

(11:33):
Thanks for listening to Transpertopia,
the intersection of transportation and utopia.
We'll be back soon and get wonky again, I'm sure,
with a closer look at the pros and cons
of the Surface Transportation Build America 250 Act.
But for this episode, it was fun just to be a transit fan, don't you think?
Be sure to like and review us wherever you listen to your podcasts

(11:54):
and find more resources, links, and episodes at transpertopia.org.
Drop us a note. We want to hear from you at hello at transpertopia.org.
I'm Rick Lemay. Goodbye, everybody.

(12:24):
Transcription by ESO. Translation by —