01658515

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During the 1950s, several commuter railroads, particularly in the northeastern U.S., bought self-propelled diesel railcars to make these services more economical to operate. In Boston, Massachusetts, southern New Jersey, and Washington, D.C., these cars were the sole form of equipment by the 1960s. 6 Today, the commuter rail services where these cars formerly ran now use coaches with diesel locomotives in push-pull operation. No reliable successors emerged as the railcars of the 1950s aged and became less reliable during the 1970s and 1980s. Also, as commuter rail ridership increased during the 1980s, economic factors favored diesel locomotives operating with coaches in push-pull configuration. Thus, diesel railcars, which helped preserve commuter service on some railroads when ridership was falling, became less appropriate for railroads with growing ridership. Self-propelled diesel railcars still operate on commuter railroads in several cities, but the lines where they now operate are not, for the most part, as busy as those where their predecessors were introduced during the 1950s. A niche market should continue to exist for diesel railcars, but these cars will probably find their greatest use on lines with relatively light ridership.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AP070 Standing Committee on Commuter Rail Transportation.

18-02763

English

16p

2018

Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

References; Tables

Diesel multiple unit cars; History; Railroad commuter service; Ridership

United States

History; Passenger Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Railroads

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2018 Paper #18-02763

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 8 2018 10:40AM