Heavy Rail

Introduction

Target Market

Heavy rail works best in very dense urban settings, where large populations primarily want to move toward and within a major city’s central business district. Heavy rail needs a population of 3 to 15 million people to be successful.¹

Heavy rail is the dominant transit system in very large urban areas in North America, including New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and San Francisco.

How Will This Help?

• Operates at faster speeds and accommodates greater capacity than other transit modes, including light rail and bus rapid transit. Top speeds between stations can reach up to 75 mph, and heavy rail handles a rush-hour capacity of between 600 and 2,400 people per train.²
• Provides a competitive alternative to driving. Heavy rail operates frequently and rapidly, saving money, time, and energy for passengers. Heavy-rail riders pay a fare instead of paying automobile costs. Users save in fuel, insurance, maintenance, vehicle registration, and parking.
• Preserves urban land for taxable development and public open space. Heavy rail fully or partly runs on either elevated structures or in underground tunnels. It occupies a small footprint when on the surface level, and especially benefits downtowns and historic districts by keeping them intact.
• Promotes transit-oriented development patterns by creating compact, walkable, mixed-use communities within walking distance of a transit stop or station. Heavy rail adds value to commercial and residential properties by altering people’s travel patterns and their housing preferences.
• Provides an environmentally friendly alternative to driving. Heavy rail encourages a reduction in per-capita vehicle ownership and mileage. These electrically powered systems do not directly create greenhouse gas emissions. State-of-the-art trains and tracks mitigate noise or vibrations generated by heavy rail.

Implementation Examples

New York City, New York
The New York City subway is one of the world’s oldest, most iconic, and busiest rapid rail transit system in the United States. New York City opened the first elevated line in 1868 and the first underground line 25 years later in 1904. Today, the New York City Transit Authority operates a system composed of 232 miles of routes and 468 stations. In 2013, the system had an annual ridership of more than 1.7 billion.

Chicago, Illinois
Chicago’s heavy-rail system is called the L (short for elevated). Eight lines and 145 stations now make up this system, which first opened in 1892 by the Chicago and South Side Rapid Transit Railroad. The Chicago Transit Authority acquired the right to operate the system in 1947. After the acquisition, ridership became remarkably stable for nearly 40 years. By 2012, the annual ridership exceeded 231 million.

Application Techniques and Principles

Costs, ridership, and densities (both job and population) are strongly related. The following table³ presents the minimum population density that is required to support a heavy-rail system. The different costs per mile are based on an analysis of 24 urban rail systems in the United States.

Heavy rail operates from an electrified third rail rather than overhead wires because it works better in subway tunnels that have limited space. Most heavy-rail systems offer stops every 5 to 10 minutes during peak hours⁴ and have a maximum speed of 80 mph. Heavy rail requires larger stations, more infrastructure, and more separation for safety than other rail transit modes. This is because of their third-rail power distribution, frequent service, and high operating speeds.⁵

Heavy rail uses longer trains than light rail to move more passengers. Spacing between stations must be longer than with light rail as well. This is due to the distances required for accelerating and decelerating. Stations are usually spaced at least 3 miles apart.²

Issues

Heavy-rail transit is extremely expensive to build due to the need to build tunnels, elevated structures, or other fully devoted rights-of-way. However, high ridership offsets high costs. Although a heavy-rail system is, on average, more than four times as expensive as a light-rail system, heavy rail costs less per rider and per passenger mile.⁶

A heavy-rail transit plan needs both public and policy support. Supportive public policies ensure that heavy rail’s benefits are maximized throughout the implementation process. Care should also be given to zoning and parking near stations and corridors. When heavy rail is well planned, development can cluster around stations and along corridors, often revitalizing urban areas.

Other social impacts also need to be considered thoroughly before opening a heavy-rail line. Heavy-rail systems have come under attack for generating noise and vibration, getting too crowded at peak times, and posing a safety risk at some stations. Opposition may also arise due to right-of-way purchasing disputes.

Who Is Responsible?

Transit agencies and state departments of transportation are responsible for evaluating existing service, assessing service gaps, choosing a priority corridor, and ensuring solid funding sources for heavy-rail implementation.

Metropolitan planning organizations and city planners can work with stakeholders, neighborhoods, and community groups to address citizen concerns, get support from decision makers, and encourage supporting policies.

Project Time Frame

The timeline for implementing heavy-rail transit varies based on several factors including:

• The size of the system.
• Whether the alignment will be at grade, elevated, or underground.
• Whether the project is a new line or an extension of existing services.

Overall, heavy-rail planning, implementation, and construction are time consuming. Forming a well-connected network is difficult to accomplish in a short period of time. The implementation process of heavy-rail transit includes:

• Conceptual planning.
• Alternatives analysis and feasibility study.
• Evaluation of environment impact.
• Phased construction.

Cost

Heavy rail’s capital costs vary from a low of $50 million per mile to a high of $250 million per mile. Its labor costs are also relatively higher than other modes. Many heavy-rail systems require two employees per train and station attendants. Subways require additional heating and cooling systems, resulting in higher electricity and infrastructure costs.

Data Needs

Data needs for heavy-rail implementation cover a broad range of factors. Demographics, land use plans, travel pattern data, and trip purpose data are needed to conduct market research and a ridership forecast. Operating costs, construction costs, and hardware/software maintenance data are necessary for investment studies. Physical environment and surroundings data are needed to perform environmental review and project construction.

Heavy Rail Best Practices

• Type of location: Very dense urban settings, where large populations demand movement primarily toward and within a city’s central business district.
• Agency practices: Political and financial support plus ridership.
• Frequency of reanalysis: Annually.
• Supporting policies or actions needed: Land use policies and regulations that support transit-oriented development and higher-density and mixed-used development along heavy-rail corridors.
• Complementary strategies: Transit-oriented development, light-rail transit, local bus service, park-and-ride lots, and state employee trip reduction.

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