Commuter Rail and How We Can Make it Better: Episode 8

Streetsblog USA: What American Commuter Rail Can Learn From Paris

Links and stuffs

Timestamps

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:32 The News—MTA trialing platform screen doors ^[1]
• 01:29 Theme song
• 01:59 The history of commuter rail ^[2]
  • 02:14 The Long Island Rail Road ^[3]
  • 03:02 Pre-WWII commuter rail ^[4]
  • 04:17 As usual, the car ruined everything ^[6]
  • 05:17 Ridership crashed ^[5]
  • 05:44 The modern era; subsidized service
  • 06:40 Amtrak, Conrail, and municipal takeover (Northeast Corridor)
  • 08:16 The rest of the country (like California)
  • 09:01 The PATH train & the Port Authority ^[7]
  • 10:49 Canada & GO Transit, RTM
  • 11:25 New commuter rail movement (in response to highway congestion)
• 12:57 "New Start" commuter rail ^{[2] [9]}
  • 13:47 Many systems only ran rush-hour commuter service
  • 14:53 Massive park-and-rides ^{[10] [17]}
  • 15:50 2000-2017: America was all over new commuter rail
  • 16:39 FrontRunner's (Utah) all day service: regional rail
• 17:11 Commuter rail today ^{[2] [9]}
  • 17:19 Lacking service frequency :(
  • 18:14 Radial layout, lacking ring and inter-suburban connections
  • 18:31 The Long Island Rail Road runs 24/7/365
  • 19:41 Low ridership ^[11]
• 20:52 Building true regional rail
  • 21:15 Comparison of transit to roads (tiers)
  • 22:33 How can we turn our commuter rail into regional rail?
  • 22:44 The Paris RER ^{[12] [13] [14] [16]}
  • 24:08 Berlin S-Bahn, London Overground, etc.
  • 24:41 GO Transit electrifying and tripling service ^[15]
  • 25:45 Taking steps toward all-day regional rail
• 26:51 Outro

References & notes

1. [1] TimeOut: The MTA will trial platform doors at three subway stations
2. [2] The National Academies Press: History of Commuter Rail
3. [3] Wikipedia: Long Island Rail Road
4. [4] History to Go: The Bamberger Electric Railway
5. [5] streets.mn: Chart of the Day: US Transit Ridership over Time
6. [6] EDSITEment: Building Suburbia: Highways and Housing in Postwar America
7. [7] Wikipedia: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
8. [9] Wikipedia: Commuter rail in North America
9. [10] Not Just Bikes: The Trains that Subsidize Suburbia - GO Transit Commuter Rail
10. [11] streets.mn: Chart of the Day: US Rail Transit Ridership per Mile
11. [12] Wikipedia: Réseau Express Régional
12. [13] Paris by Train: Paris RER
13. [14] Paris by Train: Paris Metro
14. [15] GO Transit: Our Vision
15. [16] Streetsblog USA: What American Commuter Rail Can Learn From Paris
16. [17] Toronto bus & rail map