Every Hour Trains: Why Not Here? Europe’s hourly trains did not happen because of prosperity. They were a crisis response to short- ages of track capacity and rolling stock. Dutch rail planners had to stretch scarce resources to restore mobility. The concept may have relevance to treating California’s increasing rail scheduling chaos.

by Richard F. Tolmach dictated extended hours of service to stretch Despite nearly complete destruction of the For the past decade, Southern California capacity with limited coaches, as well as fit- Netherlands Railways during WWII, the train scheduling has been chaotic, largely as ting bus service into the network to provide May 1952 schedule shows an hourly nation- a result of conflicts between Metrolink and links where tracks were missing or rail ser- al network already operating using the Amtrak. Meets are scattered among all pos- vice unaffordable. largely single-track facility by making the sible sidings, creating daily operations head- most of the few sidings. Those few places Although the integrated timetable was a double-track existed, intercity trains ran aches. Train connections between Metrolink reaction to wartime crisis, it provided a supe- and Amtrak are not planned or protected. every 30 minutes, the most frequent and rior level of operating efficiency and regu- reliable service in Europe. Train headways on both networks are also larity that made the Netherlands Railways random, with gaps varying from 20 minutes a model for emulation across Europe. In West Germany’s long distance InterCity to 150 minutes on Metrolink services and particular, the regular pattern of service and network consisted of north-south corridors, from 50 minutes to 150 minutes on Amtrak. cross-platform connections produced huge at the time there was not a full attempt at The chaos is most severe on the Ventura interline flows that were the envy of larger, multi-direction connections except at the County Line, where Rail2Rail fares opened less rigorous rail networks. central hub of Frankfurt. This meant that the Amtrak trains to Metrolink commuters but The discipline forced by the integrated network could tolerate randomly sized sched- service was not redesigned. There is over- timetable produced major cost savings and ule modules on the fringes, to take advantage provision of service at the end of the morning improved marketability, which has given the of common stations on parallel routes, with- peak, followed by major gaps in the midday Netherlands a world-class network. out requiring the full rigor of standard-sized schedule. Industry critics suggest it would be schedule modules on all parts of the network. profitable to end battling schedules and pro- Germany's 1970's InterCity Plan By the early 1980’s, the German InterCity vide a unified rational service to the public. When the German Federal Railways network became the most profitable pas- sought a system for restructuring of its inter- senger rail service in Europe, because of Efficiency Lessons from Wartime city expresses to replace the fading TEE the robustness of transfer traffic between Integrated system operation of trains first class network, it used major elements of routes and the strong marketing appeal of was first implemented comprehensively in the integrated timetable formula. Under the the simplified service offer. Merger of the 1945 as the Netherlands was recovering from InterCity name, hourly expresses on stan- East and West German networks only added the systematic destruction of its national dard routes linked all major cities in West to the volume of traffic. DB now has addi- railroad. Extreme shortages of capital and Germany, with cross-platform connections tional layers of service: InterCity Express, equipment forced authorities to think strate- providing a national network of easy travel. InterRegio, StadtExpress, RegionalBahn, and gically and maximize the economy of service Marketing of the service featured an over- RegionalExpress linking to the hubs, each provision. Out of this exercise came the con- head photo showing passengers crossing the with a strategic piece of the market. cept and then the reality of the integrated platform between a pair of InterCity trains system timetable, showcasing regular inter- with the slogan “Jede Stunde, Jede Klasse” Swiss Adopt “Stundentakt” val headways, a single consistent passenger (each hour, each class). The significance In the mid-80’s Swiss Federal Railways service on each route, and timed connections of the class reference was that prior to the took the idea of integration to a further level between routes at key stations. launch of InterCity, passengers had to pay of refinement. The Swiss viewed the inte- Advantages included maximum cover- first class fares to ride a German express. grated timetable model as being the basis age of the nation’s travel markets with a bare This campaign emphasized the ease of for all public transport scheduling and added minimum of rolling stock. Shortages also transfers on fixed interval service. Because local railways and bus service to the mix, while defining terms and service levels in a systematic way. For the Swiss, “Stundentakt,” an hourly rhythm of departures, was so important that travel time was de-emphasized as a goal in favor of connectivity in all directions. In major terminals, a replacement train is often available to cover the rare train which misses the scheduled departure. Urban and short distance intercity services are so prevalent in Switzerland that a half-hourly module is the basis for connections at many hubs. Infrastructure improvements in the Swiss Bahn 2000 initiative were prioritized on the basis of their ability to reduce trip times to fit inside the proposed national schedule mod- ules. For instance Bern-Zürich and Geneva- Bern track realignments are being calculated not for pure speed, but to provide just enough speed so that the national network can oper- ate more clocklike, with major city pairs fit- ting within 30 minute or 60 minute modules. German InterCity service shared North American Experiments traffic among criss-crossing routes. The integrated timetable concept was Easy cross-platform connections carried to North America by Professor J. J. produced a national service with complete city to city connectivity. (continued on Page Four)

California Rail News June-July 2005 3 Edmonton Transit supported its trolleybus GO Transit combined hourly lakefront rail Swiss integrated timetables apply to both trunk route by networking crosstown buses trunk service with a network of timed trains and buses. Paint liveries are often uni- to it at main transfer points. hourly bus feeder connections. fied to highlight the service coordination. The Case for Hourly Pulse Southern California Timetables

(continued(continued ffromrom PagePage Three)Three) technique unsuited to railroad operations. The Caltrans staff that the train depends upon the Bakker of the University of Alberta, one of truth is that the integrated timetable makes buses for its success, since the majority of rev- its postwar proponents at the Netherlands rail operations more reliable and capital expen- enue is produced by traffic using these seg- Railways. In 1962, the city-operated transit ditures more cost-effective because it forces ments. Bakersfield boardings are known to in system of Edmonton, Alberta adopted the regular use of the same sidings. fact mostly be Southern California traffic. integrated timetable concept with its creation The only broad adoption of pulse sched- At the same time, Amtrak schedule man- of a trunk and feeder route system. Instead ules on U.S. railroads was Carl Englund’s agers have resisted the idea that bus connec- of all bus routes coming downtown, a trol- short-lived 1966 restructuring of New York tions in Los Angeles are an important source leybus route was designated as a trunk, and Central service. Englund claimed, however, of Surfliner revenue. Reporting techniques was given express status, stopping only at that the concept did have earlier American have tended to mask the fact that a good main transfer points. First at Jasper Place, antecedents, including the timed connections share of the 140,000 San Joaquin trips stated then gradually throughout Edmonton Transit, at Springfield, Massachusetts and White River to have Los Angeles as an endpoint actually schedules were coordinated to provide timed Junction, Vermont. At each of these hubs, mul- involve Surfliner travel. The longest and most connections between routes. tiple passenger railroads were able to profit- profitable trips use the Surfliners. Only this The best known North American imple- ably coordinate to exchange major traffic. year has it emerged that bus feeder service mentation of the Integrated Timetable concept is responsible for 15 percent of total Surfliner began with the 1967 launch of GO Transit, California Rail-Bus Network receipts, compared to about 5 percent for com- Toronto’s regional carrier operated by the From 1980, based on Englund’s advice, muter fares. Government of Ontario. GO Transit has gradu- California began building a statewide rail-bus Likewise, Metrolink–Surfliner transfers, ally established a regional network of service network dependent upon the integrated time- while a daily feature of Southern California based on its hourly Lakefront rail trunk route. table concept. At the time, the San Joaquin, travel, are submerged by both systems’ As a key step in creation of this integrated a vestige of a service of statewide reach, suf- accounting methods. network, in the early 1970’s GO Transit took fered from lack of Los Angeles and Sacramento over responsibility for suburban bus services connections, and was widely considered a Bay Today: Broken Connections from the Toronto Transit Commission, and Area to Bakersfield hinterlands train. Addition Unpopularity of integrated timetables reformed the bus service to provide timed con- of Bakersfield–Los Angeles and Stockton– among operating personnel eventually led to nections to meet every train. To better market Sacramento bus connections produced a elimination of much of the through schedul- the service, it adopted a unified fare structure quadrupling of ridership within six years and ing that for over a decade allowed conve- and paint scheme to be used by all bus con- powered the expansion of the service from one nient train-bus-train connections through tractors. GO Transit’s success spawned wide- to six trains daily. Much of the new traffic was Bakersfield and Los Angeles. At present, pas- spread emulation of its equipment and rail generated in Southern California, by passen- sengers on San Joaquin schedules arriving service offer, but to date, new North American gers transferring twice. in Los Angeles endure an average 73 minute rail commuter operators have not adopted its The network of buses feeding the San wait before the next Surfliner departure, far most marketable feature, seamless multimodal Joaquin trains now extends to Eureka/Arcata, worse than the average 43 minutes in 1995 timed connections throughout a region. Redding, Reno, Los Vegas, Palm Springs/Indio, and the 40 minutes in 1991. San Joaquin rid- Brian Sullivan and Greg Thompson, who and San Diego. It is now well understood by ers would benefit from regularization of the were both involved in Canadian systems Surfliner schedule. which adopted the concept, did much to popu- Amtrak California trains and buses have larize the adoption of the integrated timetable also had an unfortunate lack of schedule con- among western Canadian and various progres- nections with Southern California Regional sive American transit systems. In the United Chaos Rail Authority’s Metrolink commuter service. States, the Integrated Timetable has been The two organizations’ missions focus on two most widely adopted among smaller transit Weekday (Non)Connections distinctly different types of travel. Amtrak systems that could not afford more frequent California is aimed at serving longer-distance headways than half-hourly. The advantages at Los Angeles as of June 2005 inter-regional travel, which typically peaks on of a network that does not strand passengers weekends. Metrolink’s network was optimized mid-journey are particularly obvious for such to serve weekday peak hour commuters. systems with sparse frequency. Amtrak Metrolink Minutes Arrival Departure of L.A. Delivering on Rail2Rail Promises Slow Adoption of the Concept from S.D. to Lancaster Delay Passengers have eagerly responded to “Timed transfer” as the concept is typi- even tentative efforts to make the two sys- cally referred to in North America because of 8:50 am 9:15 am 25 tems work together. Rail2Rail fares have the 1976 Sullivan article*, has also spread with 9:50 am 11:42 am 112 helped boost commuter traffic, but true seam- the implementation of light rail, which can less integration of service on clock headways become a mass carrier when it is properly fed 10:50 am 11:42 am 52 could make rail a mainstream mode all day. by timed bus connections. The Sacramento, 12:15 pm 1:50 pm 75 The traveling public would be able to California light rail network grew from 11,000 1:35 pm 1:50 pm 15 seriously consider rail for many more trips daily riders to 26,000 daily riders in the five if the two networks built upon each other’s years following adoption of timed transfers at 2:40 pm 3:45 pm 65 strengths and coordinated their schedules for six hub stations. 4:05 pm 5:00 pm 55 compatibility and connectivity. Restructuring Paradoxically, what began in Europe as service is a big task, but the benefits are a railway operating technique to deal with 5:45 pm 6:30 pm 45 huge. Clock headways would add useful travel an undercapitalized rail infrastructure has 6:45 pm 7:35 pm 50 capacity, provide systematic hourly connec- become so identified with transit marketing in 8:50 pm 9:00 pm 10 tions to destinations throughout Southern the United States that some operating person- California, and address the adopted state nel on American railroads view it as a transit 11:05 pm goals of better mobility, congestion relief and energy efficiency. *The timed transfer focal point: a refine- Note: 10 and 15 minute connections are not Fortuitously, three Southern California ment in public transport service design. protected or guaranteed connections. routes, Metrolink’s San Bernardino and Santa Brian E. Sullivan, UITP Revue, 1/1976 Clarita corridors and Amtrak’s Surfliners, 4 California Rail News June-July 2005 Sacramento’s timed bus connections are Service that runs like clockwork is easier for All Southern California passengers would viewed as key to the success of light rail, passengers to understand, especially when benefit from network coordination that given its low population density setting. departure dots are right on platform clocks. regularizes and simplifies service. The Case for Hourly Pulse Southern California Timetables

have concurrently reached ridership levels that in practice? The largest benefit of regular Indio-San Bernardino, and Hemet-Riverside- could support regular hourly schedules. clock headways is a set of planned and timed Claremont, currently operated as part of the The key hanging point is how to share ser- cross-platform connections at Los Angeles San Joaquin feeder network, are good can- vice costs and revenues of the improved net- Union Station. Metrolink and Amtrak would didates for expansion of service aimed at work. There are several possible answers. For mutually benefit from regularization and Southern California destinations. decades, costs and revenues of “pool trains” alignment of their departures from Los Where there are missing trains in the between Portland and Seattle were shared by Angeles, especially between the peaks. hourly network, buses could fill in to provide Union Pacific, SP&S and Great Northern. The The European experience has been that convenience to passengers. This appears use- July transfer of Metrolink’s operating contract pairing trains multiplies the available city ful for the segments linking Santa Barbara, from Amtrak to Connex suggests that opera- pairs, creating an exponential increase in the Lancaster, and Riverside to the network. In tors may want clearer lines of demarcation. market for casual trips by rail, while adding other cases, such as Metrolink’s Riverside- A possible way to draw such a line would only marginally to train miles. Pomona-Los Angeles run, the leap to hourly be for Metrolink to drop its lightly-used mid- Imagine the traffic potential if each hour, service is probably too big to make with buses. day trips on the Ventura County Line, and let the same platform at Los Angeles Union However, there are other significant inter- Amtrak extend Surfliner trips to Chatsworth or Station was shared by a Metrolink Santa city travel markets not currently served which Moorpark, as long as Amtrak honors Metrolink Clarita to San Bernardino train on one side could support buses with expected revenues. fares for the extension segment. Amtrak’s and an Amtrak Ventura to San Diego train These include interconnections from the hourly lucrative longer-distance trips to Orange and on the other. Instead of linking 50 to 120 city network to MTA end stations, along with San Diego Counties make revenue per train pairs, as at present, each pair of trains would UCLA, Santa Monica, and population centers mile on the Surfliners much higher than link three to four hundred city pairs. far from the tracks in western Orange County Metrolink’s midday Ventura line trips. Practiced all day in a dependable manner, and eastern Ventura County. Such a switch would allow Metrolink to this arrangement would revolutionize travel redeploy its freed up sets to provide an hourly in California, making trains a mainstream Stretching California Resources midday service between San Bernardino, Los mode. An hourly rail and bus network that spans Angeles, and Santa Clarita. The resulting from Santa Barbara to Palm Springs and Indio, schedules on both routes may actually be eas- Buses Complete the Network from Bakersfield to Hemet, from Lancaster to ier to dispatch and operate than the current Metrolink, like most North American San Diego is clearly within our reach. one from the standpoint of meets. operators of commuter rail, does not oper- Sufficient rail equipment and track capaci- Clock headways allow consistent use of ate feeder motor coaches, but Caltrans has ty already exists to operate an hourly network. the same sidings, making better use of recent found them to be critical to the economics of The market for such service appears robust capital improvements to the railroads. They its train network. Operating costs average $2 enough to cover between 50 and 75 percent of also reduce stress upon dispatching personnel. per mile, but revenues on Southern California the marginal costs of operating additional fre- Instead of each new meet being a new prob- routes average over $5 per mile, due to the quencies, much better than most transit. lem, a repeating pattern is created with iden- effects upon rail trip sales. All that is missing today is a persuasive tical meets six to seven hours in a row. This It appears both Metrolink and Caltrans public leader who sees the benefits to regional leads to more reliable operations. would benefit from augmentation of the mobility of such a network and who is dedi- State’s feeder bus network in Southern cated to convincing Metrolink, Caltrans, and Coordination at the Hub California and integration of it into the Amtrak to put aside their differences and work What would regional hourly service mean hourly pulse. Bakersfield-Newhall-Van Nuys, together to make it a reality.

A Regional Hourly Pulse

California Rail News June-July 2005 5