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> There are S-Bahn stations in Switzerland with 10 times the daily riders of BART that are nothing more than a signpost and a place to stand. Do you mean a spe
by vinay427 6y ago
> There are S-Bahn stations in Switzerland with 10 times the daily riders of BART that are nothing more than a signpost and a place to stand.
Do you mean a specific BART station? The average total BART daily ridership (400k weekday, 100k weekend) is roughly comparable to the total daily Zürich S-Bahn network ridership (400k-450k in one figure I found).
I'm not sure that Zürich has the most popular network in the country but I would assume it's up there. Bigger stations here are definitely smaller than that SJ monstrosity, and I really like how efficiently they're laid out, but which popular stations are you thinking of that are just a signpost and a place to stand? Even the most popular space-constrained ones in the city (Hardbrücke, Stadelhofen) are way more than that, and the only I can think of in the city that are basically just a signpost are those with relatively infrequent service (Seebach, Friesenberg, etc.).
In any case, I think Caltrain feels a lot more like the S-Bahn equivalent, and most of the stations aren't much bigger either. This seems to hold for several other commuter train services in the US, such as NJ Transit.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- jeffbee 6y agoI was admittedly thinking of a place like Friesenberg, but also stations along the Sihltal like Manegg. There's literally nothing to Manegg beyond a sidewalk[1]. Compare and contrast the monstrosity of the Warm Springs BART[2], which is one of the least-used stations. 1: https://www.google.com/maps/@47.337124,8.5196172,3a,75y,4.85h,92.38t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sfCkkiClYzqh3sa4meYZTcA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DfCkkiClYzqh3sa4meYZTcA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D26.297808%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@47.337124,8.5196172,3a,75y,4.85... 2: https://www.google.com/maps/@37.502989,-121.939301,3a,75y,198.99h,90.9t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1shbHfkMPENJf4JtttXen-Aw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@37.502989,-121.939301,3a,75y,19...
- Drunk_Engineer 6y agoSwitzerland benefits from having POP ticketing, whereas US planners insist on faregates. The only reason the US builds mezzanines is to manage the faregate queues.
- thaumasiotes 6y agoInterestingly, Caltrain uses POP, and indeed it has some stations that amount to a sidewalk next to the train tracks. So this isn't quite a "US planners" issue; Caltrain and BART serve different halves of the Bay Area. Caltrain manages to be much more dysfunctional than BART, sadly.