Draft Minutes from the 2024 Annual Meeting

 The minutes from the 2024 Annual Meeting at available at this LINK.  

Many thanks to the 52 people that contributed to the meeting.  It was a great turnout!  

Please forward any suggestions or corrections to david.nelson@jacobs.com or to jberk@gfnet.com

We hope see many of you at the April 29 "Mid Year Meeting"

Announcing the 2024 Annual Meeting of TRB's Commuter Rail Systems Subcommittee

103rd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board

All are welcome to attend the 2024 Annual Meeting of TRB's Commuter Rail Group

Wednesday, January 10 2024 10:15 am - 12:00 pm

Independence Salon C (M4), Marriott Marquis, Washington DC

Be prepared to discuss how the commuter railroad you know best is reponding to the challenges of the Work from Home urban travel market.

CLICK HERE for FINAL PROGRAM

CALL FOR PAPERS | Annual Meeting January 7-11, 2024

Commuter Rail and the Work From Home Challenge

Between 1989 and 2019, ridership on commuter railroads in the United States grew by roughly 67% from 300 million to 500 million annual boardings.  The number of US commuter railroads grew from nine in 1988 to 23 in 2019.  Click here for more detail.  The markets for commuter rail service grew with skyrocketing office employment in central business districts.  New jobs increased peak passenger demand for downtown travel which clogged highways and spiked parking charges.   Commuter rail usually turned out to be faster than driving and cheaper than parking.  Every new downtown office tower increased demand for commuter railroad travel as suburbanites filled new well-paid jobs at their desks in the city.  

This all changed in mid-March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic closed factories, schools and offices for the protection of the population.  Travel, transit use and commuter rail ridership plummeted.  Click here for more detail.  

Office workers and their employers exploited the latest commercially-available tools for telecommunication to establish a new mode of "Working-From-Home".  WFH turned out to be a big success that will likely endure long after the painful memories of the pandemic eventually fade.  

As the imperative for social distancing has waned, the world is traveling again.  We're going to ball games, flying to distant cities and dining in restaurants.   But less than half of us have returned to our old offices.  The transformative impact of WFH will likely have a permanent impact on commuting behavior that will be most pronounced in the commuter rail industry.  

Decades were spent building up a national commuter railroad movement that linked suburbs to downtowns as a way of bypassing crowded highways and avoiding expensive parking.  It gave downtowns access to white collar workers that were unwilling or unable to live near their offices.  But that's all changed, perhaps permanently.   Those office workers that were the core of the commuter rail market can now work from home and don't seem likely to return.  WFH is just too easy and effective. 

Now, 3+ years after the start of pandemic, the ridership recovery numbers of the Legacy systems are around 70% to 50% compared to April 2019. The New Starts railroads land somewhere between 70% to as low as 40% compared to April 2019. Click here for more detail.  It’s very important that TRB contribute to the industry’s understanding of how the market for commuter rail services has changed and what factors seem most promising for potential ridership and financial recovery.   The Commuter Rail Subcommittee identified four paper topics related to the new travel market. 

1.  What service parameters are most influential in rebuilding ridership in the “Work From Home” era?  (Service frequency, hours of service, fares, other?) 

a.       What is the impact of service frequency and time span of service on ridership recovery? (The work force/commuter market has significantly changed.)

b.       What is the impact of the fare structure on the ridership? (Different markets such as senior riders and students – what portion of the recovery market do they represent?) 

2. What is the nature of the post-COVID WFH ridership market?
1. Who are the current riders?
2. How do they differ from the pre-COVID market?
3. What market segments came back?
4. What market segments have left commuter rail? 
5. What new market segments have emerged? 

3. What service strategies are being tested to enhance commuter rail ridership in the new Post-COVID era?
1. Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and others are understood to be exploring significant changes in their service offerings to improve ridership and respond to heightened sensitivity to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. 

                                                               i.      What changes are being explored?  

                                                             ii.      How have riders and railroads responded to this challenge? 

4. Faster, Cheaper and Greener Service 

Early indications suggest that to maximize ridership in the WFH-era commuter railroads will need to compete for new riders.  The rail service will need to be:

·       Faster and more frequent service during more hours of the day to “win-back” patrons that are now driving.   

·       Less expensive to operate to economically offer more service with reduced train loadings

·       Cleaner from a Green House Gas perspective, to respond to climate change goals 

Professional papers that shed light on

·       How service velocity can be improved with shorter dwell times, faster acceleration and higher track speed?

·       How can operating costs per train mile and train hour be reduced with changes in staffing, rolling stock or infrastructure?

·       How can GHG be reduced with new approaches to traction power?

·       How can existing stations be more economically modified to promote level boarding that can

o   reduce dwell times,

o   improve safety,

o   speed service delivery,

o   lower crewing costs

o   providing mobility benefits for mobility challenged travelers?

are welcome and encouraged.

Draft Papers must be submitted by August 1, 2023

Selected papers will be presented at the 103^rd Annual Meeting in Washington.  January 7-11 2024

Click here for detailed information for authors

 

Questions? Please contact

David O. Nelson | Chair, AP065(4) | Senior Consultant | Jacobs Engineering Group |

david.nelson@jacobs.com | Phone: (978) 360-0449

Draft Minutes from the 2023 Annual Meeting

A family enjoys level boarding in Utah.  

Thank you all for participating in and supporting the Annual Meeting of TRB's Commuter Rail
Systems Team.  

A summary of the afternoon's events and a list of participants can be accessed through the links below. 

Key research topics discussed at the meeting included:

• Ridership recovery from the COVID pandemic and the rise of the Work from Home movement

• What is the nature of the new ridership market?  How are the new riders different from before?  Who came back?  Who is new?  What service attibutes are attracting new riders? 

• What service attributes are most effective in attracting commuter rail passengers in the Work from Home era?   Fares?  All day service?  Freqency?   Other?

• How are commuter railroads adjusting their service offerings to attract new riders and respond to salient concerns related to equity, inclusion and climate change? 

• Level boarding - How can commuter railroads more quickly and efficiently develop facilities to provide level boarding at stations and terminals to reduce dwell times, improve safety, speed service delivery, reduce crewing costs and provide mobility benefits for travelers with physical, sensory or cognitive functional limitations.   Critical success factors to be considered might include: Station designs and building materials, freight clearance for shared track corridors, impact of emergency egress concerns on station designs and costs, role of regulation in promoting and inhibiting change.
  

If you have any other suggestions or comments, you are heartly encouraged to leave comments below or email david.nelson@jacobs.com or jberk@gfnet.com  

Click Here for Draft Meeting Minutes and List of Attendees

Thanks for making our Annual Meeting so successful!

It was great afternoon on Tuesday January 10th when we convened the Annual Meetings of the Commuter Rail Subcommittee and the Urban Rail Transit Committee.

Links to the various documents presented and discussed at the meeting are found below

COMMUTER RAIL SUBCOMMITTEE

Committee Presentation

URBAN RAIL TRANSIT COMMITTEE

Agenda

Committee Presentation

Minutes from the 2022 Meeting

TCRP Presentation

In other news, the Commuter Rail Subcommittee is thrilled to welcome our new Secretary!  

Jeanette Berke of Gannett Fleming in Jacksonville Florida

Announcing the 2023 Annual Meeting of TRB's Commuter Rail Systems Subcommittee

All are welcome to attend the 2023 Annual Meeting of TRB's Commuter Rail Group

Tuesday, January 10, 2023. 15:45 - 17:30 
Mint Room (M4), Marriott Marquis Hotel
Washington DC

Be prepared to discuss how the commuter railroad you know best is reponding to the challenges of the new Work from Home urban travel market

Click Here for the Preliminary Agenda

David O. Nelson, Chair

Senior Consultant, Jacobs Engineering

120 Saint James Street | Boston, Massachusetts

david.nelson@jacobs.com | +1 978 360 0449

Thoughts from the Chair on the Post-2020 Commuter Railway

My career in the commuter railroad industry has spanned almost 44 years.  During those decades I 
have participated in a rapidly expanding industry where the the number of US cities with commuter or regional service has more than doubled and the ridership on the systems that predated my arrival had grown by more than 75%.  Click here for more detail.  The markets for commuter rail service grew with skyrocketing office employment in central business districts.  New jobs increased peak passenger demand for downtown travel which clogged highways and spiked parking charges.   Commuter rail usually turned out to be faster than driving and cheaper than parking.  Every new downtown office tower increased demand for commuter railroad travel as suburbanites filled new well-paid jobs at their desks in the city.  

This all changed in mid-March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic closed factories, schools and offices for the protection of the population.  Travel, transit use and commuter rail ridership plummeted.  Click here for more detail.  

Office workers and their employers exploited the latest commerically available tools for telecommunication to establish a new mode of "Working From Home".  WFH turned out to be big success that will likely endure long after the other painful memories of the pandemic eventually fade.  

As the imperative for social distancing has waned, the world is traveling again.  We're going to ball games, flying to distant cities and dining in restaurants.   But less than half of us have returned our old offices.  The transformative impact of WFH will likely have a permanent impact on commuting behavior that will be most pronouced in the commuter rail industry.  

As noted above, decades were spent building up a national commuter railroad movement that linked suburbs to downtowns as a way of bypassing crowded highways and avoiding expensive parking.  It gave downtowns access to white collar workers that were unwilling or unable to live near their offices.  But that's all changed, perhaps permanently.   Those office workers that were the core of the commuter rail market can now work from home and don't seem likely to return.  WFH is just too easy and effective. 

Let me share a few lines from Sunday's NY Times.

Since late March 2022, office occupancy has remained fairly flat, just above 40 percent, . Many company leaders who have reopened their offices are struggling to fill them, as the persistent delays in R.T.O. plans undermined both deadlines and details, like the specific days of the week that workers are expected back. 

 

Unlike fully remote or in-person work arrangements, hybrid models have unfolded differently in every office, sometimes entailing two or three days a week of attendance and in other cases leaving employees to pick when they come in at will.  A global survey of more than 10,000 offices found that  nearly 20 percent of American office workers are back one day a week,  

• about 10 percent are back two days a week,  
• just five percent are back three days a week, even fewer are back four or five days a week and  
• more than 50 percent do not use the office consistently every week.  

Wednesday is the most popular day for going into the office.   Nearly a third of employers surveyed haven’t decided on their return to office plans, 

 

In contrast to offices, many entertainment and leisure activities have come roaring back in recent months.  

• NBA game attendance is at 95 percent of its pre-pandemic level,  
• TSA  checkpoints are at 89 percent and  
• Open Table dining is at 87 percent.  

 

The roads are full of cars. The schedule flexibility of WFH has allowed/required folks to travel by automobile at all hours of the day in a very atomistic fashion.   Our current model for rail transit is not well suited serving this atomized market.   The days of legions of workers filling scores of 1000-seat trains to all arrive at one destination at roughly the same time may never return.  

As I see it, the challenges facing US commuter railroad management require it to respond to new market conditions.  The less peaked travel spread over the entire day with a bidirectional orientation will require frequent, fast bidirectional travel with good first-mile and last-mile connections.    

The railroad will still need to try to peal drivers away from their cars.  That mode shift will be more difficult with the dispersed nature of post-2020 urban travel and WFH.  

In order to economically operate the sorts of services attract riders in the free-range WFH era, "commuter railways" will need to:

• Cut costs per train mile
• Reduce station dwell times. 
• Reduce station to station running times.
• Reduce fares
• Provide capacity for frequent bi-directional traffic 
• Find more terminal capacity
• Solve first-mile and last-mile challenges

It's easier to identify the challenges than it will be to solve them.

• Cut costs - one person train operation or two-person train crews
• Reduce station dwells - level boarding, automatic doors.  Also necessary for one and two person crews. 
• Reduce station to station running times - Self powered multiple unit trains with better weight to traction ratios. 
• Reduce fares - high transit mode shares require fares that are below the cost of parking at the destination. 
• Increase line capacity - more double, triple, and quadruple track
• More terminal capacity - If more frequent service is offered, how much more terminal capacity will be necessary?  
• First mile/last mile - bikes, ride sharing, denser development in the vicinity of outlying stations.  

A significant immediate research need to help practioners develop services responding to the needs of Post-2020 commuter passengers is survey data to understand their demographics, trip purposes, service sensitivities (fares?  frequency?  speed?) and how they are different from 2019 passengers.  

The  industry is getting started on many of the right things, but I don't forsee any unanimity of purpose until the major cultural shift in how "knowledge workers" will interact with one another in the post-2020 world is resolved.    But, WFH seems too successful for us to ever RTO as we had before. 

Stay tuned.  

David O. Nelson

Chair of TRB Commuter Rail Subcommittee: AP065(4)

and Senior Consultant, Jacobs Engineering Group

Nominally: 120 Saint James Avenue | Boston Massachusetts 02116 | USA

Mobile: (978) 360-0449 | david.nelson@jacobs.com