Commuter rail in North America
Commuter rail services in the United States, Canada, and Mexico 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 commuter railways offer service during peak times only, and on a round-trip basis. For example, West Coast Express runs trains only into Vancouver during the morning rush hour, and out to the suburbs in the evening. 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 at one end and can control the locomotive remotely so as to avoid having to turn the train around at each end of its route. Other systems avoid the issue entirely by using bi-directional multiple units.
Most commuter rail services in North America are operated by agencies of government entities or quasi-governmental organizations. Some share the tracks or rights-of-way used by 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 fare multiple-trip tickets (such as a monthly or weekly pass), charge specific station-to-station fares, and have one or two stations in the central business district. Commuter trains are typically connected to metro or bus services both at their destination and along their route to extend the range of accessibility.
Spread
In the United States, inter-city and commuter trains are operated mostly by Amtrak over a network that is far less dense than ones found in Europe or Japan. The most heavily used routes with the greatest ridership and schedule frequencies are in the Northeast Corridor and Chicago metropolitan area. About one in every three users of mass transit in the United States and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders live in the New York City metropolitan area.
The two busiest passenger rail stations in the United States are Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal, both in New York City, which also serve the three of the four busiest commuter railroads in the United States (Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit at Penn Station, Metro-North Railroad at Grand Central Terminal). The major commuter railroads serving the Chicago area are the Metra and South Shore Line. One could also argue that Amtrak trains provide express commuter services for the entire Boston-New York-Washington corridor (Regional, plus Keystone for the New York and Philadelphia areas), Chicago and Milwaukee (Hiawatha), Los Angeles and San Diego (Pacific Surfliner), and the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento (Capitol Corridor)
Commuter rail outside of Washington DC, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Montreal and Toronto metropolitan areas is more infrequent and less extensively used relative to networks in European and Japanese cities of comparable size.
Rolling stock
Commuter trains are usually powered by diesel-electric or electric locomotives, or in some cases use self-contained multiple units. Electric power in some instances is transmitted via third rail or overhead wire and catenary. Electric power is often favoured where it is available due to quicker acceleration, lower noise, and fewer air-quality issues. Electric power and even more so multiple-unit trains are, however, much less common than on European railways.
Diesel-electric locomotives based on the EMD F40PH design as well as the F59PHI are popular commuter motive power. Major manufacturers of coaches include Bombardier, Kawasaki and Nippon Sharyo.
List of Canadian, Mexican and U.S. commuter rail operators
There are 25 commuter rail systems in Canada, Mexico and the United States. They are:
Proposed and under construction
There are several commuter rail systems currently in development in Mexico and the United States.See also
- Interurban
- List of airport circulators
- List of light-rail transit systems
- List of rapid transit systems
- List of suburban and commuter rail systems
- List of United States commuter rail systems by ridership
- Northeast Corridor
- Public transport
- Regional rail
- Transit (transportation)
- Transportation in New York City
External links
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday October 09, 2008 at 16:06:19 PDT (GMT -0700)
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