Friday, November 30, 2012

October sees a large gain in Surfliner ridership

This isn't too surprising however since it was down fairly significantly last October, dropping 7.3% compared to October 2010. Ridership will be going up for sometime simply because of large drops that last year sustained from track work.

Ridership
Surfliner +6.9%
Starlight +9.7%
Capitol Corridor -0.3%
San Joaquin +12.6%
Nationally +0.4%
Metrolink +13.8%
COASTER +10.1%

Ridership declines in September and increases in October for Metrolink and COASTER are partially explained by two fewer weekdays in September but two extra weekdays in October.

Revenue

Surfliner +13.5%
Starlight +8.1%
Capitol Corridor +5.2%
San Joaquin +7.0%
Nationally +3.4%

Surfliner OTP remained above 80% for the second month in a row, averaging 82.5% overall; 92.3% for LOSSAN North and 84.3% for LOSSAN South. This still has a large room for improvement to meet with Metrolink and COASTER OTP even without taking into consideration the stricter metrics for commuter on time performance.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

NJT parked equipment in areas forecast to flood

A third of its locomotives and a quarter of its rail cars lost to flood damage as a result.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, massive harm to post-hurricane recovery, and quite possibly billions of dollars in total economic damages, all because a handful of utter fools couldn't pay the proper attention to their jobs and ensure that the equipment was moved to somewhere that was not a predicted flood zone. I am hoping that it was merely a lack of consideration for the hurricane that led to this and not active incompetence that moved equipment from safer areas to these lower lying areas. Words completely fail me in that latter scenario.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Argentina tunnels rail line with history of deadly accidents

This is somewhat older news, but still interesting. It's the same line that had a horrible collision earlier in the year killing 51 people.

There are a couple of standout points to me:
1. It is surprisingly cost-effective as a means of grade separation. The 52 grade crossings for vehicular traffic would, in America, typically cost somewhere around $70 million each, and an additional several million for each pedestrian crossing. Even then, this would not entirely prevent pedestrian strikes or vehicles interfering with train traffic, though admittedly, it likely doesn't matter statistically. Of course, American tunneling costs are also quite a bit higher. I suspect that much of the cost with this project is due to relocating the fifteen stations underground, though building the tunnels large enough to accommodate bilevel trains undoubtedly plays its own part in it.
2. There is an absolutely tremendous amount of traffic on that line. If I'm not mistaken, the ten million passengers per month on that lone 35km line is three times the number of passengers on all California commuter rail lines combined.
3. This also appears to be part of an upgrade for the line in question, renewing its electrification and signaling systems. Currently it appears to be using electric locomotive hauled single level equipment, which heaps even more shame on California's commuter lines. Since the equipment on the line will be sixty years old by the time the tunnels are completed, and aging equipment has been blamed for the earlier collision, I don't think that the double deck height of the tunnel is simply future-proofing: I would be highly surprised were there not to be a double deck EMU contract timed with the new tunnel openings.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Amtrak California stations by average boarding per train

Put this together to see if there might be any relationships that could be gleaned, but to be honest, I'm not seeing one. Still, I'll put it out there in case someone else finds one or otherwise finds it useful. The employed population is taken from those living within 5 miles of the station according to On The Map and station boardings are 2011 data. Because of their close proximity, I merged San Diego Santa Fe and San Diego Old Town Stations together. I strongly suspect that bus boardings are included, which would mean an extra 100-200,000 boardings at Los Angeles and Bakersfield, severely inflating the data for Bakersfield in particular. Each "train per day" is for trains taking passengers on; intermediate stations will have double the train numbers of termini as a result.




Boardings
Employed population within 5 miles
Trains per day
Boardings per train
Boardings per Kiloperson per daily train
Los Angeles
1,606,121
370,097
18.4
239.8
235.9
Bakersfield
476,767
106,671
6
218.3
744.9
San Diego (including Old Town)
776,606
168,939
11
194.0
417.9
Sacramento
1,175,046
116,849
35.1
92.0
286.5
Stockton (San Joaquin Street)
260,115
82,499
8
89.3
394.1
Fresno
371,875
94,650
12
85.1
327.4
Irvine
664,263
107,151
22
82.9
281.8
Auburn
29,438
17,683
1
80.9
1,664.8
Santa Barbara
317,617
43,789
12
72.7
604.4
San Luis Obispo
101,659
19,583
4
69.8
1,297.8
San Jose
224,756
255,472
9
68.6
97.8
Solana Beach
443,386
49,143
22
55.4
410.1
Fullerton
436,383
267,607
22.3
53.8
73.1
Rocklin
36,329
63,645
2
49.9
285.4
Roseville
67,831
110,139
4
46.6
154.0
Hanford
199,291
22,109
12
45.6
751.2
Anaheim
352,363
283,712
22
44.0
56.5
Emeryville
583,865
157,765
40.1
40.0
92.3
Oceanside
311,834
48,465
22
38.9
292.5
Davis
443,168
27,403
33.1
36.8
488.6
Martinez
446,507
37,159
37.1
33.1
323.9
Oakland
379,851
178,608
35.1
29.7
60.6
San Juan Capistrano
230,481
73,265
21.3
29.7
147.7
Stockton (Downtown)
38,401
82,499
4
26.4
116.4
Merced
114,401
31,098
12
26.2
306.6
Salinas
18,164
55,674
2
25.0
163.1
Goleta
62,310
30,520
7
24.5
291.7
Modesto
104,647
56,166
12
24.0
155.3
Santa Clara
115,989
193,309
14
22.8
42.9
Santa Ana
170,036
249,126
21.3
21.9
32.0
Richmond
276,114
83,814
37.1
20.4
88.8
Suisun-Fairfield
192,471
45,403
29.1
18.2
145.7
Oxnard
78,085
93,732
12
17.9
69.4
Van Nuys
74,163
293,333
12
17.0
21.1
Palm Springs
5,897
14,210
1
16.2
415.0
Riverside
11,679
87,180
2
16.0
67.0
Redding
11,440
30,425
2
15.7
188.0
Ontario
5,422
158,687
1
14.9
34.2
San Bernardino
10,552
117,288
2
14.5
45.0
Paso Robles
10,122
14,064
2
13.9
359.9
Chico
9,843
34,856
2
13.5
141.2
Berkeley
142,510
130,561
29.1
13.5
37.5
Ventura
47,457
27,055
10
13.0
175.4
Needles
8,840
3,342
2
12.1
1,322.6
Chatsworth
52,401
131,991
12
12.0
33.1
Antioch-Pittsburg
34,794
60,184
8
11.9
72.3
Grover Beach
17,326
20,184
4
11.9
214.6
Truckee
8,399
6,969
2
11.5
602.6
Camarillo
36,686
36,637
9
11.2
111.3
Burbank
47,928
228,767
12
11.0
17.5
Glendale
39,913
328,643
10
11.0
12.1
Simi Valley
41,136
56,223
12
9.4
61.0
Victorville
6,488
31,768
2
8.9
102.1
Fremont
43,515
137,854
14
8.5
22.5
Dunsmuir
5,370
960
2
7.4
2,796.9
Guadalupe
10,649
2,902
4
7.3
917.4
Moorpark
13,191
32,966
5
7.2
80.0
San Clemente Pier
9,223
25,049
4
6.3
92.0
Corcoran
27,424
5,142
12
6.3
444.4
Hayward
30,603
140,809
14
6.0
15.5
Colfax
4,036
3,962
2
5.5
509.3
Carpinteria
20,064
8,244
10
5.5
243.4
Turlock-Denair
23,454
29,031
12
5.4
67.3
Barstow
3,870
12,058
2
5.3
160.5
Lodi
7,422
29,362
4
5.1
63.2
Madera
21,739
22,749
12
5.0
79.6
Wasco
18,209
6,678
12
4.2
227.2
Pomona
1,517
148,017
1
4.2
10.2
Orange
3,025
257,287
2
4.2
5.9
Lompoc-Surf
5,950
186
4
4.1
7,997.3
Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo
2,938
114,909
2
4.0
12.8
Oakland Coliseum
22,113
157,390
17.9
3.4
7.8