From: stephen@sprunk.org

On 15-Aug-14 15:49, John Levine wrote:
>> I believe John used the word "commuter" to refer to most of GO's
>> rail operations that are peak-hour-tidal: inbound in the morning
>> and outbound in the evening. Even their Lakeshore route runs on a
>> half-hour schedule the rest of the time.
>>
>> A rather Toronto-centric use of the word.
>
> Well, yeah, that's where it is.

If everyone redefines words to match only local conditions, then they
lose all meaning and usefulness as generic terms.

> Evidently commuter rail is like porn, we know it when we see it.  It
> typically runs between downtown and suburbs, with more inbound service
> timed to get people to work and outbound service timed to get people
> home after work, but beyond that, the details vary a lot.
>
> The Pearson DMU runs every 15 minutes between the airport, which is on
> the line between Toronto and fairly urban Mississauga, and downtown,
> on a 15 minute memory schedule.  Whatever it is, it's not commuter
> rail.

DCTA and CMTA both run DMUs with headways of ~20 minute peak / ~40
minute off-peak, with equal service in both directions all day.  The FRA
and FTA consider both of them "commuter rail"; NJT's River Line uses the
same DMUs and has similar schedules, yet it is considered "light rail".
 And across town from DCTA, DART's "light rail" trains run on roughly
the same schedule as well.

S

--
Stephen Sprunk         "God does not play dice."  --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723         "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS        dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking

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