I am doing some research as to whether a commuter rail line can be justified in the community where I live. The population feeding the line is about 50, 000 with a lot of growth expected over the next 20 years (20,000-50 000 people). The line would be about 30 km. The commute by both car and train would be about 45min with the car commute getting longer as the population increases. Parking in the city is abundant and fairly cheep ($5-$10 a day).
Does anyone know of a community with similar conditions where commuter rail has been successful (high level of operating cost recovery and/or good ridership)? Or even attempted?
Does anyone know of any research on factors which contribute to the success or failure of a commuter rail line?
Any info would be helpful. Also if anyone knows of another forum where I might get this kind of info that would be great.
I’m in Victoria Canada. The population of Greater Victoria is 300, 000 but the communities feeding the line would be at best 100, 000 and that wouldn’t be for quite a few years. The track is already there so that is the main plus but in my research so far it looks like you might be right. The population is too small. Also the level of congestion is not there to get people out of their cars.
We have a similar situation here in Cedar Rapids- a group is trying to re-establish commuter rail service between here and Iowa City, about 30 km to the south. Cedar Rapids has a population of alittle over 100,000, and the IC area probably has 50,000 when the U of I is in session. I’m very pessimistic that they’ll get it to fly, as the traffic on the fastest and most direct link (I-380) is not that bad, even during rush hour.
Many of the metro areas that have light rail and commuter rail also have traffic cameras. As part of your research, look at those traffic cameras during rush hours and compare them with traffic on main commute routes in your area. Following is a traffice camera site for the Salt Lake City area - which has a very successful light rail system and is installing commuter rail.
I feel a bit smug about the beauty of my home looking at those pictures. There are only two “freeways” leading into the city, both are only two lanes. The traffic gets a bit congested at rush-hour but never like some of those pictures.
I guess that doesn’t bode well for my commuter rail though.
I would suggest light rail units, on new, dedicated trackage or on the E&N (with whoever is running the line now and VIA working together-I know that this making sense thing doesn’t compute with government agencies/authorities involved in this sort of project!
Your population figure of 50,000 growing to 100,000 doesn’t tell enough. I think you’ll need to have accurate figures of how many people in your area would potentially use a commuter rail system – how many “regulars” travel each way each day. Is your area mostly bedroom communities, where people normally travel daily to a central area where the jobs are? Are the jobs convenient to where the rail system would run? Is there secondary public transportation to move passengers from the train stations to their ultimate destinations, and vice versa?
I’m looking at Chicago, which has one of the largest commuter systems in the world. We have surface lines extending like spokes in a wheel from Downtown Chicago out to the bedroom communities, although there is now enough industry and jobs away from the city itself to where many people “reverse commute” – live Downtown or in the city and travel away from the core area to go to work. Systems are more viable if they don’t have empty trains running on the return trips, which helps the revenues here.
Public transportation here includes Chicago Transit Authority and PACE bus lines, Metra trains and CTA surface and elevated lines. And our major arterial highways are still clogged between 6 am and 8 pm on weekdays. We used to have what they called morning and evening “rush hours” but those days are long gone.
Those of us who don’t use public transportation still subsidize it, thanks to state and federal funding that originates with our tax dollars, plus each public transportation entity gets a share of gasoline taxes added at the pump. In Chicago, where we have the nation’s highest gasoline taxes, as of yesterday we were paying 80 cents a gallon in taxes. And it gets worse as the price of a gallon goes up because the state and local taxes are based on percentages, not a fixed amount per gallon. Average price for
Does the area in question have any type of commutting/commuter service (buses,trolleys, etc.) in already in place? In other words, does the general public have previous experience using public transportation. If not, building a base of commuter traffic could be a slower process than if there is some type of commuter service in place and the general public is comfortable using it. Then again, any other type of public transporatation that is already in place could detract from potential ridership.
There is a transit system which is moderately well used and has been expanding to meet demand in the area that would feed the proposed commuter rail. I have a speculation that commuter rail may be able to draw additional ridership over transit busses especially as congestion increases resulting in longer car and bus trips however the city has also been working on implementing transit priority measures which may suffice to encourage a modal shift away form the car. If this is true then commuter rail may just create competition for the existing transit service.
Emily, you certainly don’t want to envision a commuter rail system that competes with existing bus service! Bus routes should be reconfigured, when possible, to feed into the rail system. One would hope that the rail service would offer enough of a speed advantage that it would offset the inconvenience of a two-mode commute for these people.