Commuter rail in North America

New Jersey Transit has an extensive commuter rail system connecting New Jersey to New York City and Philadelphia.

A Metra train in Chicago.

A GO Transit train on the Lakeshore West line in Toronto.

Commuter rail services in the United States, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Panama provide common carrier passenger transportation along railway tracks, with scheduled service on fixed routes on a non-reservation basis, primarily for short-distance (local) travel between a central business district and adjacent suburbs and regional travel between cities of a conurbation. It does not include rapid transit or light rail service.

Services

Many, but not all, newer commuter railways offer service during peak times only. For example, the West Coast Express commuter rail line runs trains only into Downtown Vancouver during the morning rush hour, and out to the suburbs during the evening rush hour. This mode of operation is, in many cases, simplified by ending the train with a special passenger carriage (referred to as a cab car), which has an operating cab and can control the locomotive remotely, to avoid having to turn the train around at each end of its route. Other systems avoid the problem entirely by using bi-directional multiple units.

GO Transit in Toronto operates mainly during rush hours on most lines, but offers all-day service seven days a week along its busiest corridor, the Lakeshore East line and Lakeshore West line. All of GO's train routes radiate from Toronto Union Station downtown. Future plans for all-day, bidirectional service on all lines are in the works under Metrolinx's "The Big Move" plan.

The Utah Transit Authority operates the FrontRunner (which connects the Ogden, Salt Lake City, and Provo metropolitan areas, or Wasatch Front), running on thirty-minute headways during weekday rush hours and sixty-minute headways at all other times on weekdays and Saturdays (there is no Sunday service). Service runs until after midnight on weeknights, and until just after 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. The FrontRunner is bidirectional during the entirety of its operating hours.^[1]

Most older, established commuter rail services operate seven days a week, with service from early morning to just after midnight. The Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) is the only 24/7 commuter railroad in North America. The Metro-North Railroad, also serving the New York City Metropolitan Area, runs at all times except the very early morning hours (usually between 3 and 5 am). The planned East Line and Gold Line, both part of Denver's FasTracks program, will run from 3 am to 1 am and 4 am to 12:30 am, respectively, with reduced service late at night and early in the morning. On these systems, patrons use the trains not just to get to and from work or school, but also for attending sporting events, concerts, theatre, and the like. Some also provide service to popular weekend getaway spots and recreation areas.

Most commuter rail services in North America are operated by government entities or quasi-governmental organizations. Almost all share tracks or rights-of-way used by longer-distance passenger services (e.g. Amtrak, Via Rail), freight trains, or other commuter services. The 600-mile-long (960 km long) electrified Northeast Corridor in the United States is shared by commuter trains and Amtrak's Acela Express, regional, and intercity trains.

Commuter rail operators often sell reduced-price multiple-trip tickets (such as a monthly or weekly pass), charge specific station-to-station fares, and have one or two railroad stations in the central business district. Commuter trains typically connect to metro or bus services at their destination and along their route.

Spread

South Station in Boston, Massachusetts is a major transportation hub for the MBTA's commuter rail services.

The two busiest passenger rail stations in the United States are Pennsylvania Station and Grand Central Terminal, which are both located in New York City, and which serve three of the four busiest commuter railroads in the United States (the LIRR and New Jersey Transit at Penn Station, and the Metro-North Railroad at Grand Central Terminal). The commuter railroads serving the Chicago area are Metra and the South Shore Line. Another notable commuter railroad system is Boston's MBTA Commuter Rail, the fifth or sixth busiest in the U.S. (after the New York, New Jersey, and Chicago area systems, and approximately on par with Philadelphia's SEPTA Regional Rail) with a daily weekday ridership of 130,600 as of Q4 2011. It serves the Greater Boston metropolitan area, and extends as far south as Wickford (North Kingstown), Rhode Island. The next-largest commuter railroads are SEPTA Regional Rail, serving the Philadelphia area; Caltrain, serving San Francisco to points south along the peninsula; and Metrolink, serving the 5-county Los Angeles area.

There are only three commuter rail agencies in Canada: GO Transit in Toronto, Agence métropolitaine de transport in Montreal, and West Coast Express in Vancouver. The two busiest rail stations in Canada are Union Station in Toronto and Central Station in Montreal.

Commuter rail networks outside of densely populated urban areas like the Washington D.C., New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, Montreal, and Toronto metropolitan areas have historically been sparse. Since the 1990s, however, several commuter rail projects have been proposed and built throughout the United States, especially in the Sun Belt and other regions characterized by urban sprawl that have traditionally been underserved by public transportation. Since the late 1990s, commuter rail networks have been inaugurated in Dallas, San Diego, Minneapolis, Nashville, Salt Lake City, Orlando, and Albuquerque, among other cities. Several more commuter rail projects have been proposed and are in the planning stages.

Rolling stock

Long Island Rail Road bilevel coaches in Bethpage, New York.

Commuter trains are either powered by diesel-electric or electric locomotives, or else use self-propelled cars (some systems use both). A few systems, particularly around New York City, use electric power, supplied by a third rail and/or overhead catenary wire, which provides quicker acceleration, lower noise, and fewer air-quality issues. Philadelphia's SEPTA Regional Rail uses exclusively electric power supplied by overhead catenary wire.

Diesel-electric locomotives based on the EMD F40PH design as well as the MP36PH-3C are popular as motive power for commuter trains. Manufacturers of coaches include Bombardier, Kawasaki, Nippon Sharyo, and Hyundai-Rotem. A few systems use diesel multiple unit vehicles, including WES Commuter Rail near Portland, Austin's Capital MetroRail, and South Florida's Tri-rail. These systems use vehicles supplied by Stadler Rail or US Railcar (formerly Colorado Railcar).

List of North American commuter rail operators

System	Country	Metropolitan area	Province / State	Number of lines	Avg. Weekday ridership (Q4 2014)[2]
A-train	USA	Denton County	Texas	1	7003190000000000000♠1,900
Agence métropolitaine de transport	CAN	Montreal	Quebec	6	7004756000000000000♠75,600
Altamont Corridor Express (ACE)	USA	San Jose–Stockton	California	1	7003460000000000000♠4,600
Caltrain	USA	San Francisco–San Jose	California	1 (1 proposed)	7004567000000000000♠56,700
Capital MetroRail	USA	Austin	Texas	1 (1 proposed)	7003280000000000000♠2,800
Capitol Corridor	USA	Sacramento–San Francisco Bay Area	California	1	7003450000000000000♠4,500
Coaster	USA	San Diego–Oceanside	California	1	7003490000000000000♠4,900
El Suburbano	MEX	Mexico City	Distrito Federal	1 (2 under construction)	7004880000000000000♠88,000[3]
GO Transit	CAN	Toronto	Ontario	7	7005200900000000000♠200,900 (2015)[4]
Havana Suburban Railway	CUB	Havana	La Habana / Artemisa / Mayabeque / Matanzas	8
Long Island Rail Road	USA	New York City–Long Island	New York	11 (15 former)	7005337800000000000♠337,800
MARC Train	USA	Baltimore–Washington, D.C.	Maryland / West Virginia / District of Columbia	4	7004352000000000000♠35,200
MBTA Commuter Rail	USA	Boston	Massachusetts / Rhode Island	14 (1 under construction, 5 former)	7005130600000000000♠130,600
Metra	USA	Chicago	Illinois / Wisconsin	13 (2 planned)	7005290500000000000♠290,500
Metrolink	USA	Los Angeles–Southern California	California	7 (3 planned)	7004412000000000000♠41,200
Metro-North Railroad	USA	New York City; New Haven; Poughkeepsie	New York / Connecticut	8	7005298900000000000♠298,900
Music City Star	USA	Nashville	Tennessee	1 (6 planned)	7003100000000000000♠1,000
NJ Transit Rail Operations	USA	North Jersey; New York City Philadelphia; Atlantic City	New Jersey / New York / Pennsylvania	12 (1 under construction, 1 former/planned, 3 proposed)	7005308523000000000♠308,523 (FY2015)[5][note 1]
New Mexico Rail Runner Express	USA	Albuquerque–Santa Fe	New Mexico	1	7003340000000000000♠3,400
Northstar Line	USA	Minneapolis–Saint Paul	Minnesota	1 (7 proposed)	7003250000000000000♠2,500
Panama Canal Railway	PAN	Panama City–Colón	Panamá / Colón	1
Regional Transportation District	USA	Denver	Colorado	2 (2 under construction)
South Shore Line	USA	Chicago–South Bend	Illinois / Indiana	1 (1 proposed)	7004118000000000000♠11,800
SEPTA Regional Rail	USA	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania / New Jersey / Delaware	13 (1 former)	7005134600000000000♠134,600
Shore Line East	USA	New Haven–New London	Connecticut	1	7003220000000000000♠2,200
Sounder	USA	Seattle–Tacoma	Washington	2	7004137000000000000♠13,700
SunRail	USA	Orlando	Florida	1 (1 proposed)	7003320000000000000♠3,200
Tren Urbano de Costa Rica	CRI	San José–Central Valley	San José / Heredia / Cartago	4
Trinity Railway Express	USA	Dallas–Fort Worth	Texas	1	7003820000000000000♠8,200
Tri-Rail	USA	Miami–South Florida	Florida	1 (2 planned)	7004144000000000000♠14,400
Utah Transit Authority (the FrontRunner)[6]	USA	Ogden–Salt Lake City–Provo	Utah	1	7004168000000000000♠16,800
Virginia Railway Express	USA	Washington, D.C.	Virginia / District of Columbia	2 (1 planned)	7004179000000000000♠17,900
West Coast Express	CAN	Vancouver	British Columbia	1	7004106000000000000♠10,600
WES Commuter Rail	USA	Portland	Oregon	1	7003180000000000000♠1,800

List of under construction and actively planned systems

There are several commuter rail systems currently under construction or in active development in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Metropolitan Area	Country	Province/State	System	Official site	Other sites
Halifax	CAN	Nova Scotia	Halifax Transit	[7]
Ottawa	CAN	Ontario / Québec	Moose/Transport Pontiac-Renfrew*	[8]	[9]
Aguascalientes	MEX	Aguascalientes	Tren Suburbano (no official name yet)		[10][11]
Guadalajara	MEX	Jalisco	Tren Suburbano		[12][13]
Anchorage	USA	Alaska	Alaska Railroad (existing long-distance railroad, proposed commuter service)	[14]	[15]
Ann Arbor	USA	Michigan	WALLY	[16]	[17]
Atlanta / Athens / Macon	USA	Georgia	Georgia Rail Passenger Program, Georgia Brain Train
Boston / New Bedford / Fall River	USA	Massachusetts	South Coast Rail	[18]
Charlotte	USA	North Carolina	LYNX Red Line	[19]	[20]
Cleveland	USA	Ohio	Cleveland commuter rail	[21]	[22][23]
Cincinnati	USA	Ohio	Eastern Corridor Commuter Rail	[24]
Cloverdale–Larkspur (San Francisco Bay Area)	USA	California	SMART	[25]
Dallas / Fort Worth	USA	Texas	Tarrant Express (TEX) / DART Cotton Belt Rail Line	[26][27]
Denver / Boulder	USA	Colorado	RTD commuter rail	[28]
Detroit	USA	Michigan	SEMCOG Commuter Rail	[29][30][31]
Greensboro	USA	North Carolina	TRIAD Commuter Rail	[32]
Harrisburg / Lancaster	USA	Pennsylvania	Capital Red Rose Corridor (Capital Area Transit)	[33]
Houston	USA	Texas	Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas	[34][35]
Indianapolis	USA	Indiana	IndyConnect Green Line	[36]	[37]
Jacksonville	USA	Florida	First Coast Commuter Rail
Madison	USA	Wisconsin	Dane County Commuter Rail, Transport 2020 Commuter Rail	[38][39]
Minneapolis	USA	Minnesota	Red Rock Corridor / Dan Patch Corridor	[40]
New Haven / Hartford / Springfield	USA	Connecticut / Massachusetts	Hartford Line	[41]
Pittsburgh	USA	Pennsylvania	Eastern Corridor Transit Study (no official name as of 2010)	[42]	[43]
Raleigh / Durham / Cary (Research Triangle)	USA	North Carolina	Durham-Wake Corridor	[44]
San Antonio / Austin	USA	Texas	LSTAR	[45]
Scranton, Pennsylvania / New Jersey / New York City	USA	Pennsylvania / New Jersey / New York	Lackawanna Cutoff	[46]
St. Louis	USA	Missouri / Illinois	St. Louis Commuter Rail	[47]

• The proposal in Ottawa is actually 2 organizations proposing similar systems.

Former

The following systems have ceased operations since the 1970s.

• OnTrack, Syracuse, New York (until 2007)
• Champlain Flyer, Burlington, Vermont (until 2003)
• PATrain, Pittsburgh, PA (until 1989)
• SEMTA, Detroit, Michigan (until 1983)
• Former Erie-Lackawanna, later Conrail, service between Cleveland and Youngstown, Ohio (until 1977)
• Former Milwaukee Road service Milwaukee to Watertown, Wisconsin (until the early 1970s)
• Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad service from Pittsburgh to Beaver Falls, Pa. (until 1993)
• Parkway Limited, Pittsburgh, PA (until 1981)

See also

Notes

References