Urban Commuter / Light Rail / Modern Streetcar News!
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SAD NOTE: We we recently notified that Joel Lovitch, former operator of MTS Imports, a great friend, one of the giants of the traction hobby and importer of high quality brass traction models passed away on March 26th. Full tribute to appear in a future issue.
GENERAL (COVID-19) - Several transit agencies across the United States reported to Progressive Railroading in early March that they had been taking precautions in response to the outbreak of COronaVIrusDisease-19, a disease caused by the current coronavirus.
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority implemented an enhanced cleaning schedule, which calls for sanitizing rail cars every 72 hours and buses daily.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has began disinfecting its subway and commuter-rail cars on a daily basis, and cleaning high-contact surfaces at subway stations every four hours. The agency also installed hand sanitizer dispensers at facilities and stations.
Brightline in southeastern Florida, the Sonoma-Marin Rail Transit District (SMART) and Capitol Corridor in California increased the intensity of cleaning efforts and installed additional hand sanitizer dispensers across their systems and on trains.
SMART early in the week of March 9-13th completed installation of two hand sanitizer dispensers on each of its trains.
The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District increased the frequency and intensity of its sanitizing procedures on its trains and stations on the South Shore Line between Chicago and South Bend, Indiana.
The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority announced it has focused facility cleaning on high-touch area.
Amtrak on March 8th took a train out of service for cleaning and disinfection following notification that a passenger who traveled on the train between Chicago and St. Louis on March 4 tested presumptive positive for the virus. The railroad is working to disinfect the Chicago and St. Louis stations, Amtrak officials said in a press release.
On March 20th, the following was reported by Progressive Railroading:
The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) is requesting $16 billion in emergency funding from Congress for public transit agencies and passenger railroads to offset the costs and revenue losses related to the COVID-19 pandemic, association officials announced on March 19th. APTA on March 19th originally requested $12.9 million in funding. The increased request is based on an internal survey of 163 public transit agencies and revised estimates of costs and losses. The $16 billion would help offset $1.75 billion in direct costs, $7.65 billion in farebox revenue loss, $6.25 billion in sales tax revenue loss and $350 million in restart costs.
Public transit agencies are seeing dramatic reductions in ridership due to workplace restrictions, with an estimated $14 billion in losses expected in both fare and sales tax revenue. In addition, $2 billion is needed for direct costs including upgraded cleaning, APTA officials said in a press release.
Collectively, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and Virginia Railway Express commuter-rail ridership has declined between 80 percent and 90 percent. The agencies estimated at least $55 million in revenue loss each, according to the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission.
New Jersey Transit recorded a 88 percent ridership drop since March 9th, NJ.com reported.
In Denver, Regional Transportation District ridership dropped 60 percent from an average of 347,800 trips each weekday in 2019 to about 139,000 trips, agency officials reported.
Meanwhile, on March 19th California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered California’s 40 million residents to stay at home indefinitely with exceptions only for essential travel. Similar restrictions were issued earlier that same week by several counties in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In response to the stay-at-home orders and a 90 percent ridership drop, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) on March 23rd reduced nightly rail service. Ridership after 9 p.m. represents just 3 percent of total daily ridership, BART officials said in a press release. The immediate loss of fare revenue has a “devastating impact” on BART’s operating budget, as 60 percent of the budget is from fare dollars, agency officials said.
The North County Transit District (NCTD), providing commuter service south of Los Angeles, CA, also has logged a drop in ridership. As a result, the agency also reduced weekday and suspended weekend Coaster commuter-rail service starting on March 23rd. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, ridership has declined by 79 percent on an average weekday, NCTD officials said in a press release.
Across the country, several other passenger-rail agencies have announced service adjustments due to lower ridership numbers. The following is a summary by railroad or agency:
• WMATA yesterday closed its Smithsonian and Arlington Cemetery stations to discourage use of the Metrorail for nonessential travel.
• Sound Transit on March 23rd reduced light- and commuter-rail service in Seattle.
• METRA in Chicago on March 23rd began operating an alternate weekday schedule, reducing commuter-rail service levels by about half of normal weekday service.
• Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) on March 22nd reduced train service on the Market-Frankford, Broad Street and Norristown High Speed lines, as well as on trolleys. SEPTA today closed outlying ticket windows and waiting rooms at regional rail stations.
• Metropolitan Council in Minneapolis suspended Metro Transit light-rail service between 11 p.m. and 4:30 a.m.
• Trinity Railway Express commuter-rail in Texas began a modified weekday schedule starting March 23rd.
• Denton County Transportation Authority in Texas closed the Downtown Denton Transit Center on March 19th.
• Kansas City Streetcar Authority reduced its service schedule to correspond with lower downtown activity levels and to allow crews more time to clean the rail cars.
• San Francisco Municipal Railway shutdown the F-line and the famous cable cars on March 16, substituting buses. They stated that many of the historical streetcars and cable cars have no separation of the operators from the passengers. The San Francisco Railway Museum is also closed due to the same state-wide "shelter-in-place" order.
PHILADELPHIA, PA - Accidentally getting on the wrong Market Frankford Subway Elevated and then blowing past your destination because you got on the "A" train instead of the "B" became a thing of the past on February 23 when SEPTA ended the long-standing but well-working skip-stop service on the Market-Frankford Line during rush hour. This meant that there was no longer "A" trains and "B" trains that only stop at certain stations. All trains began stopping at all stations starting that date. At the time, only eight stations were A or B stations that were skipped by every other train during peak times: On the Frankford portion of the line these were Berks, York-Dauphin, Huntingdon, Somerset, Tioga, and Church; on the Market Street portion thy were only 63rd St and Millbourne. Prior to this announcement, the stops that were skipped were evaluated by SEPTA on a regular basis and some were changed over the last several decades. For example, 34th Street used to be skipped by every other train, but it was converted to an all-stop location in 1994. The same thing happened with 46th Street in 2007.
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The A-B system dates to the mid 1950s when the original 1906 and 1922 built cars were still in service and was created to better distribute passengers during peak travel times on weekdays. The idea was that if trains stopped at every other stop (outside the all-stop stations with the highest ridership figures) there would be a longer time for passengers to board, thus preventing further overcrowding. But it also shortened the running time for each train.
A commentary in the Philadelphia Inquirer on March 4th by V.R. Vuchic, professor emeritus of Transportation Engineering and City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania made the following comments:
"...All stop service may be simpler to control but it results in lower average speed, not greater line capacity, even thought SEPTA insists they can use the same amount. In reality, the change requires more trains to maintain service ..." SEPTA stated that they will adjust the train schedule and potentially run more trains to adapt to the new policy. (Note: Getting more trains inspected and repaired and in a union environment is not always as simple a task as it sounds). He goes on to say that "...replacing the skip-\stop with less efficient all-stop service is a case where SEPTA adjusted service to make it easier for operations with more standardized train movement control but less convenient for passengers.
According to the newspaper article, "...skip stop service is the only way to speed up run times on a two-track line"... . The University of Pennsylvania performed an evaluation of skip-stop versus all-stop and found that the trip from from the western terminal in Upper Darby to the northern terminal in Frankford was 12 minutes shorter using the skip-stop method. This makes sense because the all stop trains made mode stops. Each stop usually kills two-minutes each. This system made a dramatic increase in the 1950s when instituted because the two-motor cars used then had very slow acceleration rates.
Comment: Sounds to us like too many people had their eyes and noses in their phones when the trains entered the station and they neglected to check whether it was an A or B train until after they got on so a group of them got together and made enough of a nuisance of themselves that SEPTA caved in and scrapped a system that worked well for the majority of riders for over 60 years.
