The Biggest Untapped Transit Opportunity in the US?

There is little transit expansion that would be as transformation as modern suburban rail across the United States. And you don't need to look internationally to find all the constituent elements of great suburban rail!

As always, leave a comment down below if you have ideas for our future videos. Like, subscribe, and hit the bell icon so you won't miss my next video!

=PATREON=

If you'd like to help me make more videos & get exclusive behind the scenes access and early video releases, consider supporting my Patreon! Every dollar goes towards helping my channel grow & reach more people.

=ATTRIBUTION=

Thumbnail image courtesy of Alan Fisher

=COMMUNITY DISCORD SERVER=

(Not officially affiliated with the channel)

=MY SOCIAL MEDIA=

=ABOUT ME=

Ever wondered why your city's transit just doesn't seem quite up to snuff? RMTransit is here to answer that, and help you open your eyes to all of the different public transportation systems around the world!

Reece (the RM in RMTransit) is an urbanist and public transport critic residing in Toronto, Canada, with the goal of helping the world become more connected through metros, trams, buses, high-speed trains, and all other transport modes.

[elizabethdavis]

Please consider making a video about train stations that double as malls and grocery stores.

[bobwhit]

Running New York Penn Station as a commuter "terminal" for two agencies is the root of all of its issues. Thru running is the one concept that renovation proponents have yet to see universally as crucial. It's hard to overestimate how important this is. Yet still so many proposals have their worth judged by to what degree they will increase midtown property values. Of course the challenge is merging the agencies. The future of suburban rail in the metro area literally depends on making this a reality.

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

Secaucus Junction is such an engineering marvel that was a no-brainer and has helped so many. NJ Transit operates in two divisions, Hoboken and Newark. The Hoboken Division was part of the Erie Lackawanna Railway, while the Newark Division was once the Pennsylvania Railroad and Central Railroad of NJ. These two divisions were never previously integrated (because competing railway companies), even when both were under Conrail. When ownership was passed to the state in 1983, they built connections where trains from the Hoboken Division would be able to switch onto the Northeast Corridor, but they still never had a direct transfer. Designing such a massive station without disrupting the active Northeast Corridor and making it withstand the nearly constant vibration was such a challenge, but they took it head on. The two-track Northeast Corridor embankment was expanded to three tracks for a mile on each side of the station and to four tracks through the station itself, allowing Amtrak and nonstop NJT trains to pass stopped trains. The two-track Bergen County Line was re-aligned southwestward to join the two-track Main Line to pass through the station on the four-track lower level. When it opened in 2003, it was named after NJ Senator Lautenberg as he was the one who helped allocate the funds to build it! He was a big supporter of NJT and Amtrak, including Access to the Region's Core. When he passed in 2013, he was fittingly carried onto an Amtrak funeral train from Secaucus Junction en route to DC. While initially designed as just a transfer station, they further realized its potential as a NJ Turnpike exit, parking, bus berths, and TOD were all eventually built. NJT definitely isn't perfect but with how much of the state you can travel to and from, the NJT system really does punches above its weight. As you mentioned, systems should be serving other big activity centers, and NJ Transit does that with having a station at the Meadowlands for games (and they've been improving the buses that serve the Meadowlands), EWR right on the NEC, and Atlantic City where the rail terminal is right at their convention center and of course close to the casinos. And at Newark Liberty International Airport station, they're increasing access to EWR station for those who live in the South Ward and Elizabeth, so pedestrians, cyclists, and bus riders can access the EWR station with a new plaza and pedestrian bridge.

And I'm not just talking about its trains for how it punches above its weight, but also its buses and light-rail. The Lincoln Tunnel has an Exclusive Bus Lane or XBL that saw 206, 000 buses at the end of the lane's first year in 1971. Today, the XBL averages over 1, 850 daily buses, which translates to over 463, 000 buses and over 18.5 million passengers a year! And NJT buses are more than just commuters. Like there are NJT buses that exist as dedicated shopper services like the 85 between Hoboken and American Dream mall via Harmon Meadow in Secaucus and the 320 that goes between the PABT and Harmon Meadow. The 320 exists for two reasons, for those who park at the North Bergen Park & Ride (a park-and-ride right next to NJT's Meadowlands bus garage) and take the bus into NYC and those who live in Manhattan that want to shop at Walmart in Secaucus since Manhattan doesn't have one. The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail mainly uses effective repurposed right-of-way to connect different communities of Hudson County and has played a significant role in the revitalization of Hudson County. Not to mention the River LINE acts as an interurban between Trenton and Camden and helped the smaller communities along the Delaware greatly.

[adammaguire]

I think a video explaining NJ Transit would be great… It has examples of great (and not so great) suburban and sometimes rural transit lines.

[TJDeLuca]

Thanks Reece for highlighting Philly/SEPTA’s regional rail tunnel - as someone who uses the suburban trolley line (Rt 101) daily and regional rail (Media/Wawa) more than weekly, we have great infrastructure in place that needs to get back to pre-pandemic service levels (and then some) so the entire Philly region can continue to have the best regional rail system in the US.

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

Even the LIRR takes people to other centers for activities like Stony Brook for college students, Belmont Park for the annual horserace or Mets-Willets Point for Mets games and the US Open. The importance of having an all-day service every day of the year cannot be stated enough. The NYC Subway is one of the few systems in the world like this, as well as PATH and even PATCO. Transit agencies need to remember that not everyone is home on Sundays, people wanna go places on Sundays too whether it's to church, errands, or to see a movie. And mid-day and evening services build rider confidence and overcome a lot of "what if..." objections like "What if I miss my train?", "What if I need to come in late?", or "What if I stay late for work?"

Even if they result in mostly empty trains at these off-peak hours, they boost peak hours commuter ridership just by existing, and they help prevent commuters from reverting to driving as soon as the traffic eases up again. And consistently good, well integrated regional services allow people to choose to give up a car completely, or to reduce the number of cars in their household.

[ananonymousoyster]

BuT ThErEs nO HoPe foR aMeRiCa JUst MoVe To hOlLaNd!1!1!1!1

[randomcharacters]

It's important that trains run during the day and late at night. Riders need to be able to rely on it in special cases to really habituate use. For instance, you need to pick your kid up from school in the middle of the day, or get drinks or dinner after work. If people have to plan specially to drive to make those kind of normal behaviors work, most people just don't make the train a normal part of their lives.

[TheLiamster]

RethinkNYC has an amazing proposal for through running. New transit hubs would be built in Secaucus and Sunnyside in addition to expanding Penn Station. It would cost a lot of money but would revolutionise regional rail in the NY metropolitan area

[whyamiwhat]

also worth noting that an awful lot of the US only needs to build platforms and passing loops on existing tracks to enable service to run in huge numbers of medium and small suburban towns - although obviously the stumbling point here is how hard the US seems to find challenging the big railfreight firms

[AshgabatKetchumov]

As someone who lives in both Canada and Japan, I've been thinking for a while now that it would be great if North American commuter rail systems took some inspiration from those in Korea and Japan: smaller but much more frequent trains, which also allow for faster acceleration and deceleration while reaching similar speeds, and express and local trains, which would provide more stations to people living between currently existing stations. Oh yea and the trains have been electrified for over 100 years. I see that NYC has had trains from Kawasaki for the past 10 or so years which is nice. At least in Canada's case, even something like Paris' RER would be nice considering the trains are/were built by Alstom and Bombardier who have built much of Canada's more recent rolling stock. That could be one option Toronto could look into as part of GO Expansion.

EDIT: Forgot interoperability as rail and metro/rapid transit as another benefit.

[hallnall]

Philadelphia has a very good commuter rail.

[jelly_fischer]

The US would be so OP if they made literally any effort whatsoever in regional rail

[artano]

I hope that VRE (northern VA) moves more towards regional rail and away from DC commuters. VRPA is improving the corridor to Richmond along I-95 and is purchasing right-of-ways in other parts of the state. Also looking at Saturday service. MARC should look into making, or purchasing, right-of-ways to make the 3 lines more like regional rail

[theflowerflora]

Hello! I am from Denver and as a daily user of the bus and train system I have to say that it is actually quite decent! RTD is currently focusing on improving service frequency! I would also love to see another video going more into debth on the RTD System Optimisation Plan which is planned to be in full service by 2028! Anyways thanks for the video it was great!
Also… I completely agree with the negative sentiment about the ordering of old train designs although due to the light rails system current design it seems like it would be difficult but certainly not impossible!

[kristofurbancsok]

Budapest has great suburban railway lines, which connect to the outer ring of the city backbone transit lines (metro and tram), and go far out to reach the suburban parts of the Budapest metropolitan area. I would like to see a video on Budapest's great public transport network!

[Geotpf]

Metrolink in Los Angeles has a very wide suburban footprint, with a wide variety of lines, one of which doesn't even go to downtown Los Angeles (plus the mutant ARROW system). The San Bernardino line is the only one that really has anything like hourly service, although along the LOSSAN corridor, if you combine the various Metrolink lines with Coaster and the Amtrak California Pacific Surfliner, there is very high service there as well.

[johngorman]

MARC is running diesel trains because Amtrak said they didn’t want to repair the electric ones anymore - but then MARC chose to not buy new EMUs. Big failure

[StreetMeGood]

The template for good suburban rail would also benefit larger cities that have smaller metros within 6o miles. For example, connecting Cincinnati to Dayton or Cleveland to Akron/Canton would give people in the smaller cities better access to larger city amenities/jobs, and the people in the larger cities better access to lower cost housing.

[Skip]

Yes! Thank you! I’ve been shouting about this for a decade! All of these sprawling Midwestern and Southwestern cities spending billions of dollars on downtown rapid transit (usually light rail), but then complain about low ridership because who is going to drive all the way downtown, then park, then take the light rail for three blocks? Hell, Detroit did this way back in the 80’s with the peoplemover (and Vancouver proved that the problem wasn’t that the technology was a gadgetbahn).

Especially since most of these metro areas already have rail lines crisscrossing them, which makes the capital costs much less than building a new metro system. (Of course, there are issues with single-tracking and fright-ownership, but that’s a different conversation).

Another important aspect is creating suburban rail systems that allow for cross-suburb trips. Not everyone is commuting to downtown every trip, especially in this post-COVID world. That’s my biggest complaint with GO’s expansion in Toronto. It’s awesome what they are doing to increase bi-directional all day all week service, but it is still a radial system. We need orbital routes as well!