Quote:
Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse
Seems to me that when comparing the two, the most surprising thing is how low Philadelphia's non-commuter rail ridership is. The septa commuter rail ridership at a much more reasonable level since their commuter rail is so advanced for the North American context but the subway...
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There is also PATCO Speedline I should have added, but it is only 38.4k per weekday.
Toronto has increased density a lot around subway stations, but I think if its bus and streetcar ridership fell to Philadelphia's level, the subway ridership would also suffer a lot, no matter the density along those lines.
These pages list the ridership of the stations of Market-Frankford Line and the TTC subway system in 2018, respectively:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market...Frankford_Line
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ubway_stations
Termini stations in Philadelphia (69th Street, Frankford) get around 20,000 boardings per weekday, while the termini stations in Toronto (Finch, Kipling/Islington, Kennedy) get around 100,000 boardings per weekday. So the fact that Toronto has four times the bus and streetcar ridership is probably what best explains that difference in heavy rail ridership. Just these four subway stations together have around 300,000 boardings per weekday, representing one-fifth of TTC subway ridership, and almost matching the entire SEPTA heavy rail network and PATCO.
69th Street Transportation Center 17,680
Frankford Transportation Center 19,052
Finch 99,350
Kipling 49,340
Islington 41,270
Kennedy 111,190
And keep in mind these aren't the only TTC stations with bus terminals. Almost every subway station outside of downtown has a bus terminal in the fare-paid zone served by multiple bus routes that riders can transfer seamlessly to and from.
Why is the potential of commuter rail untapped? Probably same reason why the potential of heavy rail is also untapped. I think these numbers show the importance of having a complete transit network. The local transit network in Philadelphia is not complete, and the gaps are biggest in the suburbs. The commuter rail ridership there is actually impressive considering the lack of connections, with many stations having no bus service at all. If Philadelphia starts filling in those gaps, better connecting everything together, getting people onto the buses, then it will get more people onto those commuter rail and subway trains, and maybe even expand those services. Want more rail service? Then start adding more bus service.