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How to Have More Rail Passengers
By Noel T. Braymer Simple: run more passenger trains faster, more often to more places. While you are at it also offer travel deals and discounts for rail service to fill up trains that have extra room. This sounds simple but it is proven to work. An example of this is New York’s Metro North.…
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LAX and West LA needs Rail Passenger Service
By Noel T. Braymer The 405 and 10 freeways in Los Angeles County are among the busiest and most congested in the United States. The 405/10 intersection is in the heart of West LA. LAX is served by both the 405 and 105 Century freeways. Both of these freeways are often congested around LAX most…
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Pinching Penny’s while Blowing Bucks
By Noel T. Braymer I went to the Metrolink Board meeting in Los Angeles on June 14th largely because I had the day off. I expected the Board to approve the 5% Fare increase on the agenda. Still, going to this meeting was an educational experience. I caught Metrolink 607 at 6:36 AM with a…
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What is the True Value of Passenger Trains?
Story and Photos by Noel T. Braymer In London, England they are spending 15 billion pounds which is 23 billion dollars to connect 2 existing commuter rail lines in central London with 13 miles of tunneling. This out of 24 miles total for tunneling which also includes a tunnel for a branch to Heathrow Airport…
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Are Public Roads Only For Cars and Trucks?
By Noel T. Braymer My earliest memory of Streetcars was when I was about 6 years old and my father took me to my first baseball game. It was to see the now LA Dodgers playing at the Los Angeles Coliseum around 1958. What I remember most about that night were the Streetcars. They scared…
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Metrolink:Raise Ridership Not Fares for More Revenue
By Noel T. Braymer With about 18 million potential passengers in Metrolink’s market, it is barely scratching the surface with about 50,000 passengers on a good day. There is no mystery how to increase rail passenger revenue. Train revenue increases with longer routes serving as many markets as possible by selling more of the highest…
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Why California,Nevada and Arizona are the best places for High Speed Rail
By Noel T. Braymer This isn’t just my opinion. The Brooking Institute, a Washington based “Think Tank” came to this conclusion in a paper it released in October 2009. This paper is titled“Expect Delays: An Analysis of Air Travel Trends in the United States” by Adie Tomer and Robert Puentes. Looking at air corridors under…
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The Many Places Where You Can’t Go by Passenger Trains
By Noel T. Braymer There are several major cities in this Country without intercity rail passenger service. There are many more major cities that are not connected to each other by rail passenger service. The largest city without rail service is Phoenix with a regional population of 4.3 million. That is close to the population…
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LA doesn’t have Regional Rail with Airport Connections, but needs it
Story and Photos by Noel T. Braymer A recent international survey of air travelers by Skytrax rated the airports of the world. No American airport rated higher than 25th. LAX rated 109th out of 395 airports world wide. According to a story in the May 5, 2013 Los Angeles Times “What’s Wrong with Los Angeles…
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A simple way to increase Rail Passenger Miles
By Noel T. Braymer The Department of Transportation keeps records on many elements of this country’s transportation system. This is done by the DOT’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration Bureau of Transportation Statistics. To measure how people travel the DOT counts the Passenger Miles traveled by different modes. For example a person riding a bike…