01516610

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/2419-08

At most suburban rail stations, park-and-ride is the dominant use and the preferred access mode for most riders. Many transit agencies are trying to reduce their reliance on park-and-ride facilities and to encourage greater access by more sustainable modes. The recently released TCRP Report 153: Guidelines for Providing Access to Public Transportation Stations outlines a process to identify multimodal access priorities at high-capacity transit stations, and to weigh the benefits and trade-offs. This paper presents a case study analysis of how this station access planning process could be adapted and applied to a commuter rail network. The analysis considered the GO Transit rail system, which at the time of the study operated more than 65,000 park-and-ride spaces across 62 stations in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area of Ontario, Canada. In general, the TCRP process provided an effective approach to develop a strategic station access plan. However, several ways in which the process could be improved were identified. The paper recommends policy scenario analysis as a consultative and analytical approach to prepare a systemwide station access policy. The paper also presents a decision-making framework to assess parking needs at the individual station level and provides an example of how this framework was used to make trade-offs during the station access planning process, with balanced investment in park-and-ride and other access modes. Overall, station access planning exercises should attempt to build recommendations from the top down (i.e., station access policy) and the bottom up (i.e., decision-making framework) to ensure that proposed solutions support the overall policy direction while they respond to the individual station context.

01557109

14-1374

English

pp 82–91

2014

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

9780309295543

Print

Figures (6) ; Maps; References (18) ; Tables (1)

Access; Case studies; Decision making; Park and ride; Policy analysis; Railroad commuter service; Transportation policy

GO Transit

Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Policy; Public Transportation; Railroads; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 27 2014 2:31PM

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