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Improving Transit Agency (Commuter Rail) Performance to Attract Riders: What Works?
The purpose of this project is to identify successful strategies that commuter rail providers have used to rebuild their ridership to counter stagnant or declining ridership in the post-COVID–19 era. It will also identify how transferable these strategies are to other areas by assessing whether they involved local partnership and/or were based on local conditions.
USDOT Priorities:
The project supports several of USDOT’s strategic goals because improved transit results in increased transit ridership which helps the community in which it operates on many levels. The main USDOT priority this project aligns with is Economic Strength. Regarding economic strength, clearly improved access to jobs and services and retail helps the overall economic health of the region. Increased transit use also reduces car use thereby reducing auto congestion which in turn reduces auto travel time for those who need to drive including freight deliveries, which also helps the local economy.
University:
Mineta Consortium for Transportation Mobility
San José State University
Principal Investigator:
Michelle DeRobertis
PI Contact Information:
San Jose State University
Funding Source(s) and Amounts Provided (by each agency or organization):
$99,971
Total Project Cost:
$99,971
Agency ID or Contract Number:
69A3552348328
Dates:
February 2025 to April 2026
Implementation of Research Outcomes:
The project will identify real world case study interventions that can be replicated elsewhere in the US. There will be no databases, inventions, software or hardware.
The primary output of this research project is the identification of specific strategies that commuter rail agencies have used to improve ridership in post-COVID times. These include schedule and marking changes that reach new riders and demographics.
The project will also identify strategic partnerships that commuter rail agencies have made in order to implement these strategies. These strategic partnerships may indeed be a key finding of this project since transit service does not exist in a vacuum and requires collaboration among multiple modes of transit who are often different agencies as well as the local jurisdictions in which they operate, state governments, local universities and other large employers.
Impacts/Benefits of Implementation:
The identification of the strategies to help post-Covid transit ridership rebound will have implications for specific policy changes that could help these and other commuter rail agencies implement such strategies in the future, including policies that would facilitate or enable the formation of key partnerships. Thus, a key outcome of this project would be recommendations for policy or legislative changes that would facilitate the implementation of the strategies found. For example, some agencies may have formed partnerships which found supplemental funding, such as regional transit impact fees or a use of a portion of parking fees. Some regions may have implemented regional transit coordination measures that make transit more attractive and affordable, by providing:
- Unified fares/single ticketing across all modes and operators (i.e., free transfers distance-based fares regardless of mode).
- Coordinated schedules/transfers/routing between modes and operators.
- Unified marketing of all modes and operators and a single website: a “one-stop shop”.
Project Number:
2513
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Contact Us
SJSU Research Foundation 210 N. 4th Street, 4th Floor, San Jose, CA 95112 Phone: 408-924-7560 Email: mineta-institute@sjsu.edu
