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- Cities such as Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C. and Philadelphia have suburban rail systems that serve only 2 to 6 percent of commuters but better and more-frequent service could appeal to car drivers. Regional rail systems have “underutilized potential,” said TransitCenter’s Director of Research Steven Higashide. — “What’s really exciting for riders is a vision for all-day frequent service, that is, turning a transit system oriented around 9 to 5 commutes into a service that someone can rely on a much more diverse set of trips,” he added. Transportation officials from Toronto and the Bay Area, who led a discussion about rail service at TransitCenter on Wednesday, are already taking steps to modernize their rail systems and coax commuters out of their cars.
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In regards to Philly, the SEPTA regional Rail is already built out like an s-bahn system with all lines through-running, but they don't use it that way. It could be vastly improved by just increasing frequency. The station spacing is close on many of the lines, especially within the city limits. If they added a couple more stations on the main 4-track trunk in north philly and west philly, that would probably also improve ridership; it runs through some pretty densely populated neighborhoods that aren't served by subway. They could run express trains from the suburbs on the inner tracks that bypass the local inter-city stations.
They're bringing all the different modes under the same payment system (septa key), which might help too, but all modes should cost the same within the city limits whether it's subway/trolley or rail. It's not much of a difference anyway, so not sure why they just don't simplify it. Also, PATCO would be used more if it wasn't on a completely different system as SEPTA.