NEWSLETTER Fall 2015 Vol. 12, Issue 4 Save the Date for RUN’s Annual Meeting / Public Forum! Individual By Richard Rudolph, Ph.D. plans for the future. In keeping The afternoon program Highlights Chair, Rail Users’ Network with our shared vision and past will take place between 1:30 precedents, time will be set p.m. and 4:30 p.m. It will Please join us at the Rail Users’ aside so that attendees can share include a brief RUN annual We Can’t Handle It, Network’s Annual Meeting / their ideas about how transit meeting and several featured Public Forum taking place at the and passenger rail services can speakers including: Joseph You Can’t Get There Greater Cleveland’s Regional be improved. Calabrese, Chief Executive p. 2 Transit Authority (GCRTA) Officer, Cleveland Regional headquarters at 1240 W. 6th St. The morning program will Transportation Authority; Don NJ Transit Hikes Fares, on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015. begin at the Tower City Rapid Hill, Chair / Steve Albro, Vice Cuts Service p. 3 Rail Station. We will meet in Chair, RTA Citizen Advisory This event, which is free the Rapid train lobby at 7:30 Board; Ken Prendergast, and open to the public, will a.m. and then take the 7:37 Executive Director, All Aboard Bi-Levels for Midwest, provide an opportunity to a.m. train to the Central Rail Ohio; and Mike Murphy, Senior CA Will Be Late p. 4 learn more about RUN’s Facility and the newly built Vice President and General history and current activities, Little Italy Station via the Red Manager of Amtrak Long Glimmers of Light in the role that the local Citizen Line and eastbound on the Distance Services. Time will also New Mexico p. 5 Advisory Committee plays at Blue/Green Light Rail line to be provided for members of the the GCRTA, and the services Shaker Square or Tower City audience to ask questions and to that the local transit agency for lunch and then walk back to express their concerns and ideas. Albany-Area Upgrades and Amtrak provide and their the CCRTA headquarters. (Continued on page 8) Continue p. 6 Build New Hudson Rail Tunnels—NOW! Lessons from Sweden’s Inlandsbanan Line p. 7 By Andrew Albert Amtrak. Depending on where the River subway tunnels. Closing one breakdown occurred, it could also rail tunnel for repairs will reduce the There’s a rail crisis building affect the Long Island Rail Road. amount of hourly trains to around six RUN to Cleveland! p. 9 underneath the Hudson River trains—a nearly 80% drop in service, that—pending immediate The problem is due to the fact that and a catastrophe for the Northeast. The Whistle Stop action—could affect the economies when these tunnels were constructed Safety Train p. 10 of not only New York and New over a century ago, no back-up was It’s not as though there haven’t been Jersey, but the entire Northeast, and built. One tunnel with two tracks—one plans for new tunnels. Gov. Chris by extension, the entire country. for each direction—and that was it. If Christie of New Jersey killed the Rail Reshaping the There was a crisis even before something happened in one direction “Access to the Region’s Core” project, Landscape in L.A. p. 11 Superstorm Sandy hit the tri-state (or heaven forbid both directions), then asserting that New Jersey would have region, and dumped copious rail gridlock occurred. It was imperative been the only state to pay for cost A Step Toward Greater amounts of water throughout that we needed another rail tunnel overruns, a claim the Feds deny. A Rail Safety p. 12 the tunnels under the East and 50 years ago, but now the situation is new plan, known as the Gateway Hudson Rivers. On something of much more critical. Plan, was an improvement over the a regular basis, a breakdown of ARC plan, especially in regard to a train either in or immediately Superstorm Sandy flooded the where it would have landed in New adjacent to the Hudson River existing tunnels, and work must be York City, immediately adjacent to tunnels causes massive delays to performed—as it has been and will the existing Penn Station. commuters of both NJ Transit and continue to be—in various East (Continued on page 8) RAIL USERS’ NETWORK NEWSLETTER Page 2 of 16 We Can’t Handle It—You Can’t Get There By Chuck Bode cities with large commuter rail and bus Saturday and one was added Sunday. What systems. There were months to plan and more could we expect from the company that A bit of history from the days when make arrangements. Surely buses and prioritized baggage cars over coaches? America could do it. In the 1920s, a large trains, along with crews, could have been congress was held north of Chicago. borrowed. Several months is ample time for The first announcement was that most 500,000 attendees got there by rail. The training. The fixed-capacity facilities that SEPTA rail service would not be operated. ingenious solution: use the L cars on the are most limited are parking spaces near the Eventually, 18 commuter rail stations were interurban railway. As late as the Atlanta rail stations. Many suburban churches have selected. Passengers could only ride inward Olympics in the ‘80s, we rose to the large parking lots. Some suburban employers in the morning and out in the evening. There occasion. With the help of the FTA, new also have large parking lots that are empty is limited parking at the stations, the largest bus orders for many cities were sent to on weekends. The opportunity was there lot is 1,600 spaces and most have much less Atlanta to bolster the local fleet. After their to implement a system of feeder buses capacity. 175,000 tickets were to be sold Olympic duty, the buses went on to their from those parking lots to the stations. The for each day—only on the Web. Note that new owners for their 12 years of service. opportunity was there to design schedules to normal fares cannot be used; those paying for maximize entry points to the transportation weekly and monthly tickets are out of luck. Plan ahead, look for solutions, provide the system so that traffic congestion was The first attempt failed when the website transit service needed. Unfortunately that was minimized at all locations. The opportunity crashed with hundreds of thousands of the old America, the “we can do it” America. was there to set up bus only streets to and people trying to buy tickets. The next attempt Today’s almost colonial, banana republic near the event in the city so that buses could was a lottery. Initial reports were that about of America can’t do it. Public schools do move urban dwellers to the event. 20,000 tickets were not sold. not educate. Infrastructure is inadequate. The political system has ground to a halt. First comes the great silence, the Now SEPTA reports that more are Transportation—what is that? “we cannot tell the public anything.” unclaimed because everyone with each party Supposedly the Secret Service is involved. applied in hopes of getting tickets, but only This year, a World Meeting of Families As one person reported they said, “Of one person needed to claim their tickets. Is is being held in Philadelphia, a weeklong course there is no news, we are the Secret the public beginning to give up on this event event. Projected attendance is about Service.” Then the rumors. Then slowly because of the difficulty getting there? 40,000. That seems manageable. Then it come the announcements: almost all of was decided that the Pope should come. the transit service will be closed; people The only SEPTA Commuter Rail stations Earlier this year that was arranged for the should expect to walk miles to attend. to be open for boarding are: closing weekend. Hotels for miles around Airport Line: Airport Terminals A, B, were completely booked months ago. Amtrak, as usual, has little capacity and and C/D plus Eastwick Organizers project four million people requires reservations. Until after our Chestnut Hill West Line: Chestnut Hill to come for the two days, apparently newsletter’s deadline, there was not one West two million per day. The Philadelphia word of any additional cars or trains—or Fox Chase Line: Fox Chase Inquirer described it as the most massive even if Amtrak would operate. On Friday, Lansdale/Doylestown Line: Pennbrook planned event in Philadelphia history. August 21 we learned that Amtrak will and Fort Washington Now comes the need to transport them. operate. However, there will be some Manayunk/Norristown Line: complications. For instance at 30th Street, Norristown Transportation Center The Philadelphia region has one of the country’s where all Amtrak and many SEPTA Media/Elwyn Line: Media, Promos larger rail transportation networks: Amtrak in passengers will arrive and depart the rest Paoli/Thorndale Line: Paoli, Radnor three directions, 13 SEPTA commuter rail lines, rooms will be closed and there will be no Trenton Line: Levittown, Croydon, two rapid transit lines, and nine light rail lines. taxis. Facilities will be available outside, Cornwells Heights PATCO operates another rapid transit line. NJ whatever that means. The food court will Warminster Line: Warminster Transit operates one commuter rail line. SEPTA, only be accessible from outside the station. West Trenton Line: Woodbourne NJ Transit and DART in Delaware also run The only water fountain in the station is in Wilmington/Newark Line: well over 1,000 buses in the area.