Passenger Trains > covid's impact on north star commuter trains.........

https://kstp.com/politics/public-transit-ridership-off-the-rails-during-covid-19-pandemic-october-21-2020/5901950/

an interesting article and video.............

66

Nothing new!  Everywhere in our great nation transportation is down on all rail operations.


Chris

And the same exact story is playing out on just about every "commuter" railroad in the country.

NY/NJ area commuter railroads are down 70- 80%. What can't be determined by us is how that breaks down among rush hours, off-peak weekdays and weekends. A weekend trip I took between NJ and LI a few weeks ago appeared that ridership was off by about 1/3rd. There are tools like https://staging.radar.mylirr.org/

Lots of people like working from home. Virus or not. It's great for moms with younger kids. No more day care costs.  Many will continue to do so as long as their company's allow ever after the virus is under control.  Commuter transportation as well as commercial real estate will be affected. All thanks to the Internet. 

If this pandemic had happened 20-25 years ago when most of our technology was slow (AOL dial up, busy signals, 4,800 baud rate) and not universal, we'd all be in real trouble, financially and health-wise. We still do not have broadband in some of rural America, like along the Cardinal route, unable to buy e-tickets. 

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> Lots of people like working from home. Virus or
> not. It's great for moms with younger kids. No
> more day care costs.  Many will continue to do so
> as long as their company's allow ever after the
> virus is under control.  Commuter transportation
> as well as commercial real estate will be
> affected. All thanks to the Internet. 

That's a bold assumption.  Have you ever tried to be productive, while working from home, and manage children?  A lot of parents working from home still take the kids to daycare.

Work from home fatigue is obvious in my daily Skype, Teams and Zoom meetings.  There's always one or more:
dog barking
noise from outside (truck, construction, train, other)
bad connection
someone leaves for a moment to handle some undisclosed personal task

People dress sloppily and men don't shave regularly.
Most people don't have a home office so you see a lot of peoples bedrooms.
This is no way to work.

I think there will be a rebound, 100% anytime soon would be a surprise,   it seems North Star wan't doing that well and some commuter rail lines were pretty stagnant or or slightly down.

Bob

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> If this pandemic had happened 20-25 years ago when
> most of our technology was slow (AOL dial up, busy
> signals, 4,800 baud rate) and not universal, we'd
> all be in real trouble, financially and
> health-wise. We still do not have broadband in
> some of rural America, like along the Cardinal
> route, unable to buy e-tickets. 

True enough, but I suspect that the worldwide spread would have been slower 20 years ago. Less international travel and all that. 

And working for us, the vaccine development would have taken a lot longer without the genetic ID technologies now available. 

With that said, I will be heading for my basement for the next few months. 

PHall Wrote:
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> And the same exact story is playing out on just
> about every "commuter" railroad in the country.

of course there has been a decrease in commuter train ridership all over the country.

UNTIL i read this article, i had NO idea what the "subsidy per passenger" for each one-way ride would have been on a north star commuter train.

i wonder what the "subsidy per passenger" for each one-way ride is on metrolink?  coaster?

in the future, it will be interesting to see if ANY commuter train operations cease.............

66

NY-MTA may, because they failed to deny when asked, shut down 2 or 3 LIRR branches if they have to carry out 50% service cuts, and that may be announced in December. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/20 17:31 by joemvcnj.

With the virus now beginning a parabolic upward spike there's a strong probability that another national lock down is in our future especially if the D's prevail on Nov. 3. VP Biden has repeatedly stated that he will follow the science 100% and if elected will issue a national mandatory mask law. Should there be a second national lock down it will obviously severely impact all modes of transportation.

    IMHO-Ross Rowland 

radar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> andersonb109 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Lots of people like working from home. Virus or
> > not. It's great for moms with younger kids. No
> > more day care costs.  Many will continue to do
> so
> > as long as their company's allow ever after the
> > virus is under control.  Commuter
> transportation
> > as well as commercial real estate will be
> > affected. All thanks to the Internet. 
>
> That's a bold assumption.  Have you ever tried to
> be productive, while working from home, and manage
> children?  A lot of parents working from home
> still take the kids to daycare.

Two of my godchildren - 6 and 3.5 - are still enrolled in day care, now that it is back OPEN. When the pandemic was raging back in April/May in the Mid-Atlantic day care was closed (plus they were VERY apprehensive of sending the kids to day care or any after school care) where they live. Their mother's sister moved in full-time (after losing her job) for nearly three months to help out and take care of the children because both Mom and Dad had to work in order to live. Day Care took some of the stresses off of course, but my friend said it was still a busy 7 am to 11 pm day nearly seven days a week. Dealing with work, maintaining a household with various services closed, day care now moved to "in-house" etc. They had a VERY rough schedule trying to deal with everything and I now have a totally different level of appreciation for those with young families trying to cope in current environment.    

co614 Wrote:
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> VP Biden has repeatedly stated that he will follow
> the science 100%...

I hate to be the one, but let's stop the clueless misleading narrative. My comment is not directed at Biden, if you want a big hint.

Off topic, but in order to follow the science, one must think scientifically, which your statement isn't. Transparency is what helped some countries control the pandemic. I read a 2003 National Institutes of Health article on SARS-CoV1 (80% genetic similarity to COVID-19, or SARS-CoV2), and the article is quite telling on the impact of the much smaller SARS epidemic in 2003, which in hindsight foreshadowed what we are dealing with.

I'll give you 2 numbers to test your (and TO members) research skills and scientific thought: 10933 and 10987. Those who can minimize bias and truly follow science will be rewarded.