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4th June 2009

What's with these one-car trains? (or: an open letter to Metro)

posted at 9.00 am under themes Light Rail, Opinion and Comment, Phoenix, Transportation Policy and tags , ,

Dear Metro Light Rail,

I am undoubtedly one of your biggest fans.  Since you’ve been open for business, I think there have only been 15 days where I haven’t boarded one of your trains.  So there’s just one question I must ask:

What’s with these one-car trains?

This week (through last night), I have been on a Metro train eight times, and all during peak travel times (morning, lunch, evening).  Of those eight times, six trips have been on a one-car train.  Of those six trips, the train has been packed, standing room only.  When there is demand for people to ride the Metro, why cut capacity?

I understand that you’re trying to save some money, and given the current economic climate, it’s necessary.  But in reality, how much does it cost to operate a one-car vs. two-car train?  It would seem like the biggest cost – the operator’s salary – is the same whether they are driving a one-car train or a fifteen-car train.  Is the electricity to power a second car that much?  Or the maintenance costs?  If you planned your rolling stock purchase right, you should have enough cars to take one or two out of service while maintaining enough cars to keep two-car trains along the entire route.

If we look at wasteful spending on the Metro, it would be having the driver open all doors when it’s hotter than Hades outside when the air conditioning is running full blast to keep the cars comfortable.  Isn’t that what those yellow buttons on the doors are for: for people to open the train’s doors as they need while keeping the hot outside and the cool inside?  I know that when you tested that out in the winter, few people figured out that that’s what the yellow buttons were for.  So then, put a little sign on the outside of the trains to tell people to push the yellow buttons to open the doors.

When the infrastructure of the Metro was built for three-car trains (e.g. platform length), running one-car trains seems and looks silly.  I hope that you reconsider this, because you’re just reinforcing the notion that “buses can do everything trains can do,” which you and I know is completely not true.

-Edward Jensen

View Comments
  • Okay, I understand a ton of people are frustrated by this change. Some very good points were brought up. Overall I think the thing that needs to change the most is the openness of METRO and the RPTA, I have never encountered a pdf of minutes from their meetings or any insights of what specific challenges the organization is facing. It would be wonderful to see the facts that led METRO to switch to one car service and how much money it's saving them.

    However I've already gotten over my personal frustration with one car service because everyone can get on the trains still. If it actually starts delaying things or impairing safety (it already seems to be impeding the speed of the trips) it'll then become unacceptable.

    But as for the convince of having a roomy car, I don't think that's a valid reason for any one to get upset at a transit network... so has anyone been truly affected by the one car switch? I think we'd all be happier with a more transparent transportation agency, where things like this just don't come up unexpectedly.
  • They keep saying how well they can monitor the riding patterns yet, "mistakes" continue to be common...
    Rocket science, it isn't...
  • Good points above. The one-car wonders look silly, are ridiculously crowded when operated at rush hour, and empower anti-transit naysayers. I've defended METRO Light Rail countless times, but I can't support this misguided decision. I hope everyone will complain vocally about the single car trains until they are truly limited to off-peak times (e.g. 6 AM on Sunday) rather than being used, inexplicably, at rush hour.
  • Speaking as a private citizen here, I think that running the single car train sets during the mid-day (base) times is kind of silly.

    I don't really see METRO's motivation on running the single-car sets during the day periods. I can see it at night. I normally ride after 8:30PM and I have been on some single car trains and the load is pretty comfortable. I have been on mid-day trains with single cars and I Have yet to experience crush load, but I can imagine very well that it is happening.

    As the RPTA and most city governments enter into their new fiscal year (which starts July 1), I think we are going to see a lot of paranoia and more belt tightening where it comes to money.

    Look at the upcoming fare increase. They are charging a higher price for purchasing a day pass on the bus vs. purchasing it from a retailer or a vending machine. RPTA claims it is to "speed up the boarding process" on the buses. In fact, when you insert a "virgin" pass (without a date stamped on it yet) into a farebox, it actually takes about the same time because of the delay of processing the card and printing the date on the card (oh, and yes, the same risk that the farebox will "eat" the card).

    Back to the single car train sets, I think what we are seeing is the aftermath of the first six months of operation. As many of us may know, that the Phoenix "Transit 2000" initiative included funding to cover the capital costs to build the light rail and fund the first six months of operation. Now that the six month period is over with, LRT will be starving for funding along with the buses.

    Even with the upcoming fare increase, the light rail continues to operate "fat" as the system is not going to really see any cuts.

    Plus, has anyone thought of the possibility that this alleged "savings" by running single-car trains during the day is going to cover the extended service span on Friday and Saturday nights?

    With that, I can justify the use of single car train sets at certain times of the day (such as the evenings when there's no major special events taking pace) and the nice thing about the system is that it is flexible to handle the shift in passenger load. But I would think there would still be costs involved with coupling and decoupling cars from a particular train run since it would technically take two people (one person to drive the additional rail car from the yard to meet up with the train and another to drive the operator back to the yard) which probably explains why they just pull out a block for the entire day using the single car set.

    Until the individual cities realize it would be better that public transit be totally regonalized and the local cities' transit departments would eventually fold into RPTA (something that Phoenix is fighting tooth-and-nail), we will have many backwards transit decisions being made.

    Transit in the valley should be funded at a regional level, not a local level. This way, Peoria may finally get their bus on 75th Avenue.

    =m
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