T RANSIT C OOPERATIVE R ESEARCH P ROGRAM SPONSORED BY The Federal Transit Administration TCRP Report 13 Rail Transit Capacity Transportation Research Board National Research Council TCRP OVERSIGHT AND PROJECT TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 1996 SELECTION COMMITTEE CHAIR ROD J. DIRIDON OFFICERS Int’l Institute for Surface Transportation Policy Study Chair: James W. VAN Loben Sels, Director, California Department of Transportation Vice Chair: David N. Wormley, Dean of Engineering, Pennsylvania State University MEMBERS Executive Director: Robert E. Skinner, Jr., Transportation Research Board SHARON D. BANKS AC Transit LEE BARNES Barwood, Inc. MEMBERS GERALD L. BLAIR Indiana County Transit Authority EDWARD H. ARNOLD, Chair and President, Arnold Industries, Lebanon, PA MICHAEL BOLTON SHARON D. BANKS, General Manager, AC Transit, Oakland, CA Capital Metro BRIAN J. L. BERRY, Lloyd Viel Berkner Regental Professor & Chair, Bruton Center for Development Studies, SHIRLEY A. DELIBERO The University of Texas at Dallas New Jersey Transit Corporation LILLIAN C. BORRONE, Director, Port Commerce, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Past SANDRA DRAGGOO Chair, 1995) CATA DWIGHT M. BOWER, Director, Idaho Department of Transportation LOUIS J. GAMBACCINI JOHN E. BREEN, The Nasser I. Al-Rashid Chair in Civil Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin SEPTA WILLIAM F. BUNDY, Director, Rhode Island Department of Transportation DELON HAMPTON DAVID BURWELL, President, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, Washington, DC Delon Hampton & Associates E. DEAN CARLSON, Secretary, Kansas Department of Transportation RICHARD R. KELLY RAY W. CLOUGH, Nishkian Professor of Structural Engineering, Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corp. JAMES C. DELONG, Director of Aviation, Denver International Airport, Denver, CO ALAN F. KIEPPER JAMES N. DENN, Commissioner, Minnesota Department of Transportation New York City Transit Authority DENNIS J. FITZGERALD, Executive Director, Capital District Transportation Authority, Albany, NY EDWARD N. KRAVITZ DAVID R. GOODE, Chair, President & CEO, Norfolk Southern Corporation The Flxible Corporation DELON HAMPTON, Chair & CEO, Delon Hampton & Associates, Washington, DC PAUL LARROUSSE LESTER A. HOEL, Hamilton Professor, Civil Engineering, University of Virginia Madison Metro Transit System JAMES L. LAMMIE, Director, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc., New York, NY ROBERT G. LINGWOOD ROBERT E. MARTINEZ, Secretary, Virginia Department of Transportation BC Transit CHARLES P. O’LEARY, JR., Commissioner, New Hampshire Department of Transportation GORDON J. LINTON CRAIG E. PHILIP, President, Ingram Barge Co., Nashville, TN FTA WAYNE SHACKELFORD, Commissioner, Georgia Deparment of Transportation WILLIAM W. MILLAR LESLIE STERMAN, Executive Director, East-West Gateway Coordinating Council, St. Louis, MO Port Authority of Allegheny County OfficialsJOSEPH M. SUSSMAN, JR East Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT MIKE MOBEY MARTIN WACHS, Director, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Los Angeles Isabella County Transportation Comm. DON S. MONROE Pierce Transit EX OFFICIO MEMBERS PATRICIA S. NETTLESHIP The Nettleship Group, Inc. MIKE ACOTT, President, National Asphalt Pavement Association ROBERT E. PAASWELL ROY A. ALLEN, Vice President, Research and Test Department, Association of American Railroads The City College of New York ANDREW H. CARD, JR., President and CEO, American Automobile Manufacturers Association JAMES P. REICHERT THOMAS J. DONOHUE, President and CEO, American Trucking Associations Reichert Management Services FRANCIS B. FRANCOIS, Executive Director, American Association of State Highway and Transportation LAWRENCE G. REUTER DAVID GARDINER, Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency WMATA JACK R. GILSTRAP, Executive Vice President, American Public Transit Association MICHAEL S. TOWNES ALBERT J. HERBERGER, Maritime Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation Peninsula Transportation Dist. Comm. DAVID R. HINSON, Federal Aviation Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation FRANK J. WILSON T. R. LAKSHMANAN, Director, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. Department of Transportation New Jersey DOT GORDON J. LINTON, Federal Transit Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation EDWARD WYTKIND RICARDO MARTINEZ, National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation AFL-CIO JOLENE M. MOLITORIS, Federal Railroad Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation EX OFFICIO MEMBERS DHARMENDRA K. SHARMA, Research and Special Programs Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation JACK R. GILSTRAP RODNEY E. SLATER, Federal Highway Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation APTA ARTHUR E. WILLIAMS, Chief of Engineers and Commander, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers RODNEY E. SLATER FHWA FRANCIS B. FRANCOIS TRANSIT COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM AASHTO ROBERT E. SKINNER, JR. Transportation Research Board Executive Committee Subcommittee for TCRP TRB JAMES W. VAN LOBEN SELS, California Department of Transportation (Chair) TDC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR DENNIS J. FITZGERALD, Capitol Dist. Transportation Authority, Albany, NY FRANK J. CIHAK LILLIAN C. BORRONE, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey APTA LESTER A. HOEL, University of Virginia SECRETARY GORDON J. LINTON, U.S. Department of Transportation ROBERT J. REILLY ROBERT E. SKINNER, JR., Transportation Research Board TRB DAVID N. WORMLEY, Pennsylvania State University T RANSIT C OOPERATIVE RESEARCH P ROGRAM Report 13 Rail Transit Capacity TOM PARKINSON Transport Consulting Limited Vancouver B.C. Canada with IAN FISHER University of British Columbia Subject Area Public Transit Research Sponsored by the Federal Transit Administration in Cooperation with the Transit Development Corporation T RANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS Washington, D.C. 1996 TRANSIT COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM The nation’s growth and the need to meet mobility, TCRP REPORT 13 environmental, and energy objectives place demands on public transit systems. Current systems, some of which are old and in need of upgrading, must expand service area, increase service frequency, Project A-8 FY ‘93 ISSN 1073-4872 and improve efficiency to serve these demands. Research is ISBN 0-309-05718-3 necessary to solve operating problems, to adapt appropriate new Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 96-60739 technologies from other industries, and to introduce innovations into the transit industry. The Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) serves as one of the principal means by which the transit Price $39.00 industry can develop innovative near-term solutions to meet demands placed on it. The need for TCRP was originally identified in TRBssful SpecialNational Cooperative Highway Report 213—Research for Public Transit: New Directions, itiesexecutedpublished byin 1987 and based on a study sponsored by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration—now the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). A report by the American Public Transit Association (APTA), Transportation 2000, also recognized the need NOTICE for local, problem-solving research. TCRP, modeled after the The project that is the subject of this report was a part of the Transit Cooperative longstanding and succe Research Program conducted by the Transportation Research Board with the Research Program, undertakes research and other technical activ approval of the Governing Board of the National Research Council. Such approval in response to the needs of transit service providers. The scope of reflects the Governing Board’s judgment that the project concerned is appropriate TCRP includes a variety of transit research fields including with respect to both the purposes and resources of the National Research Council. The members of the technical advisory panel selected to monitor this project planning, service configuration, equipment, facilities, operations, and to review this report were chosen for recognized scholarly competence and human resources, maintenance, policy, and administrative practices. with due consideration for the balance of disciplines appropriate to the project. The TCRP was established under FTA sponsorship in July 1992. opinions and conclusions expressed or implied are those of the research agency that Proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, TCRP was performed the research, and while they have been accepted as appropriate by the technical panel, they are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research ittee.authorized as part of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Board, the Transit Development Corporation, the National Research Council, or the Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA). On May 13, 1992, a memorandum Federal Transit Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation. agreement outlining TCRP operating procedures was Each report is reviewed and accepted for publication by the technical panel the three cooperating organizations: FTA, the National Academy of according to procedures established and monitored by the Transportation Research Sciences, acting through the Transportation Research Board (TRB), Board Executive Committee and the Governing Board of the National Research Council. anditteehout thedefines Transit funding Development levels Corporation,and Inc. (TDC), a nonprofit educational and research organization established by APTA. TDC is responsible for forming the independent governing board, designated as the TCRP Oversight and Project Selection