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13:17, Why doesn't the Venture car paint line up with the Sc-44?

For the west coast commuter rails, feel free to use any of my footage of Sounder trains.

MARC is upgrading the Brunswick Line and the Penn Line is also going to serve Delaware soon to connect to SEPTA and thru-run Union Station to serve stops in Northern Virginia providing a one seat ride from VA to DE

I’m gonna miss the older cars😭

It appears some of the math is a bit of. The math for the sd70 2:30 uses the wrong units. The raw energy in the fuel assuming 100% efficiency and 33.7KWh per gallon of diesel the epa estimate, is 161.7KWh. In reality a diesel prime mover is about 40% efficient so 64.7KWh of usable energy in the tank. The electric locomotives motors are up to 90% efficient. So 64.7KWh usable on diesel to 7650KWh usable on electric.

It's worth mentioning that all MNR and LIRR stations have high-level platforms! Electric stations were rebuilt to be high-level when they got the M1s in the 1960s, the increased power demand forced the LIRR to update its third rail power supply, and the diesel stations got them in the 1990s for the C3s! The M1s were actually built with a top speed of 161 km/h and support for Automatic Train Operation, however, they only achieved 129 km/h in service due to track and signaling limitations, and the Automatic Train Operation was never seen in service. The C3s on the LIRR exist because of an experiment with a prototype called the C1. In the 1980s, the LIRR operated two types of trains, electric multiple units on the railroad's electrified lines, and diesel-locomotive-hauled trains on the non-electrified portions. Service into the borough of Manhattan was electric only. The rolling stock used for the LIRR's diesel service, P72 and P75 coaches, was aging, and there was political interest in offering a one-seat ride for commuters on the busy but only partially electrified Port Jefferson Branch. The LIRR decided to solve both problems simultaneously, it would acquire several dual-mode EMD FL9 locomotives from the Metro-North Railroad and buy a small fleet of new passenger cars to go with them. If the experiment was successful, it could proceed with a larger order and replace the diesel fleet. The Budd Company had built the M1 and M3, but by the mid-1980s, it was a subsidiary of Thyssen and exiting the railroad business. Therefore, in 1986, the LIRR approached Comeng, Budd's Australian licensee. The LIRR's original request for proposal, issued in 1986, called for a single-level design. This was due in part to the difficulties the railroad experienced with the PRR MP70 electric multiple units, which it had retired in 1972. Comeng however persuaded the LIRR to adopt a bilevel design instead. Three groups responded to the revised LIRR proposal, Comeng/Mitsui, Alsthom, and Sumitomo/Nippon Sharyo. The LIRR favored the Comeng design, but the company's ability to fulfill the contract was jeopardized by the instability of Australian National Industries, Comeng's corporate parent. In the end, Comeng sold the design of the C1 to Mitsui, who then engaged Tokyu Car Corporation to build the cars. The C3s were built by Kawasaki, and were updated based on several years' experience with the cars and feedback from passengers, with differences including 2-2 abreast and 2-1 abreast instead of 3-2 abreast, and including LED displays and automated announcements as well

The Greenport Branch gets limited service because it's the last dark territory (as mentioned, no conventional signals) on the LIRR, it's single-tracked from Ronkonkoma all the way to Greenport, the North Fork is sparsely populated compared to the South Fork/Hamptons, and it mainly relies on seasonal tourism like its wineries. As someone who has regularly used the Montauk Branch, I very much prefer the M7s and M9s on the electric branches! Electric trains are not only better for the environment, but the M9s just look cool, and they have electrical outlets at every row on both sides of the car, and they display the car's position within a train! The Montauk Branch is by no means perfect. East of Babylon, it's only double-tracked up until Sayville, so it's a long stretch of non-electrified single-track between Sayville and Montauk with some sidings, Speonk yard is already at-capacity, they can't run more Penn-Montauk trains in particular because not all the locomotives are dual-mode to enter Penn (and they're too big to enter the tunnel to GCT), the EMD DE/DM30AC equipment breaking down, however having rush-hour service to Penn Station as well as Queens like Jamaica, Long Island City and Hunterspoint Ave is still superb! And besides serving the summer crowds heading to the Hamptons, it's also an important year-round corridor for those who live on the Montauk Branch's commuter portion between Speonk and Babylon, and a lifeline for those who live on Fire Island as the Montauk Branch has connections to the ferries for the nearly car-free Fire Island communities. But as someone who also spent the first eight years of my life in Westchester, my favorite commuter rail line remains the Metro-North's Hudson Line. Although I appreciate the LIRR's operations, I have a soft spot for MNR since the Hudson Line was the first train I've ever ridden, the Hudson Highlands and Hudson Palisades are straight up masterpieces and especially gorgeous in the fall, and I enjoy the walkable Hudson Line suburbs. I lived in Tarrytown when I was a kid, and when I lived there, everything was walkable, and we lived just up a hill from the station, so we didn't need a car for our everyday needs. Even if we wanted to go to the massive Palisades Center mall across the Hudson, there's a bus (formerly called the Tappan Zee Express) that goes between Tarrytown and the mall! Not to mention the beautiful scenery and they go all out for Halloween, definitely was the best place for child me to go trick or treating! Also worth mentioning that Metro-North has three stations dedicated for hikers, with two of them on the Hudson Line, Manitou and Breakneck Ridge! While Appalachian Trail on the Harlem Line is the only rail station directly located on the entire Appalachian Trail! And the Port Jervis Line is a gem too! Its 3,200 ft-long Moodna Viaduct is the longest and highest active railroad trestle east of the Mississippi River (second-longest and second-highest east of the Mississippi in general after the Poughkeepsie Bridge/Walkway over the Hudson)

2024 and we still have no sign of the new cab cars least from what I’ve seen

septa in general is great for railfans and transit enthusiasts because of its extremely diverse network (trolleybuses, trolleys, buses, subways, trains, norristown line). Also, I think its frequency is pretty great especially coming from someone living in the middle of one of the less popular lines (media/wawa) which at extremely peak times can come every 15 minutes, and come on extremely off-peak times at least every hour

Couldn’t agree more with your taste on color schemes. The concept Avelia was better and love Pacific Surfliner, Cascades and Coaster schemes. And yeah what’s up with the platypus/duck bill look on Liberty!

As a comutter on the Montreal Exo Rail. Off peak service is not great.

I'm just not a fan of diesel trains. They're loud, noisy, and just antiquated. I much prefer hearing a silent bullet travel by me at high speeds or the propulsion of an EMU. That's what makes trains special to me. But overall I think this list is pretty good and of course everyone will have their own biases and preferences.

And yet Houston which is bigger than all those cities (except NYC) doesn’t even have a single commuter rail line

Good to see the progress away from fossil fuels in California. Los Angeles continues to expand it Metro network attracting more riders with every expansion. You can now see significant TOD near many stations. This will continue to grow as well.

MARC likes to keep diesels so it can keep flexibility open incase a train needs be moved from the penn like to Camden or Brunswick, altho those lines lack service due to CSX, altho they have tries as well as proposed a plan to meet up with SEPTA in Newark DE

Wish you would have said something about the Heritage fleet being used in the Midwest Corridor. Some of those cars go back to the 1970s.

Does EXO but no Go Transit?? The fack

I don't think the F59PH runs on the Heritage Corridor, nor do I think the F59PHI also runs on the Heritage Corridor. From videos I've seen that railfan the HC, I've really only see F40PH-2's and MP36's. But I don't know if that's true, feel free to correct me.

MBTA are planning to get EMUs by 2029

You forgot about brightline when covering the east and also sunrail

Marc using diesel under wires is a policy failure not an equipment oversight. They would be obligated to pay an insane premium on those volts, making diesel the far cheaper option. This is an insane situation they have to deal with for now.

3rd rail and modernity in the same sentence is mind boggling.

Our local railway VRE may not have a different locomotive but back then they had the F40s and some other engine idk the name of. And the scenery may not be as nice but that’s all your opinion.

How tf can you give MBTA a 6 for the frequency score while you give NJT a 5 for frequency. That makes no sense at all with NJT's North East Corridor line running trains every 20-30 minutes.

Great series. Can it also about EU trains but then only the national or biggest transportation company of that specific land?

I like this idea of ranking commuter lines but man oh man i couldnt care less if its got a big "rail fanning" score. What ever that means

Mbta/ MassDot MUST connect north and south station

The route from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara is beautiful. You get varied scenery and ocean views.

Actually its a big year for all passenger trains in the U.S. they broke ground on the Brightline west between L.A. to Las Vegas NV.

As a Philadelphian, I will say that your SEPTA score is VERY generous. Train frequency is subpar at best, and they do NOT do a good job of accommodating the schedule for events such as sports, concerts, etc. Off-peak, most lines only run once an hour, and the Bala Cynwyd line does not run at all outside of peak hours. That means if you miss your train by one minute, you're waiting an hour for the next one, which really sucks if you're trying to return to the suburbs after a ballgame or a night of bar hopping. Add on the fact that the center city stations are full of homeless people, the Dunkin Donuts close around 9:30-10pm, and it's impossible to find a working outlet to charge your phone, and it makes for a pretty unpleasant experience. Ok, I'm done my SEPTA rant lol. Aside from my disagreement there, this is a great video! Definitely agree on the points you made for NJ Transit and Metro North, as I've traveled on their lines before and would give them about the same score as you did.

I think you missed an important category, on-time performance. In my experience SEPTA has a high rate of cancellations due to "equipment problems" which is their euphemism for "the crew didn't show up" as well as stranding passengers by shutting down mid-day in bad weather after taking them to work in the morning.

I'm not sure you should dock a system for having a few low frequency lines. A system with 2 A tier lines and 2 F tier lines is still better than a system with 2 A tier lines and no other trains.

They want to electrify all lines by 2050

Brightline should build a cross USA railway

You forgot Go train located in Toronto Ontario Canada

What about SEPTA's heritage fleet? Surely the heritage Silverliners boost the raifan appeal by at least one point

SEPTA operates the only fully electrified commuter rail system in the US (at least until CalTrain electrification debuts). In 2024 that deserves a special mention and score.

“Pretty” and “solid” aren’t acceptable metrics for ranking these systems. You need some hard numbers to do legit comparisons. Until then, this is purely a subjective approximation.

I guess I'm not deep enough into the train fan world yet, because I don't see what's so boring about EMUs. Maybe I'm just in California, which is about to get what is to my knowledge the state's first non-metro-style EMU trains in the new Caltrain Stadlers, which will bring significant travel time and frequency improvements and basically in one fell swoop make Caltrain a useful transit line, which I think is very exciting. In fact, I'm in the East Bay, and recently started dating someone on the Peninsula, and I'm hoping this relationship flourishes so that I have an excuse to go to the Peninsula and ride the new trains when they enter service. And also because I really like her, but, well, trains.

As a Long Island Railroad rider, seeing our sister railroad, Metro North, in the same tier as MARC and CT Rail is criminal. Metro North has phenomenal frequency during rush hour, in general west of Hudson trains have quite low frequency due to low population density and so do certain branch lines on the New Haven Line, however, the three main lines East of Hudson do an excellent job commuting people throughout the day. Furthermore, express schedules on these branches make buying a ticket on these trains far more superior to sitting in traffic on the I-95, Sprain Brook Pkwy or the Major Deegan making them extremely useful. I'd also like to say that M7s and M3s are beautiful to railfan, especially along the Hudson River! The M8s are gorgeous trains too along the NEC. There is nothing like seeing M7s, M3s, M8s and Diesels at Harlem 125th st among the beautiful NYC skyline. I mean, Metro North has some of the best railfanning opportunities in the country!

The earlier schemes actually have dated quite well. Especially on the GE units

I'm not sure how you can include Montreal's regional rail system but not Toronto's GO Transit rail system.

As someone who has used MARC for thousands of miles. I believe that MARC is one of, if not the worst, on the NEC. The only thing MARC has going for them is the PENN line, and the scheduleing for the PENN line is horrible on weekends and not the greatest on weekdays. The scheduling on the Brunswick and camden line is a joke. No weekend service,trains are always late. The Brunswick line only has trains traveling southeast in the morning and back northwest in the afternoon. 9 trains each way on the Brunswick line and 10 trains each way on the Camden line. Plus, the Brunswick line has 3 terminals Martinsburg WV, Brunswick MD, and Frederick MD. Only 6 trains travel to and from Martinsburg 3 each way. Same with Frederick. Brunswick gets 12 a day, 6 each way. Only half the route actually gets served by all 18 trains a day. Covid also hit MARC like a truck and keeps falling behind in the actual list of Commuter rails in the USA.

With the focus on conversion to electric have you looked into the reports of how mu h copper will need to be mined?

As someone who grew up on NJT I think the frequency is kinda unfair because some of the most busiest stations such as NWP and NYP see trains every 5-8 Minutes which in my opinion is awesome. Also Not to mention that our fleet is awesome and diverse. I feel like the score should be raised for Railfan and Frequency