Commuter Rail Transit and Economic Development

Commuter rail transit (CRT) is a form of rail passenger service connecting downtowns and other major activity centers with suburban commuter towns and beyond. Between 1834 and 1973, only three public CRT systems were built in the U.S. serving New York, Chicago and then Boston. There are now 25 such systems. Modern CRT systems aim to expand economic development in metropolitan areas. But do they? This paper evaluates the economic development performance of five modern CRT systems. The authors find that several economic sectors perform well within 0.50 miles of CRT stations. The authors offer planning and policy implications.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADD10 Transportation and Economic Development.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Nelson, Arthur C
  • Miller, Matt
  • Kim, Keuntae
  • Ganning, Joanna P
  • Liu, Jenny H
  • 0000-0002-9362-014X
  • Ewing, Reid
  • 0000-0002-4117-3456
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2015-1-11 to 2015-1-15
• Date: 2015

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 25p
• Monograph Title: TRB 94th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Case studies; Economic development; Metropolitan areas; Railroad commuter service; Transportation planning; Transportation policy
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Subject Areas: Passenger Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Railroads; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01558139
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 15-5308
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 28 2015 5:26PM