Starts and Fits

A log about land use and transportation that is updated . . . from time to time

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Wednesday, December 31, 2008
2008: A Boom Year for U.S. Passenger Railroads

Two thousand eight may have been a bad year for the economy, but it was a great year for the United States' passenger railroads, notwithstanding the horrific crash in Chatsworth, Calif., on Sept. 12 that killed 25 people.

Nearly every U.S. railroad showed big ridership gains in 2008. Those at the bottom of the list below tend to be big-city, big ridership operations already, which means that movement up or down will tend to be muted because the denominator in the calculations is already a large number. Gasoline prices increased rapidly through July, accounting for much of this, of course, but ridership did not decline along with the gasoline price collapse that began in mid-July. This upholds the conventional wisdom that once people try the train, they stick with it.

Railroad	Service Territory	Jan.-Sept. YOY Ridership Change
Sounder	Seattle region	+26.79%
Rail Runner Express	Albuquerque region	+24.90%
Tri-Rail	Miami-Ft. Lauderdale region	+24.64%
Shore Line East	New London, Conn., to Stamford, Conn.	+17.45%
Altamont Commuter Express (ACE)	San Jose to Stockton, Calif.	+17.16%
Caltrain	San Francisco Peninsula, San Jose	+12.69%
Trinity Railway Express	Dallas-Ft. Worth	+11.76%
SEPTA Regional Rail	Philadelphia region	+11.22%
Amtrak	National intercity	+11.11%
Metrolink	Los Angeles region	+10.04%
Virginia Railway Express	Washington, D.C., Virginia suburbs	+8.97%
Coaster	San Diego to Oceanside, Calif.	+7.25%
MARC	Washington, D.C., Baltimore, suburban Maryland	+6.30%
MTA Metro-North Railroad	New York City, northern suburbs, Connecticut	+5.18%
NJ Transit	New York City & northern New Jersey, Philadelphia to Atlantic City	+4.82%
MTA Long Island Rail Road	New York City, Long Island	+4.40%
Metra	Chicagoland	+3.77%
MBTA Commuter Rail	Boston region	+1.69%
South Shore Line	Chicago to South Bend, Ind.	-0.43%
FrontRunner	Salt Lake City to Pleasant View, Utah	N/A
Music City Star	Nashville to Lebanon, Tenn.	N/A

Statistics courtesy of the American Public Transportation Association and Amtrak.

In terms of infrastructure, 12 new passenger rail stations were opened in 2008 where none had existed before, and three inferior stations were replaced with improved new ones.

On January 21, NJ Transit opened its new station at Mt. Arlington, N.J., in Morris County, which offers service on the Morristown Line and the Montclair-Boonton Line. This is the first new regional rail station to open in the New York metropolitan area since NJ Transit opened its Secaucus Junction station in December 2003.
On April 26, service began on FrontRunner, which expands the passenger rail network from Salt Lake City, which was already served by Amtrak's California Zephyr, north to six stations in Utah: Clearfield, Farmington, Layton, Ogden, Roy, and Woods Cross.
On May 31, Sounder opened its third station on the North Line, Mukilteo, Wash., in Snohomish County.
On July 28, Shore Line East closed its old station at Madison, Conn., and opened a new ADA-compliant station with high-level platforms.
On September 29, FrontRunner expanded north to Pleasant View, Utah, in Weber County.
On October 16, Amtrak opened a new and improved station at Picayune, Miss., served by the Crescent.
On November 19, Amtrak opened a new and improved station at St. Louis, allowing for the long-sought closure of the "AmShack."
On December 17, Rail Runner Express opened its Phase II, beginning service to Santa Fe, N.M. at two stations, Santa Fe Depot, and South Capitol, and simultaneously opened its station at Isleta Pueblo, N.M., in Bernalillo County.

The trend of new station openings should continue until next year, as the Portland-area Westside Express Service is scheduled commence operations in February with five new stations. Right here in the South Bronx, Metro-North's new Yankee Stadium station, with game day service on all three of Metro-North's main lines, and daily service on the Hudson Line, is scheduled to open in the spring.

Will ridership trends continue upward? In a faltering economy with fewer job opportunities and hence, need for commuting and travel in general, quite possibly not. However, with car repossessions all over the country turning two-car households into one-car households, it's possible that the railroads will be an increasing presence in the lives of those lucky enough to live in the regions they serve.

Labels: Amtrak, commuter rail, passenger rail, railroads, regional rail

- Posted at 4:39 PM | Permalink | Comments: 1 | Post a Comment |

Wednesday, March 12, 2008
America's Thriving Passenger Railroads

The Long Island Rail Road is the busiest passenger railroad in the United States. (Photo by David Wong / RailPictures.net)

The American Public Transportation Association released its 2007 ridership statistics last week. The regional railroad statistics (pdf) show the numbers behind a booming industry. Overall, ridership is up 5.4% year-over-year, and up 11.3% over five years. Two fledgling new passenger railroads have come into being in the Sunbelt in the last five years: Rail Runner Express in Albuquerque and Music City Star in Nashville. A third, FrontRunner in Salt Lake City, is scheduled to begin operations in April.

The nation's busiest passenger railroad, the Long Island Rail Road, recently reported its busiest year since 1949. And its cousin across the Sound, Metro-North, recently reported its busiest year in its 25-year history.

Here is a table summarizing the APTA data and Amtrak monthly data.

Railroad	Main Hub	'07 Riders	5-Year Growth
1. MTA Long Island Rail Road	New York	106,036,000	5.85%
2. MTA Metro-North Railroad	New York	79,724,700	8.89%
3. Metra	Chicago	75,099,600	8.28%
4. NJ Transit	New York	74,860,300	22.31%
5. MBTA Commuter Rail	Boston	38,961,600	-3.96%
6. SEPTA Regional Rail	Philadelphia	33,360,400	17.35%
7. Amtrak	Multiple	26,551,001	7.95%
8. Caltrain	San Francisco	11,377,200	26.70%
9. Metrolink	Los Angeles	11,146,800	27.55%
10. MARC	Washington	7,720,300	28.07%
11. South Shore Line	Chicago	4,245,900	18.30%
12. Virginia Railway Express	Washington	3,504,100	14.48%
13. Tri-Rail	Miami	3,502,500	33.21%
14. Trinity Railway Express	Dallas	2,497,200	11.18%
15. Sounder	Seattle	2,156,500	220.72%
16. Coaster	San Diego	1,615,600	24.28%
17. Altamont Commuter Express	San Jose	755,000	2.17%
18. Rail Runner Express	Albuquerque	500,900	N/A
19. Shore Line East	New Haven	483,700	40.16%
20. Music City Star	Nashville	142,100	N/A

A few observations. First, the numbers show how New York, and more broadly the Northeast, totally dominate regional passenger railroads in the United States. The No. 1 and No. 2 railroads are both run by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and together they provide 40.6% of all railroad trips in the Lower 48, not counting intercity service provided by Amtrak (which, by the way is reporting its own record ridership). Once you add in NJ Transit, the three railroads serving New York City provide 56.9% of all regional railroad trips per year, a figure that has held steady over the past five years.

The following table breaks down the statistics by region:

Region	Share of regional railroad passengers, 2007
1. Northeast (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, New Haven)	75.3%
2. Midwest (Chicago)	17.3%
3. West Coast (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Diego, San Jose)	5.9%
4. Sunbelt (Miami, Dallas, Nashville, Albuquerque)	1.5%

Since railroads use a tiny fraction of the fuel per person that automobiles do, I think this data shows that the northeast will be better prepared than any other region to provide mobility to its residents in the event of increased gasoline prices. All of us northeasterners should be grateful for the sound stewardship and continued operation of assets handed down to us by previous generations.

A last thought: It's funny to me that outside New York and Connecticut, nobody wants to call their railroad a railroad. It's as if everyone got together, as all the new services came on line in the 1990s and 2000s, to focus-group their branding. They must have decided that the word "railroad" is considered too old fashioned. Hence, you have a variety of other names, a snappy one-word "brand," or a name that uses the word "express" or the abbreviated, "rail." That said, the two services that do use railroad in their name (and in the case of the nearly 175-year-old LIRR, the even more archaic "rail road"), just happen to be the two busiest services. Maybe there's a lesson in there somewhere.