jresta
Cyburbian
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I have a slightly new take on this issue since i've compared ridership numbers. Below is a list of our top 20 routes in terms of average weekday ridership. The top three are subway lines. The route numbers followed by the name of a town are commuter rail lines. The rest are bus routes. Some of the bus routes are paired, for instance 21/42 - they are essentially the same route with minor variations or detours.
Route Number Daily
Market Frankford Line 134567
Broad Street Line 83375
PATCO 33234
R5 Paoli 20823
Rt-21/42 19082
Rt-23 18813
Rt-C 18153
Rt-47/47m 17584
Rt-14/20 16537
Rt-18 15243
Rt-33 14462
Rt-52 13564
R5 Doylestown 13489
Rt-17 11505
Rt-G 11110
Rt-H/XH 11008
R7 Trenton 10686
Rt-60 10085
R3 West Trenton 9886
Rt-57 9203
R3 Media 8815
I was shocked to see so many bus routes outperform regional rail. I know first hand about crowded busses and i suppose i'm only on the suburban trains at rush hour but i never realized the disparity. Some of these bus routes should've been candidates for light rail conversion years ago. None of the top 6 routes even run articulated buses. Not that it would relieve the overcrowding. Right now most of these lines are running 7 minute headways with crowds 16 hours a day. During the AM and PM rush it's common to have to "wait for next bus" because there's no room.
To me it's an issue of capacity, wait times, and speed. 4 minute bus headways are useless if you have to wait for 12 minutes for a bus you can squeeze onto. 4 minute headways are also useless if the ride takes that much longer than the trolley.
Does anyone have similar, heavy use bus lines that are being considered for conversion to a higher capacity system - be it BRT, light rail , or subway?
Route Number Daily
Market Frankford Line 134567
Broad Street Line 83375
PATCO 33234
R5 Paoli 20823
Rt-21/42 19082
Rt-23 18813
Rt-C 18153
Rt-47/47m 17584
Rt-14/20 16537
Rt-18 15243
Rt-33 14462
Rt-52 13564
R5 Doylestown 13489
Rt-17 11505
Rt-G 11110
Rt-H/XH 11008
R7 Trenton 10686
Rt-60 10085
R3 West Trenton 9886
Rt-57 9203
R3 Media 8815
I was shocked to see so many bus routes outperform regional rail. I know first hand about crowded busses and i suppose i'm only on the suburban trains at rush hour but i never realized the disparity. Some of these bus routes should've been candidates for light rail conversion years ago. None of the top 6 routes even run articulated buses. Not that it would relieve the overcrowding. Right now most of these lines are running 7 minute headways with crowds 16 hours a day. During the AM and PM rush it's common to have to "wait for next bus" because there's no room.
To me it's an issue of capacity, wait times, and speed. 4 minute bus headways are useless if you have to wait for 12 minutes for a bus you can squeeze onto. 4 minute headways are also useless if the ride takes that much longer than the trolley.
Does anyone have similar, heavy use bus lines that are being considered for conversion to a higher capacity system - be it BRT, light rail , or subway?