Statewide transit

Someone may have already addressed this question in another topic. If so, please direct me there for the answer to my question:

Are there any statewide commuter/transit networks? I think one would work in Alabama.

Yes. New Jersey Transit is the chief example—and in fact may be the sole one.

Why would this work for Alabama? That state is considerably larger than NJ in area (about six times the area) and not as densely populated (NJ has double the population of Alabama).

Irish Chieftain wrote:Yes. New Jersey Transit is the chief example—and in fact may be the sole one.

Why would this work for Alabama? That state is considerably larger than NJ in area (about six times the area) and not as densely populated (NJ has double the population of Alabama).

Well, for one, if someone in, say, Huntsville, wanted to go to Mobile (or to Birmingham for City Stages), all that person would have to do is hop a train. There is also the annual football game between Auburn University in the town of Auburn and the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. In years past, this game (known as the Iron Bowl) was held in Birmingham. Now it alternates between Auburn and Tuscaloosa. Having an "Iron Bowl Special" would make this train an easy political sell. Also, I doubt all the local governments in the Birmingham metropolitan area could come up with the funding for a rail transit system. However, it is doubtful that the Alabama Legislature would do anything that benefits only the Birmingham area.

Huntsville has a population of about 158,000; for travel to either Mobile (358 miles) or Birmingham (102 miles), your local politicians are going to literally tell you to either ride the bus or drive. Another obstacle is that Norfolk Southern owns the rails through Huntsville and would require quite a bit of monetary compensation from the state and/or DC to facilitate that. (The distance between Huntsville and Mobile would be considered "intercity", too; Huntsville to Birmingham is a very long commuter run.) Unless there's a radical change in Alabama politics, then the only rail service through the state will be stopping in Anniston, Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, on the Crescent (and if the service returns, Atmore and Mobile on the Sunset Limited).

You might be able to get special trains commissioned for game days; but that would not be as cheap as renting buses, and given the continued anti-rail bias in DC and a lot of states besides, especially "red states", don't expect any forward progress.

RIPTA in Rhode Island may be an example, however the MBTA commuter rail may knock it out out of the race.

Maryland also has a statewide transit system (Maryland Transit Administration), though unlike New Jersey there are also some smaller, local public transit providers in the Old Line State, usually at the county level (like the agencies in Frederick/Frederick County, Hagerstown/Washington County, and Elkton/Cecil County). All Baltimore area transit service - subway, light rail, commuter rail, local bus, and express bus - is under MTA jurisdiction however. The MARC and express buses do connect Baltimore (and Washington) to other parts of the state outside their metropolitan areas.

CHIP72 wrote:Maryland also has a statewide transit system (Maryland Transit Administration), though unlike New Jersey there are also some smaller, local public transit providers in the Old Line State, usually at the county level (like the agencies in Frederick/Frederick County, Hagerstown/Washington County, and Elkton/Cecil County). All Baltimore area transit service - subway, light rail, commuter rail, local bus, and express bus - is under MTA jurisdiction however. The MARC and express buses do connect Baltimore (and Washington) to other parts of the state outside their metropolitan areas.

Although Maryland's MTA is part of a state agency ( MDOT), it primarily serves the Baltimore area. The three MARC commuter rail lines, and some commuter bus service into DC are exceptions to this, but MTA's urban transit operations are strictly Baltimore oriented. The DC suburbs are served by WMATA, which is a separate entity and is a traditional transit authority.

walt wrote:Although Maryland's MTA is part of a state agency (MDOT), it primarily serves the Baltimore area. The three MARC commuter rail lines, and some commuter bus service into DC are exceptions to this, but MTA's urban transit operations are strictly Baltimore oriented. The DC suburbs are served by WMATA, which is a separate entity and is a traditional transit authority.

Yeah, that's why I noted there is a difference between the MD MTA and NJ Transit. The MD MTA is a truer state agency (well, except along most of the Eastern Shore and the western Maryland panhandle - even there I think they partially fund some of the operations, I could be wrong) than anything that is in a larger state like say Pennsylvania or New York, where there is nothing comparable that covers a significant chunk of the state area-wise. Of course, NJ Transit to my knowledge operates all transit within the Garden State, excluding long distance services provided by entities like Amtrak, Greyhound, Trailways (all), or charter bus companies like Trans-Bridge that have regular scheduled route service.

EDIT: I forgot about the PATH and PATCO! How could I forget about the PATH and PATCO on a website like railroad.net?

The MTA does run a number of express, extended length (20-40 mile) bus routes into both the Baltimore and Washington areas (in fact, I know there is one that goes all the way from Hagerstown down to the I-270/I-495 junction area) but these routes supplement local transit operations (such as WMATA in the DC metro area) outside the Baltimore area.

Those MTA commuter bus runs are of relatively recent vintage. In the Baltimore-Washington corrididor MTA essentially assumed operation of some commuter runs which had their origins in privately contracted commuter bus operations. One such operation ran buses from Columbia, MD into DC beginning in the 1970's, chartering buses from the Howard County based Eyre's Bus Service. When the private Columbia Commuter Bus Corp. was forced ( by some financial shenanigans of its treasurer) to give up operating, Eyre's bought the Trailways franchise on Route 20, and continued to run much of the service for which it had provided charter service. Sometime in the early 1990's, MTA began to subsidize those operations and later took them over.

Attempts have been made to get MTA to run local urban type services in other places ( other than Baltimore) but at present, the commuter runs are the only service MTA provides outside of the Baltimore Metro Area. MTA contracts some of these services to private tour bus operators ( The runs in and out of Columbia are now run by Dillon's Bus Service)