US Commuter Rail: What it Is and What It Could Be — Human Transit

Human Transit The professional blog of public transit consultant Jarrett Walker. HomePrimaryAboutBasicsCitiesCategoriesFriendsMediaEspañol Return to ContentPosted on April 26, 2021 in GeneralJake Blumgart has a superb piece in Governing (free but click “Continue to site.”) about the distinctly North American artifact called commuter rail, and why it’s so different from the way heavy rail infrastructure is used for transit in most other developed countries.The key difference is that most other countries want their heavy rail services to be useful all day, while the default in most of the US has been to run only at rush hour with at best minimal service the rest of the time, as though the briefcase commuter is the only conceivable customer.There are not suchsharp contrastsbetween regional rail and the rest of transit systems in most wealthy European or East Asian nations. But in North America, the divide was sacrosanct.As recently as 2016, then-MBTA General Manager Frank DePaola drew a b...