Since gas prices began to soar in California Commuters are flocking to rails.
BART is growing by more than 1,000 passengers daily as reported in local paper.
ACE trains report marked increase in traffic and now that highway construction on 205 is about to begin even more will turn to ACE.
Sacramento’s light rail growth listed at 600 daily since gas prices topped 2.50 per gallon and continues to grow.
Peninisula commte trains are showing dramatic increase in passenger loads.
Many passengers turning away from family car due to fixed costs offered by commuter rail and local regional transit systems.
Trend in Southern California even more dramatic as those in love with cars turn to public transit and Commuter rail in unprecedented numbers.
Already some public transit companies are hiring additional drivers and ordering new buses.
Amtrak California showing increases on all routes.
Do you really believe 1,000 per day or is that a mistype? My bro lives in the bay area & I asked him if the hwy’s are less crowded during rush hour. He is commuting from Menlo Park south towards SJ & his answer was so far no. Do you know if Caltrans has stats say of cars using a certain f/way at 0800 last month, the month before that & so on backwards so you can determine if that newspaper article is even near correct. ? [:p]
Well do the math - figure 100 per car. That’s 10 carloads new every day. Figure 10 cars to a train. That’s one new train EVERY DAY. I don’t think so. Just more media hype!
I would believe it because we are seeing the same impact in Utah on TRAX. Ridership is currently 4 times the planning level. See the following article:
And as I posted before, that added weight of increase ridership in each car required TRAX to adjust the springs as the doors started rubbing the entry/exit platforms.
I tell you what, with gas prices over 3.25 here in L.A., and with my commute (120miles every day, I would do anything to ride a train, but a train doesn’t go where I go. I’m even concidering driving halfway and taking a bus most of the way and biking the other. I have to use the wife’s car now and she gets to drive my lifted truck. I look like a sissy driving a chick’s car, but a guys got to do what a guys got to do to save a buck for when it comes time to spend gas on railfanning.
Same story here in NY as Metro-North is experiancing a rise in not just people going to New York City but also people just going from one town to the next. They said there will be no fuel surcharge.
Thats not 1000 new people in one train on one trip, in L.A. there are dozens of trains a day over several routes, this could easily be broken down into 20 new riders on 10 daily trains on 5 different routes = voila! 1000 riders
It’s temporary. While some people will find the train works for them and continue to use it, most will eventually go back to driving their cars. They will determine that the combined hastle, time wasted and cost of using public transit more than offsets their monatary savings on gasoline. Auto trips are door to door. Train trips are station to station and often require at least one and two or more transfers and/or changes in mode to complete the trip. If gas prices level off, and especially if they decrease (even slightly), this will happen sooner than later.
I have lived in both LA and San Francisco. In both cities I took public transit routes into account when chosing a place to live. Even so, I went many places where my little gas buggy was the only viable choice.
I take it you havent been here in the last couple years, it worse, believe me! Where they can, people are now finding , riding and sticking to the Metrorail routes because driving simply doesnt add up anymore. LA to Montclair can now take 90min minimum on a bad day. Most new homes are being sold way east in the boondocks of Rancho Cookiemonster, Fontana, Norco, Riverside, Moreno Valley, north into Palmdale, Victorville and Hesperia, and west towards Cammarillo, Oxnard and Ventura . Unfortunatly many of their jobs are still here in downtown, Metrorail has been a blessing to them as they can commute via train and avoid the drudgery of the freeway.
The biggest screw-up here is that they’ve been focusing all the transit dollars on point east, north and far west, when they should have been figuring out what to do in the immediate metro area. We got the Gold Line from Pasadena to downtown, which I do ride, but what we REALLY need is a route from downtown to Santa Monica to take pressure off the 10 freeway, from Santa Monica down to San Pedro/Long Beach to relieve the 405, and from Downtown to the freakin airport! The proposed R
a real change (if any) is at least 5 to 15 years away, when choosing were to build the next shopping center, office building or development project people will start taking account of easyness of public transportation for the location.
Or when buying you new home you look how far the next station of public transportation for commuting to the workplace.
But that will revolutionise all the city’s organisation, going back to high rise centers where all you need is at walking distance (public transportation is mass transit !!).
But as long as movie theaters ,shopping centers and new homes are build at the most external location possible (as it was in Champaign IL, when I was there), there is no real alternative (for our standard of living…) to a car. And only 0.001% of the population will even consider to switch (1000 rides a day on a milion city is a statistical error…)
The last I had heard was that ridership was also up on Amtrak. I hope that is true. Hopefully instead of cancelling trains maybe it is time to start adding some.
Metrolink’s Board of Directors approved a 5.5% increase in all fares effective July 1, 2006. The board also authorized an increase in the maximum annual average fare for any station pair from 9% to 10%. Under Metrolink’s fare calculation system, an across the board increase in fares affects the cost for some trips more than others because of the continuing implementation of the 10-year fare restructuring plan approved in 2004.
In addition, the board also authorized the Chief Executive Officer to return to the board in January 2007 with a mid-year budget adjustment proposal as well as a potential request for up to an additional 2% increase in fares. Metrolink has faced significant increases in the costs of diesel fuel in the past year. Prices have spiked at times as high as 76% above the budgeted amount and currently are averaging 36% higher for the year. Every increase of five cents in the price of fuel results in an additional $300,000 increase in the annual costs to operate Metrolink train service. Fuel costs during the next fiscal year are estimated to be almost $4 million more than the current year’s costs.
(Metrolink quietly dropped their off-peak fares this winter also)
my brother in law took amtrak from virginia to come home for awhile.alot of people use virginia and maryland commuter trains to get in and out of Washington DC
stay safe
Joe
ridership is up in the Sandiego / Oceanside Coaster route also, The war dept. reports the Lexus and Bmw’s are left in the parking lots, Guess who has the high car paymrents or are they just smarter than Joe Toyota?
Just completed double checking original information and in actual fact Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is actually showing 1,200 passenger growth weekdays with the gas hike growing daily.
In fact every major commuter rail or RTD district in California is showing rapid growth at the present time and reports for Southern California are reporting similar weekday ridership increases.
Amtrak California trains are also reporting increased ridership since gasoline increased in price and continues climbing.
Sacramento reported $3.18 for regular today
Stockton reported average price for regular at $3.13 today and no end in site as to how much more it will climb before it might peak.