So are you all ready to support insurgent candidates next year?

The problem with RER-style service is that there’s no political will to engage in RER-style through-running. New York could start running its train RER-style tomorrow if it were willing to through-run New Jersey Transit and LIRR trains, with Penn Station becoming the city’s Chatelet-Les Halles. Then it could start working on new connections, like Hoboken-Fulton-Atlantic, Grand Central-Fulton-St. George, or an alternative to the ARC tunnel that connects to the existing tracks. That would massively improve connectivity in neighborhoods with commuter rail stations, like Sunnyside, Morris Heights, and East New York.

I think Blasito got it right when he said that the MTA would be best able to determine the allocation of the resources. Is it too late to assure that happens in the future?

But to be fair to the suburbs, I also wonder about a few other factors.

Yes there are far fewer commuters on the trains vs. the subways, but they pay a lot more in daily fares. What is the difference in revenue between the subways and the railroads?

And since railroad commuters travel much longer distances that the average subway commuter, is there any comparison of miles traveled?

Another thing that many suburban leaders would point to is any dedicated taxes that are collected by the state for the MTA, and that in counties like Suffolk and Dutchess these funds pay for services that most of their residents don’t use.

My gut tells me that the subway riders are still more important in most of these areas, but I don’t have the data to back it up. It is a more complicated picture than just city vs suburb.

Lastly, the commuter trains would gain more support in the city if they provided better inter-city service like the RER in Paris does.

Oh, sigh.