Talk:Commuter rail

Skip to table of contents

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Commuter rail article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic. New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help. Assume good faith Be polite and avoid personal attacks Be welcoming to newcomers Seek dispute resolution if needed Article policies Neutral point of view No original research Verifiability

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

This  level-5 vital article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Trains High‑importance Trains Portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Trains, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to rail transport on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. See also: WikiProject Trains to do list and the Trains Portal.TrainsWikipedia:WikiProject TrainsTemplate:WikiProject Trainsrail transport articles High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Would it be useful to have a commuter train listing, as there is an Underground listing? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.15.46.129 (talk) 12:17, 24 August 2002 (UTC)[reply]

Surely "Commuter trains" are more public transport than say goods trains ? --Imran — Preceding undated comment added 20:25, 30 September 2002 (UTC)[reply]

Mmm I guess so. But I don't see a commuter train as being any more public transport than a long distance train. -- AdamW — Preceding undated comment added 20:35, 30 September 2002 (UTC)[reply]

But a long distance passenger train is public transport! Phlogistomania 14:27, Apr 23, 2005 (UTC)

This page should be merged with regional rail, but I don't know at which location. The Google test reveals that 'commuter rail' is much more common than 'regional rail', but the former is a needlessly specific usage that excludes systems in countries where bedroom communities are not as epidemic as they are in the United States. --Smack 00:45, 31 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I've copied the content from regional rail here, because it was just one user's edits, who I attributed in my copy (thus their contribution is now in the edit history of this page). I suggest we now do a simple move of this page to regional rail (a more general/non-locale specific term).

I'll clean up the page further once this is done.

zoney ▓█▒ talk 11:47, 25 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I've swapped the pages regional rail and commuter train. So the history here reflects what was there originally and vice versa. I hope this isn't too confusing. Mintguy (T) — Preceding undated comment added 12:21, 25 August 2004 (UTC)[reply]

This page doesn't seem to be about Regional Rail to me. Regional Rail consists of the services left when you exclude the InterCity and Commuter Lines. Typically, these are rural branch lines and lines connecting small towns to the National Rail network. Phlogistomania 14:31, Apr 23, 2005 (UTC)

As a data point, what country do you live in? There seems to be a lot of disagreement of terminology between countries; I've attempted to explain this on Passenger rail terminology. The part on regional and commuter rail is currently empty; it would be greatly appreciated if you could add your local usage. It would probably be best to get that all fixed up before we decide what terms to use on the individual articles (such as rapid transit as a neutral term for subway/metro). --SPUI (talk) 16:21, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I don't think this term "regional rail" is in common use anywhere. There was a "Regional Rail" sector of British Rail for a while included services that didn't fit into the Inter City or Network South East sectors, but the term is not used today. In the USA and Canada, I don't think the term has ever been used. Since this is an English Language encyclopedia, what does that leave us with? Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, India? Does anyone here ever use this phrase?

Exile 16:26, 16 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with Phlogistomania. Leaving aside the poor grammar of Regional rail or commuter rail usually provide a rail service between a central business district and suburbs or other locations that draw large numbers of people on a daily basis', suburbs-to-city-centre operations do not constitute "regional rail" in Europe, where passenger operations typically divide into high-speed, other long-distance, regional, and suburban. Regional services are medium-distance inter-urban services connecting two or more towns and calling at all or most intermediate urban and rural stations or similar branch-line services connecting to the main lines. Some of these services will carry commuters, but they are more than simply commuter operations.

I think it was a mistake to merge the two concepts. At least it should be explained that the (commuter rail) defintion given to "regional rail" here is an American peculiarity. -- Picapica 11:20, 21 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think this article should be renamed to Commuter rail, which is unambiguous. Regional rail should then be a disambiguation-like page explaining that "regional" as applied to rail has different meanings in different places, and providing appropriate links. Henning Makholm 20:03, 10 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think this article should re-named commuter rail (currently a re-direct to here). The article is about "rail services between central business districts and commuter towns or other locations that draw large numbers of people on a daily basis" (to quote the opening sentence)... which is my view is commuter rail. The term "regional rail" is associated with things like BR's Regional Railways - services between smaller towns, used primarily for leisure and other non-business/commuting uses. Tompw (talk) (review) 19:55, 3 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

In view of the reactions since my earlier comment, I propose moving this article, at the end of a fortnight, to Commuter rail (with appropriate indications of the fact that commuter rail operations may also be termed "regional rail" in North America). -- Picapica 22:04, 15 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I believe that Commuter Rail is definately confined to the greater urban area (or suburban rail network), while Regional Rail is extra urban and inter-urban. Victoria has just begun constructing a Regional Rail Link, so that proves the terminology is still in use here, for starters. The regional rail will provide another high speed Regional Rail link betweenGeelong and Melbourne. 119.161.71.12 (talk) 11:19, 5 September 2010 (UTC)MOFO1O[reply]

Why is there mention of the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 in an article on regional rail travel? These are airplanes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wackyvorlon (talk • contribs) 07:37, 6 June 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I added link to one of the articles about the 2005 London Underground terrorist attacks, and other major incidents involving railway systems. AlMac|^(talk) 15:43, 25 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Please see Talk:Commuter rail in North America for a discussion about renaming Commuter rail in North America to Commuter rail. --Jason McHuff 00:33, 4 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

"Commuter rail, regional rail or suburban rail is a passenger rail transport service between a city center, and outer suburbs and commuter towns or other locations that draw large numbers of commuters"

• Sububrban Rail (at least in europe and Japan) aplies to rapid transit systems over the national railways tracks even when the entire route is used solely by those same suburban trains ... in most of the places the notion of "segregated" rapid transit don't even apply properly
• regional rail are trains that run from one place to another (but are not express/intercity trains) and usually stop at small places en route where the intercity trains wouldn't stop (frequencyes can be as high as any rapid transit system in some well developed areas)
• commuter rail ... looks to me that it's the low/high end of regional rail ... very blurry as a definition indeed since suburban and regional trains are very distinct from one another. 83.132.236.47 (talk) 03:56, 26 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Why does it say India runs on narrow gauge? All Indian suburban railway systems run on Broad Gauge. --Rsrikanth05 (talk) 13:45, 1 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In Germany there are S-Bahn in several cities. However at least the S-Bahn in Berlin (where S-Bahn originally ment Stadtbahn - "cityrail" in English. Here is 166 stations but about 30 of them goes outside the city limit. And further 45 of the stations are inside the central ticket fare zone, equal to central Berlin (both old east Berlin and classical citycenter "Mitte" and the citycenter that arised in west Berlin, the districts "Charlottenburg" and "Wilmersdorf" with the famous street "Kurfürstendamm" as divider between the two central districts of former Westberlin. There is also a central circle line, all (double)tracks are for S-trains only (allthow other trains can run parallell on some lines, but at theese parts there are at least four tracks, two for S-Bahn and two for other trains. In the central parts of Berlin S-Bahn runs evry fifth minute. Electrifying of the Berlin S-Bahn is equal to the U-Bahn, with an electric "track" on the rails rather then getting power from lines above the trains. Berlin S-Bahn simply do not have that function as dercribed in the article.

The S-Bahn was during the time of east- and west- Berlin runned by GDR (Eastgermany) in the whole city (thow no lines crossed the wall) While BRD (Westgermany) run the U-Bahn. Today both system are more and more connected to each other. For instance the new U-Bahn line U-55 runs between S-Bahn-station Friedrichstrasse via the parliamentbuilding (Bundestag) and S-Bahn-station Unter den Linden. There are no direct connection to other U-Bahn. Berlin S-Bahn has as primary task to transport poeople around in the city center, and to complete the U-Bahn - rather than beeing a train system to suburbs. Compare with Metropolitan line at London - wich , no doubth counts as underground - not commuter rail, althow it goes as far out as Watford. And the S-Bahn is runned both as underground and above street level. S-Bahn and U-Bahn is allways shown together at the schematic maps of Berlin local trains. Please see

official pdf http://www.vbbonline.de/download/pdf/liniennetze/su_berlin.pdf

other http://www.urbanrail.net/eu/bln/berlin-map.htm

The same goes for S-Bahn in Hamburg, Copenhagen and Vienna - they are a totally separated a from common railroads system - that mainly transports passengers inside Hamburg, Copenhagen and Vienna (often as underground). They are both primary used to complete their U-Bahn (or Metro in the case of Copenhagen).

Just like DLR complete London Underground in Docklands and parts of eastern London. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.249.33.93 (talk) 03:08, 28 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

S-Bahn is a trademark that covers products such distinct as:

* S-Bahn Berlin, which is incompatible with regular railways (uses a third rail instead of a catenary) and technically similar to metro systems. I'd even classify it as a metro if it weren't for the Berlin U-Bahn covering that niche.

* S-Bahn Munich, which is mostly compatible with regular railways but uses purpose-build rolling-stock.

* Rostock S-Bahn, which uses the same tracks and rolling stock as regional rail. If it weren't for DB using the S-Bahn trademark, I'd rather classify this as regional rail.

— cfaerber ✐ 16:38, 20 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I've just rewritten the following paragraph:

“In some cases, hybrids between a train and a metro have been created. They run underground in the dense city centres and on surface or elevated tracks in lower-density areas. Examples include the Madrid Cercanías network, the Dublin Area Rapid Transit, the Liverpool Merseyrail network, the Paris RER, lines 6-8 of the Barcelona Metro, the S-Bahn systems of Berlin, Munich, Vienna and Zürich, the Naples narrow gauge Circumvesuviana, the suburban railway (HÉV) in Budapest, Valparaíso Metro, San Francisco's BART, and the rail systems of Tokyo, Seoul (Seoul Metropolitan Subway), Sydney (CityRail), Melbourne and Brisbane (CityTrain.”

IMO, just running underground in the city centre does not make a commuter rail a “hybrid“ system. All of these systems were clearly classified as rapid transit or commuter rail on the pages describing them. — cfaerber ✐ 16:19, 20 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Although IMO Oceania is a perversion of 'Australasia', my edit reflects the hierachy of listing Melbourne 3rd after Sydney and Brisbane. I have edited the page to reflect Melbourne's status as the premier commuter rail system in the region, if not the hemisphere. Melbourne boasts 211 suburban stations on 16 lines to Sydeny's 170 stations on 11 lines. 119.161.71.12 (talk)!MOFO1O —Preceding undated comment added 11:07, 5 September 2010 (UTC).[reply]

Where did a lot of the criteria about what constitutes a commuter rail system come from? Are there any sources for that? For example, it says "outer suburbs beyond 15 km (10 miles)." Where did that number come from? Are they arbitrary numbers? The characteristics and many other information on this page needs to be cited. Unown Uzer717 (talk) 01:11, 14 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:

• Silverliner V Train .jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 00:51, 13 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Tokyo Metro 16000 Series 16111f Semi Express.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 21:52, 11 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Edited the NJT train image desc. because it said it went to Philadelphia (it doesn't) OvalTheNerd (talk) 18:06, 19 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Why have a link from commuter rail article to commuter rail article Mr. CRINGE (talk) 16:54, 14 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I did revert it once but decided to change it BACK to Metra since I had no reasoning for it. I just want to personally ask why it was changed to Metra? 167.88.225.31 (talk) 16:46, 14 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]