Commuter rail
Commuter rail or suburban rail is a passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting the central city to its suburbs and commuter towns. Commuter rail systems can use locomotive-hauled trains or multiple units, using electric or diesel propulsion. Distance charges or zone pricing may be used.
The term can refer to systems with a wide variety of different features and service frequencies, but typically refers to mainline rail services connecting suburban communities with city centres over medium distances; it is distinguished from rapid transit systems which operate inside the urban core.
Some services blur the line between suburban rail and rapid transit; examples include German S-Bahn in some cities, the Réseau Express Régional in Paris, the S Lines in Milan, many Japanese commuter systems, the East Rail line in Hong Kong, and some Australasian suburban networks, such as Sydney Trains and Metro Trains Melbourne. Many commuter rail systems share tracks with other passenger services and freight.
In North America, commuter rail sometimes refers only to systems that primarily operate during rush hour and offer little to no service for the rest of the day, with regional rail being used to refer to systems that offer all-day service.
Characteristics
Most commuter trains are built to main line rail standards, differing from light rail or rapid transit systems by:- being larger
- providing more seating and less standing room, owing to the longer distances involved
- having a lower frequency of service
- having scheduled services
- serving lower-density suburban areas, typically connecting suburbs to the city center
- sharing track or right-of-way with intercity and/or freight trains
- not fully grade separated
- being able to skip certain stations as an express service due to normally being driver controlled
Train schedule
The general range of commuter trains' travel distance varies between, but longer distances can be covered when the trains run between two or several cities. Distances between stations may vary, but are usually much longer than those of urban rail systems. In the city centre, the train may terminate, or run through the city centre to serve suburbs on the other side before returning.
Track
Suburban trains' ability to coexist with freight or intercity services in the same right-of-way can drastically reduce system construction costs. However, as lines converge near the city centre and the number of trains per hour increases, dedicated tracks may be built or existing tracks set aside for suburban trains only; commonly, two tracks of a quadruple-track line running through a city centre are used for suburban services only.Most such trains run on the local standard gauge track. Some systems may run on a narrower or broader gauge. Examples of narrow-gauge systems are found in some systems in Sweden, Austria, Switzerland and on the Genoa-Casella line in Italy. Some countries and regions, such as San Francisco in the US and the Keikyu system in Japan, use wider track gauges relative to their national standard.
Distinction between other modes of rail
Metro
Metro rail and rapid transit usually cover smaller inner-urban areas within of city centers, with shorter stop spacing, use rolling stocks with larger standing spaces, lower top speed and higher acceleration, designed for short-distance travel. They also run more frequently, to a headway rather than a published timetable and use dedicated tracks, whereas commuter rail often shares tracks, technology and the legal framework within mainline railway systems, and uses rolling stocks with more seating and higher speed for comfort on longer city-suburban journeys.However, the classification as a metro or rapid rail can be difficult; many highly developed suburban networks run over dedicated rights of way in the city centre and may primarily serve densely built-up inner suburbs. The fact that the terminology is not standardised across countries further complicates matters. This distinction is most easily made when there are two systems such as New York's subway and the LIRR and Metro-North Railroad, Paris' Métro and RER along with Transilien, Washington D.C.'s Metro along with its MARC and VRE, London's tube lines of the Underground and the Overground, Elizabeth line, Thameslink along with other commuter rail operators, Madrid's Metro and Cercanías, Barcelona's Metro and Rodalies, and Tokyo's subway and the JR lines along with various privately owned and operated commuter rail systems.
Regional rail
usually provides rail services between towns and cities, rather than purely linking major population hubs in the way inter-city rail does. Regional rail operates outside major cities. Unlike Inter-city, it stops at most or all stations between cities. It provides a service between smaller communities along the line that are often byproducts of ribbon developments, and also connects with long-distance services at interchange stations located at junctions, terminals, or larger towns along the line. Alternative names are "local train" or "stopping train". Examples include the former BR's Regional Railways, France's TER, Germany's Regionalexpress and Regionalbahn, and South Korea's Tonggeun and Mugunghwa-ho services.Inter-city rail
In some European countries, the distinction between commuter trains and long-distance/intercity trains is subtle, due to the relatively short distances involved. For example, Nederlandse Spoorwegen runs more than 80 direct trains a day over some 50 km between Amsterdam and The Hague, used daily by numerous commuters, despite notionally being an intercity route. Likewise, many suburban services in the Greater Tokyo Area in Japan connect downtown Tokyo with cities which are substantial in their own right, such as Yokohama, Saitama, and Chiba but are less than 50 km from the centre of Tokyo.The United Kingdom has a largely privatized rail system, with different routes and services covered by different private operators. The distinction between commuter and intercity rail is not as clear as it was before privatisation, but usually it is still possible to tell them apart. Some operators, for example Thameslink, focus solely on commuter services. Others, such as Avanti West Coast and LNER, run solely intercity services. Others still, such as GWR and EMR, run a mixture of commuter, regional and intercity services. Some of these operators use different branding for different types of service but even for those operators that do not, the type of train, amenities offered, and stopping pattern, usually tell the services apart.
Russian commuter trains, on the other hand, frequently cover areas larger than Belgium itself, although these are still short distances by Russian standards. They have a different ticketing system from long-distance trains, and in major cities they often operate from a separate section of the train station.
Some consider "inter-city" service to be that which operates as an express service between two main city stations, bypassing intermediate stations. However, this term is used in Australia to describe the regional trains operating beyond the boundaries of the suburban services, even though some of these "inter-city" services stop all stations similar to German regional services. In this regard, the German service delineations and naming conventions are clearer and better used for academic purposes.
High-speed rail
Sometimes high-speed rail can serve daily use of commuters. The Japanese Shinkansen high speed rail system is heavily used by commuters in the Greater Tokyo Area, who commute between by Shinkansen. To meet the demand of commuters, JR sells commuter discount passes. Before 2021, they operated 16-car bilevel E4 Series Shinkansen trains at rush hour, providing a capacity of 1,600 seats. Several lines in China, such as the Beijing–Tianjin Intercity Railway and the Shanghai–Nanjing High-Speed Railway, serve a similar role with many more under construction or planned.In South Korea, some sections of the high-speed rail network are also heavily used by commuters, such as the section between Gwangmyeong Station and Seoul Station on the KTX network, or the section between Dongtan Station and Suseo station on the SRT Line.
The high-speed services linking Zurich, Bern and Basel in Switzerland have brought the Central Business Districts of these three cities within 1 hour of each other. This has resulted in unexpectedly high demand for new commuter trips between the three cities and a corresponding increase in suburban rail passengers accessing the high-speed services at the main city-centre stations. The Regional-Express commuter service between Munich and Nuremberg in Germany runs at on the Nuremberg–Ingolstadt high-speed railway.
The regional trains Stockholm–Uppsala, Stockholm–Västerås, Stockholm–Eskilstuna and Gothenburg–Trollhättan in Sweden reach and have many daily commuters.
In Great Britain, the HS1 domestic services between London and Ashford runs at a top speed of 225 km/h, and in peak hours the trains can be full with commuters standing.
The Athens Suburban Railway in Greece consists of five lines, 4 of which are electrified. The Kiato–Piraeus line and the Aigio–Airport lines reach speeds of up to. The Athens–Chalcis line is also expected to attain speeds of up to upon upgrading of the SKA–Oinoi railway sector. These lines also have many daily commuters, with the number expected to rise even higher upon full completion of the Acharnes Railway Center.
Eskişehir-Ankara and Konya-Ankara high speed train routes serve as high speed commuter trains in Turkey.