What is the Momentum Framework?

“ The Momentum framework consists of a series of infrastructure designs focused on making the most out of existing rights-of-way by boosting speed and efficiency wherever possible, as detailed below. These improvements are most likely to be installed on existing rights-of-way already owned by the public or on underutilized freight routes that are sold back to taxpayers for expansion of passenger service. High-level platforms that sit at the same height as the trains’ doors allow riders to step on and off, saving time at every station stop. Those efficiencies grow when railroads optimize passenger car designs with wider doors. Swapping diesel for electric power improves acceleration, saving time by getting trains up to speed more quickly. Those gains are increased by using high-performance designs with subway-style propulsion instead of locomotives. The benefits compound at every stop and add up over the course of a route. Real-world trip time improvements of 13%-29% are obtainable for both commuter and intercity services. ”

– Momentum, NYU Transit Costs Project

Each element of the Momentum Framework provides speed and connectivity benefits within the existing right-of-way that make regional and intercity rail more competitive with driving. In sprawling Southern California with many trips between 10-50 miles, it is imperative that rail service competes with the automobile. Simply running more service at the same speeds is insufficient to provide service benefits needed to grow ridership and induce modal shift.

In rail service planning, the best way to shorten trip times is not to raise top level speeds but to speed up the slowest parts of the route. This is because raising speeds at the top level requires straighter ROWs and more dedicated infrastructure. By contrast, increasing speeds at the low end can be a more surgical and cost-effective approach.

Level Boarding

Using this rubric, where are trips slowest? The answer is where trains are fully stopped at stations waiting for passengers to board. This period, known as dwell time, is of course necessary to serve passengers. But dwell time is not fixed and is much faster for subways than for regional and intercity rail in Southern California. The reason is that the platform height for subways is level with the train itself. This allows passengers to get on and off trains quickly – even if they are in a wheelchair, pushing a stroller or carrying luggage. Regional rail stations in Southern California, by contrast, require passengers to step up from the platform to access the train. If a passenger requires assistance for a disability or other reason then lifts or manual assistance are required. This slows the boarding process considerably.

The solution is to raise platform heights so there is no barrier for passengers boarding and alighting. This solution not only makes traveling more comfortable for people of different abilities or burdens but it also generates time savings for all passengers. The Pacific Surfliner uses 3 minutes of dwell time at non-Union Station locations. Level boarding can reduce that dwell time to 2 minutes. Regional rail services like the Antelope Valley Line have a dwell time of 2 minutes; level boarding can reduce that to 1 minute. While 1 minute of time savings may not seem like a lot, it adds up when multiplied across lines with 10+ stations. Just this one upgrade would cut 11 minutes off the current Surfliner’s run-time between LA and San Diego.

Furthermore, the unreliability of low platform boarding necessitates a risk adjustment by rail schedulers called “padding” to ensure that the service can recover if there is a large queue or fall or other challenge with boarding. This padding is expressed as a percentage applied to the dwell time, for example 20%. Since level boarding provides more certainty to the boarding process, rail schedulers can reduce padding significantly – to around 7%. The saved dwell time and reduced padding from level boarding results in both wins for riders in trip speeds and reliability.

Electrification

Californians for Electric Rail has consistently articulated the benefits of rail electrification. Briefly: rail electrification via catenary wire allows trains to be lighter, accelerate faster, and hit higher top speeds. The acceleration benefits appear every time a train is pulling out of curves, away from stations, and traveling up inclines. Electric trains are much quicker than diesel, hydrogen, or battery trains because they are much lighter.

Electrification is also a mature technology used throughout the world to deliver higher frequency service, which is not true for hydrogen or battery trains.This acceleration benefit – where electric trains known as Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) can attain top track speed faster – is particularly important in the case of regional rail where stations are closer together, usually 2-3 miles apart. The time accelerating out of each station is a penalty to trip times. By improving the efficiency of acceleration out of stations, EMUs can decrease trip times for people accessing jobs, education, and recreation. This allows rail to effectively compete with driving. This acceleration benefit also allows planners to add infill stations in gaps along routes, thereby creating more transit-served locations at a relatively low cost compared to building new fixed-rail routes. In addition to this benefit for riders, electrification brings benefits to surrounding communities by reducing pollution burden with zero-emissions technology. Coupled with clean energy sourcing and modal shift, electrification of Metrolink can yield significant environmental benefits across the Southern California region, especially with transportation being the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the state.

The new schedule after Caltrain’s electrification in 2024 shows this clearly. The local, 31 stop service schedule between San Francisco and San Jose in the diesel era was 100 minutes. After electrification, this schedule is now 75 minutes. With 25 minutes saved for riders, Caltrain has received a 41% increase in ridership from 2023 to 2024. The time savings and lower operating cost of electric service has also allowed Caltrain to re-invest in running more off-peak service, including 2 TPH on the weekends.

Through Running

The final element is through-running service at downtown stations. Many downtown stations in California are terminals – dead ends where trains stop service and then must maneuver to head back out for the next run. This turning process can take 20 minutes, which limits operational flexibility, increases complexity of service, and severely limits one seat ride service across regions. Terminal stations include Union Station Los Angeles, Santa Fe Depot San Diego, 4th and King San Francisco, and (to a lesser extent) Sacramento Valley Station.

By creating infrastructure and service patterns that run through these downtown stations, we can unlock more capacity as trains do not require complex turning movements and fewer platforms. That means more service can be added to meet demand. Through-running means faster trips as speeds approaching stations can be increased with simplified operations and there is less dwell time at stations. Suddenly, the 20 minutes it takes to turn Pacific Surfliner trains at Union Station is reduced to 3-4 minutes.

Finally, through-running can open up larger potential service patterns, as trains can

originate at one cardinal point and turn at another. This allows rail planners to create services that connect jobs, housing and other attractions to serve different travel demands and even create new travel demands. Through-running at Santa Fe Depot, the Coaster could not only connect Northern San Diego County to Downtown San Diego but also allow people in National City or Chula Vista to access jobs in Encinitas or Carlsbad.

Currently, LA Metro is developing a project to bring through-running to Union Station, called Link US. This project would construct a flyover above the 101 freeway that would link the south end of Union Station to points south like Fullerton, Anaheim, and San Diego. The project would transform the region by making it easy for trains to pass from the north to the south, speeding travel and increasing capacity. Despite its potential, LA Metro and beneficiary services like Metrolink and Pacific Surfliner have done little to publicize its benefits. Additionally, the agencies have yet to incorporate California HSR’s newly economized design criteria into the project, meaning its costs can likely be reduced upon review. In short, Link US provides an excellent example of opportunities to transform Southern California by strengthening and integrating passenger rail planning and management.

Today’s Network and Capacity Plans

Currently, the Southern California rail network consists of regional services that are in the process of shifting from a commuter service with its focus on peak times and directions to a “regional rail” model that provides bidirectional, all-day schedules. Modern “regional rail” service is cheaper to operate due to predictable and consistent labor needs, more efficient use of equipment, and more rational maintenance schedules. Modern service patterns can also help rationalize fares by providing more flexible and lower cost fare products to meet non-commuter demand. This sets the stage for more frequency if capacity and demand allow. Generating that demand will require the improved trip-times delivered by the proposed modern infrastructure Electrolink framework — level boarding, electrification and through-running. A good example is Caltrain’s shift to a modern service pattern with electrification in September 2024 that includes at least 2 TPH every day from early morning to late at night and on weekends. As a consequence, Caltrain’s service has recovered and surpassed its weekend FY 2019 ridership numbers. There is even more time savings to

be found for Caltrain if it upgrades its stations to level boarding platforms, which research shows would induce even more ridership.

Metrolink’s 2024 schedule change represents a shift towards this modern regional rail service pattern. Trains now leave and arrive on much more regular and predictable

schedules, although there are still gaps in weekend service on lines like Ventura County and Inland Empire – Orange County. Still this new schedule and its ability to provide transfers at key points like Union Station represents real progress for Southern California riders.

Additionally, Southern California also has intercity services like the Surfliner (San Luis Obispo to San Diego) and Amtrak long distance routes. The Surfliner has often been the highest ridership line outside the Northeast Corridor but struggles with coastal erosion and sea level rise at key points along its ROW.

The Surfliner service is currently at ten (10) round trips per day, down from thirteen (13) round trips per day in 2019. While demand has returned for additional Surfliner service, the operating agency LOSSAN struggles to acquire equipment necessary for that service. Like Metrolink, the Surfliner has partially switched to consistent clock face departure times. South of Burbank all trains depart at consistent times; for example at Anaheim all Northbound trains depart at 10 minutes past the hour. North of Burbank the schedule is less precise, but departure times tend to group together within 15 minutes.

Electrolink’s focus — based on NYU’s Momentum research — is on unlocking more capacity and reducing trip times through raising average speeds. Currently, there are two plans for expanding capacity in Southern California: First is Metrolink’s SCORE program, which was developed using service-led planning. Metrolink identified latent demand for additional service on its lines and identified that certain bottlenecks in the system had to be addressed through scheduling, signaling, double tracking, sidings and other improvements. For example, the Antelope Valley Line (AVL) could be boosted to 2 TPH from Vista Canyon and 1 TPH from Lancaster through double tracking in two locations, adding a siding, and building a layover yard in Lancaster.

The AVL Capacity Improvement Program is exactly the kind of targeted, incremental improvement envisioned by the State Rail Plan. Unfortunately, it has been delayed and costs have increased substantially for familiar reasons: 1) extractive demands from 3rd parties like utilities and Union Pacific; 2) lack of design/engineering capacity in house; 3) disinterest from infrastructure owner LA Metro; and 4) lack of programmatic construction funding. As discussed below, California will need significant reforms in governance, project delivery and programmatic construction funding to implement the various programs within the SCORE Plan.

In order to deliver rail expansion and modernization, California needs to shift to a more rational

and effective capital funding program. Californians for Electric Rail’s prior white paper “Against Patchwork Funding: How Multi-Year Investment Frameworks Can Deliver Rail Service Faster and Cheaper” discusses at length how the current slate of discretionary, competitive grant programs is ill-suited for rail program delivery.

With Cap and Trade renewal, the ten-year anniversary of SB 1 grant programs, and a potential road user charge all coming soon, now is the chance for California to adopt best practices for capital funding programs for regional and intercity rail.

Conclusion

Level boarding, through running and electrification of regional and intercity rail service in Southern California on the Metrolink and LOSSAN corridors have the potential to deliver massive gains for riders and bring the region closer economically. These benefits can only be realized, however, if the public and policymakers in Southern California 1) demand them; and 2) are willing to support necessary institutional reforms required to deliver them.