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Commuter rail in North America

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"Commuter railroad" redirects here. For commuter railroads in general, see Commuter rail.
NJ Transit has an extensive commuter rail system connecting New Jersey to New York City and Philadelphia.
Long Island Rail Road commuter train in Westbury, New York.
A Metra train in West Chicago, IL.

Commuter rail services in the United States, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, and Costa Rica 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, with trains into the central business district during morning rush hour and returning to the outer areas 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.

Other commuter rail services, many of them older, long-established ones, operate seven days a week, with service from early morning to after midnight. 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. The Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) is the only commuter railroad that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in North America.

A GO Transit Bombardier cab car at Toronto's Scarborough Station.

Almost all commuter rail services in North America are operated by government entities or quasi-governmental organizations. Most 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 (970 km) 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.

After the completion of SEPTA Regional Rail's Center City Commuter Connection in 1981, which allowed through-running between two formerly separate radial networks, the term "regional rail" began to be used to refer to commuter rail (and sometimes even larger heavy rail and light rail) systems that offer bidirectional all-day service and may provide useful connections between suburbs and edge cities, rather than merely transporting workers to a central business district. This is different from the European use of "regional rail", which generally refers to services midway between commuter rail and intercity rail that are not primarily commuter-oriented.

Some transit lines in the NYC metropolitan areas have commuter lines that act like a regional rail network, as lines often converge at one point and pass as a main line to the destination station. They also pass through large business areas (ie Harlem, Jamaica, Stamford, Metropark), and some lines operate every 5–10 minutes during peak hours, and roughly every 15 minutes during off hours.

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 the Borough of Manhattan in New York City, and which serve three of the four busiest commuter railroads in the United States (the Long Island Rail Road and NJ Transit at Penn Station, and the Metro-North Railroad and the Long Island Rail Road at Grand Central Terminal). The commuter railroads serving the Chicago area are Metra (the fourth-busiest commuter railroad in the United States) and the South Shore Line (one of the last surviving interurbans). Other notable commuter railroad systems include SEPTA Regional Rail (fifth-busiest in the US), serving the Philadelphia area; MBTA Commuter Rail (sixth-busiest in the US), serving the Greater Boston-Providence area; Caltrain, serving the area south of San Francisco along the peninsula as far as San Jose; and Metrolink, serving the 5-county Los Angeles area.

There are only three commuter rail agencies in Canada: GO Transit in Toronto (the fifth-busiest in North America), Exo in Montreal (eighth-busiest in North America), and West Coast Express in Vancouver. The two busiest rail stations in Canada are Union Station in Toronto and Gare Centrale in Montreal.

A suburban train in Bejucal, Cuba

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 then, commuter rail networks have been inaugurated in Dallas–Fort Worth, Los Angeles, San Diego, Minneapolis, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Orlando, among other cities. Several more commuter rail projects have been proposed and are in the planning stages.

Rolling stock

Commuter trains are either powered by diesel-electric or electric locomotives, or else use self-propelled cars (some systems, such as the New York area's Metro-North Railroad, 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 and Austin's Capital MetroRail. These systems use vehicles supplied by Stadler Rail or US Railcar (formerly Colorado Railcar).

List of North American commuter rail operators

See also: List of United States commuter rail systems

UC=Under construction.

Metropolitan area(s) Country System Province / State Number
of lines 		Avg. weekday
ridership
(Q4 2018) 		Electrified
San Jose–Tri-Valley–Stockton  USA Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) California 1 (2 UC) 6,100 No
San Francisco–San Jose  USA Caltrain California 1 57,000 Overhead line, 25 kV 60 Hz AC (partially, north of San Jose)
Sacramento–San Francisco Bay Area  USA Capitol Corridor California 1 5,700 No
San Diego–Oceanside  USA Coaster California 1 4,500 No
San Bernardino  USA Arrow California 1 No
Brunswick–Portland–Boston  USA Downeaster Maine / New Hampshire / Massachusetts 1 1,300 No
Montreal  CAN Exo Quebec 5 83,300 No
Ogden–Salt Lake City–Provo  USA FrontRunner Utah 1 19,200 No
Toronto–Greater Golden Horseshoe  CAN GO Transit Ontario 8 271,000 Planned, likely completion in 2032.
New Haven / Hartford / Springfield / New London  USA CT Rail Connecticut / Massachusetts 2 No (Hartford Line)
Overhead line, 12 kV 25 Hz AC and 25 kV 60 Hz AC (Shore Line East)
Havana  CUB Havana Suburban Railway La Habana / Artemisa / Mayabeque / Matanzas 8 No (Lines 1 to 7)
Overhead line, 600 V DC (Hershey Railway)
Greater Metropolitan Area  CRI Interurbano Line San José / Alajuela / Cartago / Heredia 3 No
Mexico City–Toluca  MEX El Insurgente Mexico City / Mexico 1 Overhead line, 25 kV 60 Hz AC
Harrisburg–Philadelphia–New York City  USA Keystone Service Pennsylvania / New York 1 5,000 Overhead line, 12 kV 25 Hz AC
New York City–Long Island  USA Long Island Rail Road New York 11 360,000 Third rail, 750 V DC (only parts of the network)
Baltimore–Washington, D.C.  USA MARC Train Maryland / West Virginia / District of Columbia 3 23,500 No (Brunswick Line, Camden Line)
Overhead line, 12 kV 25 Hz AC (Penn Line)
Boston / Worcester / Providence  USA MBTA Commuter Rail Massachusetts / Rhode Island 12 (1 UC) 121,600 No
Chicago metropolitan area  USA Metra Illinois / Wisconsin 11 277,100 Overhead line, 1,500 V DC (Metra Electric District)
No (Other lines)
Los Angeles–Southern California  USA Metrolink California 8 37,600 No
New York City / New Haven / Poughkeepsie  USA Metro-North Railroad New York / Connecticut 8 (1 UC) 315,700 Overhead line, 12 kV 25 Hz AC
Third rail, 750 V DC (only parts of the network)
Northern New Jersey–New York City
Philadelphia–Atlantic City 		 USA NJ Transit Rail Operations New Jersey / New York / Pennsylvania 12 (1 UC) 238,082
(FY2017) 		Overhead line, 25 kV 60 Hz AC
Overhead line, 12 kV 25 Hz AC (only parts of the network)
Albuquerque–Santa Fe  USA New Mexico Rail Runner Express New Mexico 1 2,500 No
Minneapolis–Saint Paul  USA Northstar Line Minnesota 1 2,600 No
Panama City–Colón  PAN Panama Canal Railway Panamá / Colón 1 1,500
(2013) 		No
Denver  USA RTD Rail Colorado 4 28,700 Overhead line, 25 kV 60 Hz AC
Santa Rosa–San Rafael  USA Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit California 1 No
Chicago–South Bend  USA South Shore Line Illinois / Indiana 1 (1 UC) 10,900 Overhead line, 1,500 V DC
Philadelphia  USA SEPTA Regional Rail Pennsylvania / New Jersey / Delaware 13 126,000 Overhead line, 12 kV 25 Hz AC
Everett–Seattle–Tacoma  USA Sounder Washington 2 18,300 No
Greater Orlando  USA SunRail Florida 1 5,600 No
Mexico City  MEX Tren Suburbano Mexico City / Mexico 1 (2 UC) 195,000 (2017) Overhead line, 25 kV 60 Hz AC
Dallas–Fort Worth  USA Trinity Railway Express Texas 1 6,800 No
Greater Miami  USA Tri-Rail Florida 2 13,900 No
Washington, D.C.  USA Virginia Railway Express Virginia / District of Columbia 2 16,800 No
Nashville  USA WeGo Star Tennessee 1 1,100 No
Vancouver  CAN West Coast Express British Columbia 1 9,900 No
Portland  USA WES Commuter Rail Oregon 1 1,600 No

List of under construction and planned systems

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

Metropolitan Area Country Province/State System Official
site 		Other
sites
Aguascalientes  MEX Aguascalientes Tren Suburbano (no official name yet)
Guadalajara  MEX Jalisco Tren Suburbano
Monterrey  MEX Nuevo León Tren Suburbano de Monterrey
Alameda County / San Joaquin County  USA California Valley Link
Anchorage  USA Alaska Alaska Railroad (existing long-distance railroad, proposed commuter service)
Charlotte  USA North Carolina Lynx Red Line
Dallas  USA Texas DART Silver Line
Detroit  USA Michigan SEMCOG Commuter Rail
Durham  USA North Carolina GoTriangle commuter rail (no official name)
Fort Worth  USA Texas Burleson commuter rail
Houston  USA Texas Southwest Rail Corridor
Iowa City  USA Iowa Pop-Up Metro (opening 2025)
Jacksonville  USA Florida First Coast Commuter Rail
Miami-Dade  USA Florida Northeast Corridor Rapid Transit Project
Milwaukee  USA Wisconsin Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee Commuter Rail
Minneapolis  USA Minnesota Dan Patch Corridor
Oklahoma City  USA Oklahoma Oklahoma City commuter rail
Phoenix  USA Arizona Arizona Passenger Rail Corridor Study
San Diego  USA California SANDAG Transit Leap
San Luis Obispo  USA California Coast Rail Corridor Study
Santa Cruz  USA California Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay Railroad
Under construction

Former

The following systems have ceased operations since the formation of Amtrak in 1971.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ State sponsored Amtrak route with commuter rail focus
  2. This figure is from NJ Transit's Fiscal Year 2017, which covers the calendar period July 2016 to June 2017.

References

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