The Switch Commuter Rail NEEDS To Do

Commuter rail in America suffers from low ridership during post-covid times. I'm gonna talk about the issues that commuter rails face and how they can solve these issues.

Thank you guys so much for the great feedback on my last video and 600 subscribers! It takes a while to make videos because I genuinely put time and effort into them. I really hope you stick around and see me improve the quality of the videos in the future!

Video Credits:
Fan Railer
Lance Wright
Timosha21
ArtiePenguin1
Retired Railfan Horn Guy
LINYTrains
CoasterFan2105
A-Train4014 Productions

[MikhailKutzow]

As someone who used to live in New Mexico, I absolutely think the Rail Runner should implement these changes. Santa Fe is a really lovely city to visit, so it's not hard to imagine that, if the service was better, you'd see it used more for day trips for any number of reasons.

It's great to see new creators in the urbansim sphere, and you've earned a subscription from me.

[intergalactic_butterfly]

Something you neglected to include when it comes to travel time, is the weight and acceleration of the train. Rolling stock in North America is grossly overweight because of stupid FRA rules, and for being so heavy, acceleration is very slow. Replacing diesel locomotives with heavy bi-level cars with modern multiple units would greatly increase acceleration, which will have a knock-on effect at each station stop to noticeably reduce travel time.

I recommend watching Christian Lenhart's video on why the Utah Transit Authority should buy Stadler FLIRT units.

[thefutureishere]

"And for the love of God, fix whatever this thing is."
Yes PLEASE do that as soon as possible.

[BigBlueMan]

I might humbly suggest Australia is the model US transit agencies should look up to. Australian cities have largely spent the last few decades slowly improving and expanding their suburban rail services, and are now genuinely pretty decent in many places which are still quite similar to US cities with extensive sprawl and car-dependancy.

-All lines in Australian major cities are electrified (except Adelaide, 1.5 million metro area, which still has 2 lines on diesel but planned for electrification).
-All lines have downtown city-centre tunnels or viaducts and allow through-running trains across town (except Adelaide which is the smallest major city and has been planning a city centre tunnel). Sydney 5 million metro area, Melbourne 5 million metro area, and Brisbane 3 million metro area, are all building new additional tunnels for more capacity and network reach.
-All lines run at least every 30 minutes all day, with lines in Sydney & Perth (2 million metro area) running at least every 15 minutes all day, and at peak times every 3-5 minutes.
-Perth (2 million) Melbourne (5 million) & Adelaide trains run with only 1 staff member (the driver only) on board, Brisbane and Sydney run with a guard as well.
-Bus networks in several of the cities were redesigned to run as feeder services to the trains, with significant success.
-Sydney+Melbourne and to a lesser extent Brisbane have done significant Transit Oriented Development around stations along existing or extended routes.
-Sydney+Melbourne are now building additional driverless suburban lines to complement the existing system and offer additional interchange and coverage with trains every 5min all day.
-Perth has built extensively in Freeway medians and deep into the suburbs, with high average speeds over 60mph and trains overtaking cars as a very visual reminder that transit can be effective, competitive & attractive.
-Sydney+Melbourne have achieved >20% of all trips via public transport and another 2-5% via active transit which is better than most cities in the US, beaten only by NYC.

[CTrail]

The New Haven Line is the US busiest line followed by the NEC Line of NJT. The Babylon Branch is way down the list.

[willhazen]

The South Shore Line will certainly be more of a regional rail model when double track is completed. With Chicago traffic, 79mph is competitive with the atrocious traffic on the Toll Road.

[groundzero_-lmmd]

My local commuter rail is moving to all-day 2 way service on all the lines, every 15 minutes.

It will drastically change how the region commutes.

[HolidayTheLeek]

As an Aussie, I've never understood why US (and broadly North American) commuter trains are so huge and infrequent. I was surprised to learn that Chicago - a metro area roughly eight times the population as the one I live in - has worse commuter rail than mine (30 minute frequencies off-peak). I feel like North American cities would really benefit from a suburban rail approach similar to ones found in Australian cities. We have similarly sprawling, car dependent cities here in Australia like the US yet travelling by train is still fairly commonplace. I reckon ditch the gigantic, slow accelerating trains that only run like twice a day and instead run smaller (ideally electric) multiple unit trains more frequently.

On another note - great video. I definitely agree that commuter rail over there is so underutilized. It's a shame since I really like how retro and industrial-looking US passenger trains (even metro stock) tend to look so it'd be great to see more.

[Noda]

I think you should make a video exploring reasons people might or would want to take public/mass transit to their destination.

I think a lot of folks get hung up on the time when initially looking into using transit and use that as a reason. But as someone who owns a car but chooses to take the bus to work with other people who own cars and bus to work we don't use transit because it's faster.

With traffic I live 10-15 minutes from the office. My bus ride is about 25-30 minutes long regardless of traffic. If I were to drive I'd have to put wear/tear on my car, use gas, risk an accident on the high way, sit in traffic, be stressed, get into the financial district, find parking and pay for it, and walk another 5-10 minutes to my office depending on where i can find parking. Then rinse and repeat at the end of the day. OR I could walk to my bus stop, catch the bus, zone out/watch YouTube/people watch/read/decompress and the bus whisks me to about a block away from my office. Sure maybe the bus tickets for the day amount to the same as a parking pass (post pandemic rates) but I am paying for the convenience of not driving with a total of 20 extra minutes a day. But for me I end up doing exactly what I would do at home on the bus. Watching/commenting on YouTube.

[nanaokyere]

It's actually odd how a lot of major US cities use this as a normal way to operate. Out here in Toronto we're starting to double track some of our routes so we can have all day 2 way schedules every 15 min peak time and half an hour off peak time so you don't have to wait hours just to go home. We're also electrifying our commuter rail which will result in newer faster trains in some corridors.

[rhysgreen]

I think that if the Rail Runner in particular needs increased frequency then it should have to be double tracked. Double track allows for greater capacity and less disruption. I personally think this is one of the issues with American Railroads

[torontonianspotter]

This video is on point, all systems both regional and intercity in North America need to make these changes. GO Transit has made a lot of progress over the years especially when it comes down to the basics of running a more efficient service. However most of these changes come about a decade and a half after they were demanded due to government bureaucracy and what not. VIA Rail in Canada is the exact same, tons of service on the corridor between Windsor and Quebec City and practically none in other areas of significance. I subscribed, great channel so far!

[cynthiakazmierzski]

I live in Montreal, where we have 5 commuter rail lines. Only two of them operate on weekends, and even then, very infrequently. The trains are huge though, bigger than some of our intercity trains. One of our commuter lines has been closed for a few years and is being converied to a light metro with much smaller, driverless and much more frequent trains. I think this could be a really good model for other lines in Montreal and other commuter systems in North America.

[boredtacos]

My favorite is when they still have a commuter pattern on weekends with an even reduced schedule. For example on Metrolink there is no way to do a day trip to Riverside from LA on weekends. Three lines run through there, but the Riverside line doesn't run on weekends, the 91 line has two departures to LA in the morning and return in the afternoon. The Inland Empire line also has this pattern and requires a connection with another line, but there is no possible connection on the weekend. I get not having money to run frequencies people really want, but I feel like it would be much more useful to have one going each direction in the mornings and afternoon rather than this.

[LemonDove]

The Rail Runner also needs to have more frequency to and from the southern towns on the weekends. Belen has some nice restaurants, museums, and a winery in walking distance of its rail runner station making it almost perfect for a little weekend outing. Unfortunately if you take the Rail Runner from ABQ to Belen on Saturday you’ll have to wait 5 hours for a train back.

[WBTravels]

There's another fix to the Rail Runner, Express trains. Run one express train every hour in each direction running the local trains every half hour, this way Express trains can only stop at the main stations cutting the 11 stations into just 2 thus it would take around 40-50 minutes.

[JordonMcConnell]

From what I understand, there are plans to make the rail runner hourly all day long. However, the funding that's allocated will get us just halfway to that goal by 2028. I appreciate that these improvements are expensive, but given that the nearby rebuild of I-25 along La Bajada is expensive and that the Paseo del Norte project cost nearly 180million dollars, there is definitely money available if we decided to invest it properly. I'm happy for our Rail Runner, and it definitely has the bones to be a great regional system. And New Mexico somehow already outdoes a lot of similar areas despite meager funding. Hopefully the will comes to really make it shine.

[SurflinerBoy]

I'm from Los Angeles: There are more infrequent lines on the Metrolink Orange and Ventura County routes, and i saw the fact there's more lowrider ship, and what you've said can be a good solution to All Metrolink Lines, and So as San Diego's Coaster

[amurtigress_mobile]

Holy moly. Here I am sitting in Germany watching this video, and I am catching a video snippet taken on our local Stadtbahn system. See 4:14
That's Marienstrasse Station, and the camera guy is stitting in a TW6000 Stadtbahn, of which 260 were built from 1974-1992.

What are the odds?! But now I have to continue watching

[EnjoyFirefighting]

me being in Germany: complaining about my village of 10, 000 inhabitants being served by commuter trains only 3 times per hour per direction, and with the airport being connected only by 2 slow commuter rail lines into the capital city every 10 minutes, and an hourly express train to a smaller city an hour north of the airport

Oh and wait: there isn't ANY city here where the commuter trains only go inbound in the morning and outbound in the afternoon. The go in and out ... not quite 24-7, but throughout the day, from the early morning until late at night