Longest Commuter Rail Trip?

[jiml]

Reviving a 4-year-dead thread...

GO Transit's pilot service extension of their Toronto-Kitchener line to London takes over 4 hours total. This might be the longest single-seat commuter train ride in North America, and certainly close to it if not! Most of the extended portion seems to go no faster than 30 mph according to historical data (see for example Intercity Rail Map).

VIA Rail also operates it (Toronto-London-Sarnia) once a day, and the Toronto-London portion is 1.5-2 hours slower than via Burlington and Brantford, and 2 hours slower than driving. In fact, from the morning Sarnia -> Toronto train, you can do a 50-minute transfer at London to another VIA train that will get you to Toronto 33 minutes earlier along the faster route.

Edit: here's the timetable: https://www.gotransit.com/static_fi...Planning/FullSchedules/FS25062022/TABLE31.pdf

For GO, this is past the "pilot" stage and is now an official route. The Toronto <-> London portion was also the route of Amtrak's International, and speed on this section was one of the many "nails in its coffin". The viability of the current train was discussed in another thread when the route was rolled out. Apparently the ridership is exceeding what were very low expectations, with the only major criticism being lack of food and beverage on a 4-hour trip. (GO is looking into this.) It is cheaper than the VIA service on the same route and the drive on the 401 highway is bad - particularly during rush hours - due to massive construction projects and resulting lane closures expected to continue for up to 2 years.

Speaking of pilot projects, a portion of the route (Kitchener) will be GO's first electrified segment.

 

[daybeers]

Related...

 

[BCL]

I know - old thread, but....

The longest linked ride I can think of around here is Altamont Corridor Express from Stockton to San Jose, then Caltrain from San Jose to San Francisco.

I purposely leave any Amtrak California services out of it since I guess those aren't technically commuter rail.

There might be something even longer on Coaster and Metrolink, although schedules might be an issue. San Diego to Ventura would be one heck of a long commuter ride. Maybe Lancaster or San Bernardino?

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

Probably the longest linked commuter rail trip in California would be Coaster and Metrolink from San Diego to Lancaster.

Looks like the trip with the shortest transfers is on weekends, but I wouldn't bet on making them every time.

Coaster 675 Depart San Diego 12:20pm, Arrive Oceanside 1:22pm
Metrolink 665 Depart Oceanside 1:28pm, Arrive Los Angeles 3:39pm
Metrolink 267 Depart Los Angeles 3:51pm, Arrive Lancaster 5:59pm

5 hrs 39 mins to travel about 205 miles
- 41 miles San Diego - Oceanside
- 87.2 miles Oceanside - Los Angeles
- 76.6 miles Los Angeles - Lancaster

If the trolley counts, then the trolley Santee to Old Town then the Coaster would be longer (longer than from San Ysidro too!)

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Once the Hartford Line opens, that will be 43 miles longer than the Shore Line East to New London. Therefore, the longest trip by passenger rail not using Amtrak will soon be Newark, DE to Springfield, MA at about 297 miles. In the Midwest, the longest is Harvard, IL to South Bend, IN, which is about 154 miles.

Someday, the Springfield, MA to Newark, DE may be extended to DC and beyond if MARC ever gets approval from MD to extend from Perryville to Newark. If they’re waiting for the new platform in Newark to be built, it will probably be another 2 years. The work for the platform was put on hold due to COVID and I’ve heard they hope to resume by end of this year.