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In 1971, Amtrak took over what was left of inter city passenger rail. Or did it? While the agency never received much support and shriveled, commuter rail has thrived. Places that hadn't had it gained new lines. Some are quite long, even extending into other metro areas. Examples include San Jose-Stockton, Albuquerque-Santa Fe, Chicago -South Bend, and even Provo-Ogden. Many years ago, 75 miles was proposed as the demarcation point. But many services exceed that. Many consider 50 miles too long for a commute, but fine for occasional travel. Others have no problem commuting 75 miles each way. What's your definition?
My definition of commuter rail would be based on its use. If the vast majority of its travellers commute to work during peak hours, then it's commuter rail. Also, inter-city rail will have less stopping points only covering strategic and major cities or towns.
Although in small countries like Belgium, Netherlands, and the UK, the demarcation between commuter rail and inter-city rail is blurred. For example, Rotterdam to/from Amsterdam is only 40 minutes, and both are major business centers. It's common for both to have residents from either city to commute to the other.
I tend to prefer the term "regional rail" (which is what Philadelphia's Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority calls its commuter rail system) to describe any rail network whose lines stretch some distance from the city center and offer service throughout the day. Even those systems where the bulk of the traffic consists of people commuting between suburban residences and city jobs still perform a function different from "commuter" rail - for instance, they allow for intraregional mobility closer to that of rapid transit than to that of commuter rail (though infrequent service during the off-peak hours undercuts this potential. On SEPTA Regional Rail, most lines run trains once an hour off-peak.)
The neighboring New Jersey Transit system is an equally good example of "regional rail." It and SEPTA connect at Trenton, making it possible to travel from Philadelphia to New York City for much less than it would cost to take Amtrak; in fact, the existence of this service has allowed Amtrak to price itself out of the leisure/budget travel market and ensure the profitability of Northeast Corridor service. A small gap exists between the end of SEPTA's Wilmington/Newark Regional Rail line and Maryland Area Rail Commuter (MARC)'s Penn Line, which currently ends at Perryville; closing that gap would make reasonably priced train travel between Philadelphia and Washington possible again, but there, I think both the time penalty over Amtrak and the fact that Greyhound and the discount curbside buses make only one stop between the two cities (Baltimore; some Greyhound runs stop in Wilmington too) might cut down on the potential market.
A similar but longer gap exists between the end of Connecticut's Shore Line East at New London and the end of the MBTA's Providence commuter rail line in that city. However, since closing it would probably require support from the State of Rhode Island, I doubt it will be closed anytime in the foreseeable future. In addition, the Shore Line East operates more of a commuter than a regional rail schedule.
And I suppose "commuting" needs definition. Certainly someone traveling to work or school several times a week is commuting. How about a baseball season ticket holder going to 80 games per year? One I would dispute is someone who works out of the New Haven office most of the time but travels to the New York office twice a month.
Yes in Europe a Boston-Providence, or NYC-New Haven, San Jose-San Francisco, Seattle-Tacoma or a Baltimore-Washington trip would be considered an intercity rail trip since in the UK there is basically Subway/Light Rail and intercity, while the US has Subway/Light Rail, Regional, Inter-regional. So MBTA Commuter Rail and SEPTA Regional rail for example both have 130,000 daily riders, and on routes they share with Amtrak such as Worcester to Boston or Philly to Wilmington they capture over 90% of the market share, and overall both carry more passengers than Amtrak does on its entire system.
Perhaps frequency of service can be used to distinguish between commuter/regional from inter-city. In Europe generally, commuter rail usually have a frequency of one every 15-30 min, while inter-city tends to be every hour or less.
Perhaps frequency of service can be used to distinguish between commuter/regional from inter-city. In Europe generally, commuter rail usually have a frequency of one every 15-30 min, while inter-city tends to be every hour or less.
That can be used to distinguish the services in the United States too, except:
--The headways are longer all around;
--in a number of cities, the regional rail service is highly directional (IOW, there may be several trains into the city center between 6 and 9 AM and from it between 4 and 7 PM but two or fewer in the reverse direction at those times), and in several of those very infrequent or nonexistent at off-peak hours. New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago (and maybe LA Metrolink, but I'm not sure of that) are outliers in that all operate more frequent service in the non-peak direction during peak hours and in both directions at off-peak times.
That can be used to distinguish the services in the United States too, except:
--The headways are longer all around;
--in a number of cities, the regional rail service is highly directional (IOW, there may be several trains into the city center between 6 and 9 AM and from it between 4 and 7 PM but two or fewer in the reverse direction at those times), and in several of those very infrequent or nonexistent at off-peak hours. New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago (and maybe LA Metrolink, but I'm not sure of that) are outliers in that all operate more frequent service in the non-peak direction during peak hours and in both directions at off-peak times.
Unfortunately Metrolink isn’t an outlier. Nominally 30-minute service for peak commute times (for 90-120 min) and 1-hr service for reverse commutes. Some lines like Ventura have no service at all for reverse commutes.
The only Metrolink lines with decent service levels are San Bernardino and OC and OC only because it can be supplemented with Amtrak for most stations.
I tend to prefer the term "regional rail" (which is what Philadelphia's Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority calls its commuter rail system) to describe any rail network whose lines stretch some distance from the city center and offer service throughout the day. Even those systems where the bulk of the traffic consists of people commuting between suburban residences and city jobs still perform a function different from "commuter" rail - for instance, they allow for intraregional mobility closer to that of rapid transit than to that of commuter rail (though infrequent service during the off-peak hours undercuts this potential. On SEPTA Regional Rail, most lines run trains once an hour off-peak.)
The neighboring New Jersey Transit system is an equally good example of "regional rail." It and SEPTA connect at Trenton, making it possible to travel from Philadelphia to New York City for much less than it would cost to take Amtrak; in fact, the existence of this service has allowed Amtrak to price itself out of the leisure/budget travel market and ensure the profitability of Northeast Corridor service. A small gap exists between the end of SEPTA's Wilmington/Newark Regional Rail line and Maryland Area Rail Commuter (MARC)'s Penn Line, which currently ends at Perryville; closing that gap would make reasonably priced train travel between Philadelphia and Washington possible again, but there, I think both the time penalty over Amtrak and the fact that Greyhound and the discount curbside buses make only one stop between the two cities (Baltimore; some Greyhound runs stop in Wilmington too) might cut down on the potential market.
A similar but longer gap exists between the end of Connecticut's Shore Line East at New London and the end of the MBTA's Providence commuter rail line in that city. However, since closing it would probably require support from the State of Rhode Island, I doubt it will be closed anytime in the foreseeable future. In addition, the Shore Line East operates more of a commuter than a regional rail schedule.
Sorry, but it was the screwing of the taxpayers that has allowed Amtrak to keep its prices outrageously high, not the existence of an alternate route using NJ Transit and SEPTA between NYC and Philly. Unless things have changed, that alternate route ends at about 8:30 pm in Trenton, forcing all Philly bound travelers onto Amtrak. I missed that train too many times to be bothered with NJ Transit to Philly at night any more.
Sorry, but it was the screwing of the taxpayers that has allowed Amtrak to keep its prices outrageously high, not the existence of an alternate route using NJ Transit and SEPTA between NYC and Philly. Unless things have changed, that alternate route ends at about 8:30 pm in Trenton, forcing all Philly bound travelers onto Amtrak. I missed that train too many times to be bothered with NJ Transit to Philly at night any more.
I don't know when you last took that route, but SEPTA's Trenton Regional Rail line runs from Trenton to Center City until 12:30 a.m. and the NJT Northeast Corridor Line runs 24 hours. The schedules on both are timed so that there's only a short wait in Trenton.
Only riders wishing to catch a red-eye between the two cities must use Amtrak.
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