Long Distance Commuting

In a SEPTA and PATCO Forum thread I wrote:

For those forum members who have the time, I truly recommend to you a recent piece in The New Yorker: Annals of Transport, There And Back Again, from April 16, 2007. Although the article describes the traffic meltdown in Atlanta, it does spotlight the daily commute of one Manhattan paralegal who travels from Pike County, Pennsylvania to New York City. I've noticed that all too often a great many exurb resources are devoted to the planning and construction of McMansion developments to attract new residents (look at the meretricious development in eastern Lancaster County, PA), but I continue to be amazed at how little time and money is spent on consideration of getting them to and from work.

This thread is a continuation of this theme on a better focused forum.

The big picture is that extreme commuting is not the anomaly it once was. A metropole like New York will in the 2000 decade attract commuters from distances previously thought unrealistic for a daily commute.

I humbly believe that the regional transit providers should respond to the need and challenge.

What planning is given to the Narberth, or Lansdowne or Glenside commuter who travels daily to New York? or the Scranton commuter to New York, or the Wheeling WV commuter to DC?

The challenge that remains is whether regional transit agencies will take a proactive role in the development of their economy and in meeting the transit needs of persons who choose to live in their region.

Just a thought

Thank You

SEPTA FAN

The challenge that remains is whether regional transit agencies will take a proactive role in the development of their economy and in meeting the transit needs of persons who choose to live in their region

Which regions are you speaking of? Up in northeastern PA, "regional" transport consists of local bus companies; long distance transport is handled by private companies that run cruiser buses (e.g. Martz and Trans-Bridge Lines). Are you asking these local county governments to put forth the funds necessary for decent-speed commuter rail to travel 100 miles or more in one direction? especially when that travel is into another state, or across two states?

As for state agencies, they go where they are asked to go; they do not have the means for "proactive" transport development, nor do they have the desire for same, since it means going up against NIMBYs head-on. By necessity, they are reactive. State DOTs that handle highway development are also reactive.

Irish Chieftain wrote:Which regions are you speaking of? Up in northeastern PA, "regional" transport consists of local bus companies; long distance transport is handled by private companies that run cruiser buses (e.g. Martz and Trans-Bridge Lines). Are you asking these local county governments to put forth the funds necessary for decent-speed commuter rail to travel 100 miles or more in one direction? especially when that travel is into another state, or across two states?

As for state agencies, they go where they are asked to go; they do not have the means for "proactive" transport development, nor do they have the desire for same, since it means going up against NIMBYs head-on. By necessity, they are reactive. State DOTs that handle highway development are also reactive.

Good question !

By orientation, and for the record, I was referring to the NorthEastern-Mid-Atlantic region for this particular thread.

Yes, I guess that I am asking government to step in. There have been recently quite a few studies about the reintroduction of rail service from various points in Northeastern PA into New York City. There is a need and it apparently is growing.

I agree that it might be a hard sell to get locally funded public transit agencies to subvene service that serves an area outside of the political boundaries. There is also a vestigial infrastructure to work with. This is a complicated issue.

However, I acknowledge that this is a need that can only be met by a governmental committlment,whether local, state or federal. There has to be the leadership with the vision to respond to a need created by a 21st century phenomenom of long distance commuting.
Thank you
SEPTA FAN

I commute from Williams Bay WI (near Lake Geneva) all the way to Wheaton, IL via Metra commuter rail, which is an 88 mile one-way trip by Metra, and a 13 mile trip to the nearest Metra station for a total 3-hour one way 101 mile trip, due to the lack of north-south rail linkages. Metra is hub and spoke centered on downtown Chicago with no north-south connector lines (although 2 are under consideration), therefore I need to commute on two lines (UP-NW inbound from Harvard, IL to the downtown station at Ogilvie Transportation Center. then the UP West outbound to Wheaton. Local tourist-retail-bedroom housing based cheap labor economy makes it necessary to commute to Chicago region for professional, renumerative employment in my field, and wife/grade school kids do not want to uproot and move.

The trip by rail is longer in time (1 hour and miles (it is only 75 miles and 2 hours by car) by train, however due to cost and the fact that I prefer riding the train to driving (I am allergic to stop lights and am sick of being at the mercy of other drivers, plus I enjoy the company on the train, the chance to drink beer, use my laptop for work and blogs, watch videos, sleep, and other activities incompatible with driving).

Plus, with $3.50 a gallon gas, it costs half as much as driving to work with a monthly ticket.

Sadly, you talk about reactive-proactive transportation decisions. Ours have been wrong-headed and reactive. It still is. SE Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission dismisses re-establishing commuter trains in my area based on a flawed study with fuel prices holding at an inflation-adjusted $2.35 a gallon through 2030, and not enough demand to make them viable. People here are clamoring for the train, and many of my fellow Wisconsin commuters that go downtown Chicago from Harvard, Il would take trains if they existed in our communities.

Going farther back, the historic rail network has been destroyed here. It was much more feasible to be an extreme commuter before 1950 than it is after 2000. With half the population or less, the train network was far more extensive and direct before World War II and Vietnam. In 1910 the old steam locomotives could get me from Williams Bay to downtown Chicago in 1 hour and 40 minutes. Best case at 3 am with no traffic, it now takes 2 hours plus. In 1930, I could have caught a passenger train directly from Williams Bay to Wheaton (DuPage County, Illinois), running down the Fox River Valley, with no need to go first to downtown Chicago. In fact on weekends, DuPage county residents took trains This important north-south route was torn out in the 1950s. In 1930, there were three trains with stations within 3 miles of my house with connections to Chicago, including an interurban from Fontana WI connecting to the Chicago and NorthWestern line at Harvard (torn out in the 30s), the Milwaukee Road service to Walworth, WI (discontinued early 80s, tracks still used for freight, could be resurrected), and the Chicago and NorthWestern to Williams Bay and Lake Geneva (pruned back to Lake Geneva 1966, discontinued 1975, tracks scrapped and ROW sold off in 1980). These trains helped build the resort towns around Geneva Lake here in Wisconsin. All are now gone, replaced by clogged streets in Lake Geneva on the weekends, and no good, direct speedy way to Chicago and suburbs (unless you drive to Harvard and take the train from there).

It is the epitomy of wrong-headedness to have destroyed this system, however who could have predicted peak oil and $3.50 gasoline in the 50s and 60s as gasoline was "too cheap to meter" and muscle cars reigned supreme (however many of todays SUVs and hummers have equivalent fuel economy).

I would kill for having had this infrastructure preserved. If it had been, my commute would have been halved in time, and I could have had a carless commute.

There are, and always have been, up to 100 mile one way commutes in the NY area. Look at any NH, NYC, LIRR, PRR, CNJ, Erie, or DL&W timetable from the 20th Century and look at stations and routes 50 to 100 miles from New York City bumping blocks and with rides of 2 to 3 hours in each direction. Some were not labled commuter runs, but there was extensive number of commuters on those trains. Today, MN, NJT, and LIRR provide some of those same 80-100 mile rides. The Federal governmnt has made that upper right hand corner of PA a part of the NY Metropolitan Statistical Area and there are plans for operating commuter trains from Scranton, PA into North Jersey and Hoboken at about 133 miles. MN is looking at extending service north on the Hudson line to Rhinecliffe and Hudson, NY and it inherited the NH service to Waterbury, CT which rings in about 90 which is similar to the Erie Port Jervis milage. And since these services also mean trips from home to the station plus mass transit connections in the city, these trips can be over three hours and well over a hundred miles total in each direction. I am sure at least Chicago can boast of similar situations but I am not sure of Boston or Philadelphia at this time. (I am told my grandfather, back in the 30's, "commuted" daily betwee Jamaica, Queens, NY and Philadelphia for about one year.)

I am almost definite there are people who use the Amtrak Keystone Corridor to commute from Harrisburg to Philadelphia or from Philadelphia (or the Philly Main Line suburbs) to Harrisburg on a daily basis.

I don't know the numbers, but there are people who take the Amtrak Hiawatha service between Milwaukee and Chicago on a regular basis. That's got to be approximately 95 miles each way.

92 miles.

That's rather short for an Amtrak trip. Not to mention, it's not as long as some of the longer commuter rail trips (e.g. NJT/Metro-North to Port Jervis, LIRR to Montauk)…

I'm always amazed at the commutes some people make. Maybe it's because I'm young (21) but I can never imagine living more than 40-50 minutes from my job. I commute about 20 miles from Towson MD to Downtown Baltimore but I have bus and light rail for that.

I could never fathom a three hour commute.

orangeline wrote:I don't know the numbers, but there are people who take the Amtrak Hiawatha service between Milwaukee and Chicago on a regular basis. That's got to be approximately 95 miles each way.

When I was a Milwaukee Road conductor during the '70s there were at least 50 regular daily commuters from Milwaukee to Chicago. They formed a a club of sorts. When we had the turbo equipment they would ride in the parlor car at one end of the equipment. At first these cars were extra fare "club service" cars with an attendant. Very few passengers bought into this, and the cars always became "overflow for coach passengers" cars. So the extra fare and the attendant were eliminated. The club seats in those cars were upholstered in awfull red 100% genuine fake plush. So "I'll see you on the Red Car," was a familiar saying amongst the commuters. One guy lived in Oconomowoc and drove to the Milwaukee depot for the 6.55am departure of train 330. We had stock brokers, professional head hunters, a physical therapist, and my life drawing teacher from the American academy of Art as regulars. There were 2 regular Chicago-Milwaukee commuters. Amtrak sold 10-ride tickets, in coupon book form similar to The Milwaukee's as the only discounted fares.

Oy...I'm old and I forgot another thing. On the South Shore we had at least 15 regular South Bend-Chicago commuters. I don't know what the numbers are now but I could find out. One lady was a nurse. She lived in Niles, Michigan, would drive to the South Bend depot, ride train 12, get off at Randolph Street, walk over to the Blue Line and take it to Logan Square.