Commuter rail services in Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Panama and the United States 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.
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 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
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, Exo in Montreal (eighth-busiest in North America), and West Coast Express in Vancouver. GO Transit's rail network is the third busiest commuter rail system in North America. The two busiest rail stations in Canada are Union Station in Toronto and Gare Centrale in Montreal.
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
UC=Under construction. Metropolitan area(s) Country System Province / State Numberof lines Avg. weekdayridership(Q4 2018)Avg. weekdayridership(Q4 2024)Electrified San Jose–Tri-Valley–Stockton Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) California (2 UC) 3,100No San Francisco–Gilroy Caltrain California 25,800 Overhead line, 25 kV 60 Hz AC (partially, north of San Jose) Sacramento–San Francisco Bay Area Capitol Corridor California No San Diego–Oceanside Coaster California 2,400No San Bernardino Arrow California 416No Dallas DART Silver Line Texas No Brunswick–Portland–Boston Downeaster Maine / New Hampshire / Massachusetts No Montreal Exo Quebec 77,210No Ogden–Salt Lake City–Provo FrontRunner Utah 15,000No Toronto–Greater Golden Horseshoe GO Transit rail services Ontario 218,100Planned, On Hold New Haven / Hartford / Springfield / New London CT Rail Connecticut / Massachusetts2No (Hartford Line)Overhead line, 12 kV 25 Hz AC and 25 kV 60 Hz AC (Shore Line East) Havana Havana Suburban Railway La Habana / Artemisa / Mayabeque / Matanzas No (Lines 1 to 7)Overhead line, 600 V DC (Hershey Railway) Greater Metropolitan Area Interurbano Line San José / Alajuela / Cartago / Heredia No Mexico City–Toluca El Insurgente Mexico City / Mexico 10,000Overhead line, 25 kV 60 Hz AC Harrisburg–Philadelphia–New York City Keystone ServiceState sponsored Amtrak route with commuter rail focus Pennsylvania / New York Overhead line, 12 kV 25 Hz AC New York City–Long Island Long Island Rail Road New York 276,800Third rail, 750 V DC (only parts of the network) Baltimore–Washington, D.C. MARC Train Maryland / West Virginia / District of Columbia 3 14,000No (Brunswick Line, Camden Line)Overhead line, 12 kV 25 Hz AC (Penn Line) Boston / Worcester / Providence MBTA Commuter Rail Massachusetts / Rhode Island (1 UC) 109,300No Chicago metropolitan area Metra Illinois / Wisconsin 168,600Overhead line, 1,500 V DC (Metra Electric District)No (Other lines) Los Angeles–Southern California Metrolink California 19,200No New York City / New Haven / Poughkeepsie Metro-North Railroad New York / Connecticut (1 UC) 254,900Overhead line, 12 kV 25 Hz AC (New Haven Line) Third rail, 750 V DC (only parts of the network) Northern New Jersey–New York City Philadelphia–Atlantic City NJ Transit Rail Operations New Jersey / New York / Pennsylvania (1 UC) (FY2017)This figure is from NJ Transit's Fiscal Year 2017, which covers the calendar period July 2016 to June 2017.172,000Overhead line, 25 kV 60 Hz ACOverhead line, 12 kV 25 Hz AC (only parts of the network) Albuquerque–Santa Fe New Mexico Rail Runner Express New Mexico 2,800No Panama City–Colón Panama Canal Railway Panamá / Colón (2013)Panama Canal rail traffic hit by computer glitch, Reuters, 22 March 2013.No Denver RTD Rail Colorado 32,000Overhead line, 25 kV 60 Hz AC Santa Rosa–San Rafael Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit California 3,400No Chicago–South Bend South Shore Line Illinois / Indiana 6,300Overhead line, 1,500 V DC Philadelphia SEPTA Regional Rail Pennsylvania / New Jersey / Delaware 77,700Overhead line, 12 kV 25 Hz AC Everett–Seattle–Tacoma Sounder Washington 6,900No Greater Orlando SunRail Florida 5,100No Ixtepec and surroundings El Tehuanito Oaxaca (1 UC) NoMexico City Tren SuburbanoMexico City / Mexico (2017)Overhead line, 25 kV 60 Hz AC Tren Felipe Ángeles Overhead line, 25 kV 60 Hz AC Dallas–Fort Worth Trinity Railway Express Texas 4,100No Greater Miami Tri-Rail Florida 2 15,400No Washington, D.C. Virginia Railway Express Virginia / District of Columbia 6,200No Nashville WeGo Star Tennessee 300No Vancouver West Coast Express British Columbia 6,100No Portland WES Commuter Rail Oregon 300No
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 AreaCountryProvince/StateSystem Officialsite Othersites Aguascalientes Aguascalientes Tren Suburbano (no official name yet) http://www.cddhcu.gob.mx/comisiones59legislatura/transportes/foro/Dr_Martinez.pdf Guadalajara Jalisco Tren Suburbano http://www.notisistema.com/noticias/?p=130621 Monterrey Nuevo León Tren Suburbano de Monterrey Alameda County / San Joaquin County California Valley Link Anchorage Alaska Alaska Railroad (existing long-distance railroad, proposed commuter service) Charlotte North Carolina Lynx Red Line Detroit Michigan SEMCOG Commuter Rail Durham North Carolina GoTriangle commuter rail (no official name) Jacksonville Florida First Coast Commuter Rail Miami-Dade Florida Northeast Corridor Rapid Transit Project MilwaukeeWisconsinKenosha-Racine-Milwaukee Commuter Rail Minneapolis Minnesota Dan Patch Corridor Oklahoma City Oklahoma Oklahoma City commuter rail Phoenix Arizona Arizona Passenger Rail Corridor Study San Diego California SANDAG Purple Line San Luis Obispo California Coast Rail Corridor Study Santa Cruz California Santa Cruz Branch
Former The following systems have ceased operations since the formation of Amtrak in 1971. Cannonball between Milwaukee and Watertown, Wisconsin (until 1972)
Cleveland commuter rail, former Erie Lackawanna, later Conrail, service between Cleveland and Youngstown, Ohio (until 1977)
Providence - Westerly service, New Haven, Penn Central and lastly Conrail service (until 1977)
Los Angeles, California El Camino, Los Angeles to San Diego (1978) CalTrain, Oxnard to Los Angeles (1982–1983)
Detroit, Michigan SEMTA (1974–1983) Penn Central, Michigan Executive between Detroit and Ann Arbor (until 1975 when service was commuted to Amtrak, operated until 1984)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania