4 ms·

I'm about 45 miles outside of the city. Once you have 15 stops or so I'm not sure how much you can improve things? Express train line, which means fewer stops

by kiba 3y ago

I'm about 45 miles outside of the city. Once you have 15 stops or so I'm not sure how much you can improve things? Express train line, which means fewer stops or no stops at all between destination. There's probably various inefficiencies such as infrequent service and slowdown of the train due to track issue. For me, it's the issue of the train not being local to where I live, and infrequency of service, which means I could be waiting up to 20 minutes for the train to arrive in some cases. Stops are not as unbearable for me which felt like a minute or shorter for each stop.

ghaff 3y ago
My train line eliminated semi-express service during the pandemic and it's still very clearly much below pre-pandemic ridership. The transit service did make improvements a number of years back but it's still clearly operating well below economic breakeven. (Which may be OK.) The station is fairly convenient to me to go in for morning rush hour. It's unusable for an evening event. The train is basically empty if I even take it at the tail-end of rush hour. And trains are understandably infrequenty scheduled outside of rush.
- presentation 3y ago
  Transit demand has a chicken and egg problem, in that demand will increase if the service quality is high but in a place like yours the service quality is low so demand remains low. I don’t think this improvement can happen without a clear vision and integrated plan for achieving it, initial low metrics be damned.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    It's hard to make commuter rail work outside of commuting hours beyond a few locations like Manhattan that are so painful and expensive to drive in and park. I'd have trouble justifying subsidizing every off-hour rider with a $100 bill given there are trains; it just will probably take you 2 or 3x the time relative to driving if you want to head home after a play or a dinner.
    - presentation 3y ago
      Tell that to every small city in the world not in the USA that has a commuter rail system, there are too many to count but Americans think it’s an impossibility anyway.

by kiba 3y ago

ghaff 3y ago

My train line eliminated semi-express service during the pandemic and it's still very clearly much below pre-pandemic ridership. The transit service did make improvements a number of years back but it's still clearly operating well below economic breakeven. (Which may be OK.) The station is fairly convenient to me to go in for morning rush hour. It's unusable for an evening event. The train is basically empty if I even take it at the tail-end of rush hour. And trains are understandably infrequenty scheduled outside of rush.

presentation 3y ago
Transit demand has a chicken and egg problem, in that demand will increase if the service quality is high but in a place like yours the service quality is low so demand remains low. I don’t think this improvement can happen without a clear vision and integrated plan for achieving it, initial low metrics be damned.
- ghaff 3y ago
  It's hard to make commuter rail work outside of commuting hours beyond a few locations like Manhattan that are so painful and expensive to drive in and park. I'd have trouble justifying subsidizing every off-hour rider with a $100 bill given there are trains; it just will probably take you 2 or 3x the time relative to driving if you want to head home after a play or a dinner.
  - presentation 3y ago
    Tell that to every small city in the world not in the USA that has a commuter rail system, there are too many to count but Americans think it’s an impossibility anyway.