Like the Americans, we in NSW have the bane of the lumbering, crawling commuter train - one area in which it was not a good idea to follow the Americans, no matter how much that was a good way to go with trams! Capacity and journey time are the two most critical issues for public transport. I can think of only two cases of commuter services in Australia where journey time has been proactively addressed: the Victorian interurbans and Perth suburbans. I don't know what patronage results the Victorian fast interurbans produced after their introduction, but the Perth results were spectacular, with rail patronage increasing from about 7 million a year to over 60 million within 20 years. This is pretty-much entirely down to speed.
I recall Prof Peter Newman saying that the average speed of Melbourne's suburban trains is about 30 km/h. Sydney's would be worse than that, except for some peak express trains, and its interurbans average out around 60. Sydney northwest metro would average about 40 km/h. Perth suburban trains range from averaging about 40 km/h on the old lines with the closest station spacings to about 90 on the Mandurah line. A Ballarat train seems to average about 90 but with half the number of stops of the Mandurah train - maybe being diesel it lacks some oomph. The debate about distance commuting needs to focus on journey time rather than distance. Until that is addressed, the objective of relieving population stress on the cities won't go anywhere.
Tony P
---InTramsDownUnder@..., <rodsmith@...> wrote :
Extreme commuting: Taking two hours or more to get to work Jul 24, 2017 .
More and more Americans are enduring extreme commuting as property prices
push people further out from the cities. Photo: Glenn Hunt.
In 1492, after an arduous voyage aboard Columbuss vessel the Santa María,
Rodrigo de Triana, a lookout, bellowed, Tierra!
This is pretty much how Corey Ferrell, a commuter, sometimes feels upon
docking at his Manhattan office following a heroic three-and-a-half-hour,
one-way commute by bicycle, two trains, and on foot from Oxford,
Connecticut.
About 180 miles to the west, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Scott Ubert, a
corporate chef in Manhattan, starts his extended day at 5am. An hour later,
coffee in hand, he drives 10 minutes to an open-air bus stop where he
catches the 6:20 to the Port Authority Bus Terminal two hours if the stars
align. From there, he has a leg-stretching 20-minute walk to work.
The United States Census Bureau defines long commutes as 96 kilometres
each way. Photo: Quentin Jones.
The ride is pretty comfortable, Mr. Ubert said. But just hope you dont
get one of the old clunkers. Like nearly all extreme commuters defined
here as people who commute a minimum of two hours each way, five days a week
Mr Ubert settles in, pulls out his iPhone and laptop and gets to work
answering emails, texting and planning menus. He typically logs a 10 to
12-hour workday, returning home at close to midnight.
My wife always waits up, which is nice, Mr Ubert said. Our little guy
goes to bed at 9pm, which is not so cool, but he loves the backyard and
neighbourhood, so its completely worth it.
At first Mr Ubert thought he would hate the commuting life, but that soon
changed. Its really not so bad, and what we get in return is amazing.
What they get in return is a 288 square metre, five-bedroom, four-bath
colonial on one rustic acre, for which they paid $375,000 last year.
Its true, we are living the American dream, with deer running around in
our yard, and bald eagles, too.
It would be an overstatement to say extreme commuting is a major trend.
After all, how many people can withstand 200 hours a month travelling back
and forth?
For those who can, however, the motivations are similar: the need to leave
an unaffordable city, expanding families, a search for better schools,
tranquil environs and more real estate bang for the buck. And as employers
become more open to flexible work hours, combined with technology that makes
it easier to carry the office with you, the long-distance commute is
expected to grow significantly.
Technological changes have made it more possible to redefine the
workplace, said Mitchell L. Moss, director of the Rudin Center for
Transportation at N.Y.U. Even in New York City, which has been famous for
not allowing people to work at home, there is now more tolerance of flexible
time.
There is little data on long-distance commuting. The United States Census
Bureau defines long commutes as 96 kilometres each way, which is hardly
breaking a sweat for todays morning marathoners. In 2013, 21 percent of
commuters spent 60 minutes or longer getting to work, half of those driving
alone. New York State had the highest rate of long commuters, about 16
percent, followed by Maryland and New Jersey, at roughly 15 percent.
We are now getting more middle and upper-level executives with young
families looking for prime waterfront property, said Meig Walz of Coldwell
Banker in Madison, Connecticut, which is about 15 minutes east of New Haven
and halfway between New York and Boston. Four and five-bedroom waterfront
homes in Madison are in the $2 million range, half of what they would fetch
in Fairfield County, and with lower taxes.
Observing this lifestyle, one might ask, what character traits dispose one
to engage in a weekday ordeal of near allegorical sacrifice?
For one, virtually all possess a sense of resigned equanimity when
discussing their routines. No one complained. (Well, one groused about the
removal of beer carts from the platform entrances in Grand Central.) And
they appeared to have resolved, in a selfless and resolute way, the urban
breadwinners equation that weighs time, motion, family, career and
environmental serenity. (Add sanity to the checklist.)
They hold good jobs, but not so good that they would put up with anything to
hold them. They are family focused, yet appear unburdened by any guilt about
seeing their children mostly when they are unconscious.
We do a lot of stuff on weekends, Mr Ubert said.
Mr Ferrell, in Connecticut, an electrical engineer, has had an extreme
commute for eight years. He considers the train an adjunct to his office,
with a hot spot internet connection and adequate space to spread out
papers.
His children are grown and out of the house. This, he said, frees up
weekends so he and his wife can
take the train to Manhattan.
I love the city, he said. We do it all the time.
New York Times
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