STrRedWolf wrote: ↑Fri May 28, 2021 6:52 am
rcthompson04 wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 6:58 pm
PennDOT views it as a commuter train. Until many employers start mandating return to the office I don’t think the service levels will increase.
Yeah... but to where?
I always consider 2 hours to be the maximum for a commuter train. There may be longer with Metra Chicago or others further west...
...but the only way I can think of doing a 3h30m commute is if you're taking the MARC train from Fredrick and you're going to Baltimore, switching at DC to a Penn Line train. And that's the closest I've seen, time and distance wise!
(The only difference here is that it would be quicker to cover Fredrick to Baltimore by car via I-70. Harrisburg to NYC via I-78 is marginally better VS an express Keystone.)
We need to see the ticket sales on the Keystone to say "this is a commuter train" because I can't see any rational person commuting from Harrisburg to NYC on a daily basis. That's more than half your day gone!
It serves several different types of commuters:
1. Commuters from Chester County and west going to Philadelphia.
2. Commuters going from Philadelphia suburbs to Harrisburg.
3. Commuters from Philly suburbs to New Jersey and New York. Many of these people only had to go into North Jersey or New York once or twice a week, which makes coming from Paoli Exton or Ardmore tolerable.
There are day trippers to New York from Pennsylvania and people going Philadelphia for flights as well, but the most crowded trains I ever rode on the line were during rush hour periods.
When I start going back once or twice a week I plan on getting the Amtrak multi-ride ticket, which is a little higher than SEPTA, but since SEPTA isn’t running express trains right now, I will accept the price difference since I am only going twice a week max.