From: pschleif@speakeasy.org

On Tue, 19 Aug 2014 12:24:17 -0700 (PDT), jimmygeldburg@gmail.com
wrote:

>Adam H. Kerman wrote:
>> Peter Schleifer  wrote:
>> >We have Metro North commuter rail which carries the majority of its
>> >passengers on off-peak and reverse peak trains.
>>
>> I never knew that. Which route in particular? What major suburban employment
>> center is being served?
>
>It's not exactly a fair comparison: counting passengers for the 4 hours
inbound to Manhattan in the morning and 4 outbound in the afternoon, on
weekdays only; versus a total of all the other hours of service including
reverse-peak, mid-day, evenings, 
and weekends.

Maybe not, but it's the same metric used on other railroads.

>The traditional rush is still by far the busiest in terms of passengers per
hour.
>
>However, Metro North has done a much better job than the LIRR at providing
reverse-peak service.  The reverse-peak schedule on the LIRR is *worse* than
mid-day, with big gaps, since so many slots are used by peak direction trains.
>
>I hope LIRR projects like the second track from Farmingdale to Ronkonkoma
(currently under construction) and the third track through Mineola (in future
plans) will allow this to change.

It's going to take a while to overcome the NIMBY's opposing the third
mainline track, and that is what is really needed to be able to run a
reasonable reverse peak service on the LIRR.  The second Ronkonkoma
track won't do much for that on its own.

The 4 hour gap in westbound service from Ronkonkoma does allow city
residents who don't have cars to be excused from serving on juries at
the federal courthouse in Central Islip (but they will then call you
to serve in Brooklyn).
--
Peter Schleifer
"Ignorance is easy and you get it for free"

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