Contracting Commuter Rail Services, Volume 1: Guidebook (2018)

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11 Identification of Commuter Rail Systems This chapter provides a brief summary of commuter rail development in the United States and Canada and the factors that influenced that development. Commuter rail in North America includes legacy systems and new starts. A legacy system began as a private railroad operation and later was acquired by a public entity. A new start began as a public transit service. As late as the 1980s, only a handful of U.S. cities were served by commuter rail. These included Boston, New York City/Connecticut, New York City/New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, and San Francisco. Commuter rail was in operation in Canada in two cities: Montreal, dating back several decades, and Toronto since 1967. These modern-era commuter rail systems are grouped together as legacy systems. Table 3 shows the 12 legacy systems that are still operating commuter rail service in the United States and Canada. The legacy systems are listed in order of the year when the public entity assumed responsibility for operating commuter rail service. Legacy systems were previously under private ownership and operation. In addition to the legacy systems, there are commuter rail systems that are classified as new starts. Each new start opened as a public transit service. Table 4 shows the 19 commuter rail systems that are new starts in the United States (18) and Canada (1), in order of the year for start of service. Figure 2 shows a timeline of the transition from private to public operation for legacy commuter rail systems and the start of service for the new start commuter rail systems. Commuter Rail Beginnings Commuter rail has been part of the development and evolution of the rail mode in the United States since Long Island Rail Road began operation in 1834. When first introduced, and for decades after, passenger trains provided luxurious travel in which customers were treated to premier amenities in well-appointed coaches. However, the stature of travel by passenger rail diminished after World War II as Americans began to favor the automobile and airplane for their travel needs. In the mid-1950s, rail patronage started declining. For example, New York Central Railroad ridership dropped 40% within months of the parallel New York State Thruway opening in 1955 (Saunders 2003). Up to this time, commuter rail systems were owned, oper- ated, and paid for by privately owned freight railroad companies. Due in large part to declin- ing ridership after World War II, many railroads discontinued or severely reduced the level of commuter service provided, and commuter rail passenger miles reached the lowest point in the early 1960s. C H A P T E R 2 History of Commuter Rail

12 Contracting Commuter Rail Services, Volume 1: Guidebook Public Service Legacy Systems Service Area 1962 Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation (PATH), Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Port Authority of NY & NJ) New York City and New Jersey 1964 Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Commuter Rail Boston, MA 1966 Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority New York (MTA) New York City–Long Island, NY 1967 GO Transit, Greater Toronto Transportation Authority (Metrolinx) Toronto–Hamilton, Ontario, Canada 1982 Réseau de Transport Métropolitain (RTM) Montreal, Quebec, Canada 1983 Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company (Metro-North), New York MTA New York City–North and East NY 1983 New Jersey Transit Rail Operations (NJ TRANSIT) New Jersey–New York City 1983 Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Regional Rail Division (SEPTA) Philadelphia, PA 1983 MARC Train Service (MARC), Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) Martinsburg, WV–Frederick, MD–Perryville, MD–Baltimore, MD–Washington, D.C. 1983 Metropolitan Rail Corporation (Metra), Regional Transportation Authority Chicago, IL 1989 South Shore Line, Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) South Bend, IN–Chicago, IL 1992 Caltrain, Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board (PCJPB) San Francisco–San Jose–Gilroy, CA Table 3. Legacy commuter rail systems in the United States and Canada. Because rail was no longer the preferred method of transportation, many private railroads faltered and fell into bankruptcy, unable to fund operating costs and essential improvements. Rail infrastructure and rolling stock were out of date. Since the rate of return on funding was too low to borrow, railroads attempted to make capital improvements from earnings. However, private investment alone was not enough. In order to maintain commuter rail service, public agencies first began to intervene in the operations of commuter rail service in the early 1960s in the form of direct operating grants or purchase-of-service agreements. These early agreements between railroad operators and public agencies were simply exchanges of money for the continued commuter rail service, often for a set period. While these agreements successfully maintained the commuter rail service, the agree- ments did not provide for quality of service through performance standards or other require- ments. In many cases, the public agency did not provide any level of oversight of the commuter rail operation (Wilcock and Stoetzel 2013). A 1958 agreement between the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the New Haven Railroad provides an example of a direct operating grant that was typical for this period. Massachusetts agreed to pay the New Haven Railroad $950,000 for 1 year of continued operation of the Old Colony Service from the South Shore into Boston. In 1964, MBTA and the Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M) entered into a purchase-of-service agreement that stipulated that B&M would continue to operate commuter services to and from the North Station in Boston, and MBTA would pay B&M the annual operating loss (Wilcock and Stoetzel 2013). The first year under this agreement resulted in a $3.2 million payment from MBTA to B&M. Because the agreement was simply for B&M to provide commuter rail service and no contractual provisions were made for capital improvements or performance

History of Commuter Rail 13 standards, the service deteriorated noticeably in the 12 years the agreement was in effect (Wilcock and Stoetzel 2013). Modern Era of Commuter Rail In the 13 years between 1970 and 1983, the U.S. Congress passed three acts that affected the operation of commuter rail. These three pieces of legislation helped to bring about the modern era of commuter rail in the United States: • Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970. Also known as the Railpax Bill, the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970 created the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, known commonly as Amtrak. A publicly funded entity, Amtrak assumed operations of almost all intercity passenger trains in the United States, removing the costs associated with Open Service New Starts Service Area 1989 Tri-Rail, South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA) South Florida (Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade) Counties, FL) 1990 Shore Line East (SLE), Connecticut Department of Transportation (DOT) New Haven–New London, CT 1992 Metrolink, Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA) Los Angeles, CA 1992 Virginia Railway Express (VRE), Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) and Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission (PRTC) Northern Virginia–Washington, D.C. 1995 COASTER, N rth County Transit District (NCTD) San Diego County, CA 1995 West Coast Express (WCE), South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority (TransLink) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 1996 Trinity Railway Express (TRE), Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) and Fort Worth Transportation Authority Dallas–Fort Worth, TX 1998 Altamont Corridor Express (ACE), San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission (SJRRC) Stockton–San Jose, CA 2000 Sounder, Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority (Sound Transit) Tacoma–Seattle–Everett, WA 2006 New Mexico Rail Runner Express (Rail Runner), Rio Metro Regional Transit District (Rio Metro) Albuquerque–Santa Fe, NM 2006 Music City Star, Regional Transportation Authority of Middle Tennessee (RTA of Middle Tennessee) Nashville, TN 2008 FrontRunner, Utah Transit Authority (UTA) Ogden–Salt Lake City–Provo, UT 2009 Westside Express Service (WES), Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet) Wilsonville–Beaverton, OR 2009 Norths ar Commuter Rail, Northstar Corridor Development Authority (NCDA) St. Cloud–Minneapolis, MN 2010 MetroRail, Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Capital Metro) Austin, TX 2011 A-train, Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA) Denton County, TX 2014 SunRail, Florida Department of Transportation (Florida DOT) Central FL–Orlando 2016 Regional Transportation District (RTD) Commuter Rail Denver, CO 2017 Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) District Sonoma and Marin counties, CA Table 4. New start commuter rail systems in the United States and Canada.

14 Contracting Commuter Rail Services, Volume 1: Guidebook operating intercity passenger rail from private freight railroads. Most of the remaining passenger services that were operated by freight railroad companies were commuter rail trains (Bing et al. 2010, Brock and Souleyrette 2013, Wilcock and Stoetzel 2013). The transfer of intercity passenger rail to Amtrak was voluntary. The freight railroads did not have to participate, but most did. The two exceptions were Southern Railway, now known as Norfolk Southern, and Denver Rio Grande and Western. Each continued to operate inter- city passenger trains. • Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973. The Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 created one new rail organization [the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail)] to oper- ate seven bankrupt railroads in the Northeast. Conrail’s mission was to rationalize the seven carriers and turn them into a profit-generating organization as soon as possible. In addition to the freight services that Conrail took over, the entity also inherited com- muter rail operations in five cities/regions that were previously operated by the railroads that became part of Conrail. These included commuter rail service into South Station in Boston, commuter rail service into Grand Central Station in New York City, all commuter rail services in New Jersey and Philadelphia, and a portion of one corridor in the Baltimore- Washington area. Unfortunately, the operation of multiple commuter lines proved to be an insurmountable challenge for Conrail, which led to the third piece of legislation that shaped the modern era of commuter rail (Bing et al. 2010, Brock and Souleyrette 2013, Wilcock and Stoetzel 2013). • Northeast Rail Service Act of 1981 (NRSA). Among other provisions, NRSA provided that Conrail would leave the business of operating commuter rail services. The majority of this transition occurred on January 1, 1983, when Metro-North began operating service north and east of New York City into Grand Central Station, NJ TRANSIT began operating commuter Figure 2. Timeline for public commuter rail service in North America.

History of Commuter Rail 15 rail service in New Jersey, and SEPTA Regional Rail began operating commuter rail service in Philadelphia. As directed by Congress, the Maryland State Rail Administration (MSRA) took the commuter rail service on the Penn Line between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., in the Northeast Corridor from Conrail and contracted with the newly created Amtrak Commuter subsidiary. Prior to the NRSA of 1981, MBTA took all south-side lines from Conrail and con- tracted to B&M in 1977. The NRSA established the current benchmark practice of commuter rail systems being under the governance of municipal and regional transit authorities (Brock and Souleyrette 2013, Wilcock and Stoetzel 2013). Legacy Systems The modern era of commuter rail was born in the period after the NRSA, as the commuter rail systems that transitioned from private to public ownership had the option of either con- tracting with other entities to operate the commuter rail service or bringing operations into the public agency. Three legacy systems had all been publicly owned prior to NRSA—PATH, MBTA, and LIRR (Brock and Souleyrette 2013, Wilcock and Stoetzel 2013). They are: • PATH. The Port of New York Authority was established in 1921 to administer the common harbor interests of New York and New Jersey. Once a part of the general railroad system, the rail service was originally known as the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad, and later as the H&M Hudson Tubes. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Port Authority acquired the private railroad and began operating as the PATH rail transit system in 1962. The organization’s name changed to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 1972. PATH is a heavy-rail system, considered part of the commuter rail family because PATH is subject to oversight by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for safety of rail operations. All PATH employees are subject to the Railroad Retirement Tax Act (RRTA) and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act (RUIA), as are employees of legacy commuter rail systems that were once operated by private railroads. • MBTA Commuter Rail. Soon after its inception in 1964, MBTA began subsidizing the com- muter rail system to the north and west of Boston operated by B&M. This represented a change in policy because the MBTA predecessor agency, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, refused a request in the early 1950s to subsidize service south of Boston operated by the New Haven Railroad. By 1958, the New Haven Railroad announced commuter rail services would cease running. A subsidy from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts kept trains running until 1959, when the Southeast Expressway opened and New Haven Railroad abandoned com- muter rail service on three lines. In 1972, MBTA purchased the lines and rolling stock used in commuter rail service south and west of Boston from the bankrupt Penn Central Transportation Company. In 1976, in a similar transaction, MBTA acquired the rail lines and rolling stock used in the service north and west of the city from the failing B&M. As part of the B&M acquisition, MBTA contracted to continue the provision of the north and west service with B&M under a 5-year agreement. In 1977, MBTA used this same contracting approach to take the commuter rail service from Penn Central successor Conrail and turn the service over to B&M under a parallel agreement. In 1982, MBTA converted the two agreements with B&M into a single agreement for both commuter rail services. • LIRR. LIRR was incorporated as a privately held railroad company in 1834. In 1966, the New York MTA acquired all of the capital stock of LIRR from its parent, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. In 1980, LIRR’s certificate of incorporation was amended to convert LIRR into a subsidiary of New York MTA.

16 Contracting Commuter Rail Services, Volume 1: Guidebook The era of change also affected many of the other legacy systems, which in most cases took on new approaches for service delivery. In many cases, these new approaches involved a transfer of the ownership of assets from the private to the public sector in the decade following NRSA. Successor service providers included • Metro-North. Metro-North was incorporated by New York MTA in September 1982 as a subsidiary public benefit corporation. New York MTA assumed operational responsibility from Conrail for commuter rail service into Grand Central Station from north and east of New York on January 1, 1983, as an outcome of the NRSA. • NJ TRANSIT. The New Jersey Public Transportation Corporation created New Jersey Transit Rail Operations, Inc., on January 1, 1983, to assume operations of commuter rail in the state of New Jersey from Conrail pursuant to the NRSA. • SEPTA. Soon after the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania established SEPTA in 1964, the agency began subsidizing commuter rail lines operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and the Reading Company (RDG). On February 1, 1968, PRR merged with the New York Central Railroad to form Penn Central, which took over the operation of the commuter lines operated by PRR. In 1976, Conrail took over bankrupt Penn Central and RDG and continued to operate commuter rail through 1982. On January 1, 1983, SEPTA assumed operational responsibility from Conrail following the NRSA. • MARC. Commuter rail service from Maryland to Union Station in Washington, D.C., has operated since the 1830s on the Camden Line, and since the mid- to late 1800s on the Penn and Brunswick Lines. The Maryland Department of Transportation began to subsidize the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) to operate the Camden and Brunswick Lines in 1974. The state then entered into an operating agreement with B&O in 1975 to cover the full operat- ing deficit, rolling stock, and station maintenance. The state entered into a similar operating agreement with Conrail to subsidize the Penn Line in 1976. The MARC brand was first used in 1983, when the Maryland State Rail Administration took over the Camden and Brunswick Lines from an independent private freight entity following the NRSA. MSRA also took over the commuter rail service on the Penn Line from Conrail and contracted with the Amtrak Commuter subsidiary. MSRA merged with the Maryland Transit Administration, part of the Maryland Department of Transportation, in 1992. • Metra. Metra is the commuter rail division of the Regional Transportation Authority, serv- ing the Chicago metropolitan area. Created in 1974, the Regional Transportation Authority assumed financial responsibility for the commuter operations of several private railroads in the Chicago metropolitan region, eventually buying the tracks of some of those railroads. The Regional Transportation Authority created a commuter rail division to operate the rail lines in 1982. Two major exceptions to this approach were the services operated by the Burlington Northern Railroad (later Burlington Northern Santa Fe and now BNSF Railway) on one line and the Chicago and North Western Railroad [later purchased by Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR)] on three lines. These two private railroads retained ownership of the rail lines and Metra con- tracts with the private railroad for commuter rail service through purchase-of-service agree- ments. Metra also provides the rolling stock. The Commuter Rail Service Board was created in 1983 to oversee commuter rail operations. The Commuter Rail Service Board approved Metra (short for Metropolitan Rail) as a service mark for the entire system in 1984. The idea was to bring a unifying identity to all the various components, no matter who owned or operated them. • South Shore Line. South Shore Line is an electrically powered interurban commuter rail line operated by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District between the South Bend International Airport in South Bend, Indiana, and Millennium Station in downtown Chicago. Service began in September 1903. Over the years, the service trans- ferred hands from one private railroad to another. The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District was formed in 1977 to fund the service and took over operation in December 1989.

History of Commuter Rail 17 • Caltrain. The original peninsula railroad corridor between San Francisco and San Jose was constructed in 1863 by the San Francisco and San Jose Rail Road. Southern Pacific Rail- road (SP) purchased the corridor in 1870. The California Department of Transportation began to subsidize the SP operation in 1980. In 1987, Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board or PCJPB was formed to manage the line. PCJPB purchased the railroad right-of-way from SP in 1991. PCJPB took over the full responsibility for commuter rail operations in 1992 and extended train service from San Jose to Gilroy. The service was branded as Caltrain in 1997. Commuter rail systems in Canada went through a similar transition from private to public operation: • GO Transit. Prior to 1967, the Canadian National Railway Company (CN) provided com- muter rail service in the Toronto region. GO Transit was created by the provincial government in 1967 as Government of Ontario Transit (hence the acronym GO) and was financed entirely by the Province of Ontario. GO Transit is the regional public transit service (rail and bus) for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, part of Metrolinx. GO Transit connects with every municipal transit system in the Toronto and Hamilton areas, including the Toronto Transit Commission. • RTM. RTM is a public transit authority responsible for operating commuter rail, bus, and paratransit service in the Montreal metropolitan area. Prior to 1982, CN and Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) operated commuter rail service in the Montreal region. From 1982 to 1997, the Montreal Urban Community Transit Commission managed commuter rail service. From 1997 to 2017, Agence Métropolitaine de Transport (AMT) was responsible for administration and financing of commuter rail. RTM took over for AMT, as well as for the other regional transit agencies that provide bus and paratransit services, as of June 1, 2017. New Starts Commuter rail experienced its first real growth in the United States between 1989 and 1999. In January 1989, the Tri-Rail commuter rail service began operation between West Palm Beach and Miami, Florida. This was the first new start commuter rail service in the United States. Within a few years, additional new start systems had begun operations in Los Angeles and Northern Virginia, both as contracted operations. In total, seven U.S. commuter rail systems and one Canadian commuter rail system were new starts in the 1990s: • Tri-Rail. The Tri-County Commuter Rail Authority (TCRA) in South Florida began com- muter rail service from West Palm Beach to Miami in January 1989. The Florida Legislature passed legislation transforming TCRA into South Florida Regional Transportation Authority in 2003. SFRTA was authorized to develop and implement regional transportation solutions in South Florida and assumed responsibility for the Tri-Rail commuter service in 2003. • SLE. SLE commuter operations began in 1990. Operated by Connecticut DOT, SLE is a com- muter rail service between New Haven and New London, with select trains continuing to Bridgeport and Stamford, Connecticut. • Metrolink. Southern California Regional Rail Authority or SCRRA governs Metrolink. SCRRA is a joint powers authority that formed in 1991 and comprises five county agencies tasked with reducing highway congestion and improving mobility throughout Southern California. The five agencies include Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Orange County Transportation Authority, Riverside County Transportation Commission, San Bernardino Associated Governments, and Ventura County Transportation Commission. SCRRA opened the Metrolink regional commuter rail system on three lines in 1992. Four additional lines opened between 1993 and 2002. Metrolink operates on lines owned by member local governments and two private railroads, BNSF and UPRR. The freight railroads

18 Contracting Commuter Rail Services, Volume 1: Guidebook provide track and right-of-way maintenance on the lines they own, and Metrolink contracts for these functions on the remaining lines. • VRE. VRE is a transportation partnership of NVTC and PRTC. VRE provides commuter rail service from the Northern Virginia suburbs to Washington, D.C. VRE opened service on two lines in 1992. VRE operates on tracks owned by two freight railroads: CSX Transportation and NS. Amtrak owns the VRE last mile into Washington Union Station. • COASTER. COASTER is the NCTD (San Diego County, California) commuter rail service from Oceanside to San Diego, California. COASTER opened in 1995. • WCE. TransLink in Vancouver, British Columbia, opened WCE in 1995. The commuter rail links Mission, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam, and Port Moody with Waterfront Station in downtown Vancouver. Commuters can transfer between WCE and SkyTrain rapid transit, SeaBus, and other public transportation services at the Waterfront Station. • TRE. TRE is a 36-mile commuter rail service linking downtown Dallas and downtown Fort Worth, Texas. DART and the Fort Worth Transportation Authority jointly own and operate the rail service. TRE opened in 1996. • ACE. ACE service starts in Stockton in San Joaquin County, travels through Alameda County, and terminates in San Jose in Santa Clara County in California. ACE service oper- ates under the governance of the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission. ACE began opera- tions in 1998. The twenty-first century ushered in another growth period for commuter rail new starts. Between 2000 and 2017, 11 new starts began service in states from Florida to Washington and from Texas to Minnesota: • Sounder. The Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority, commonly known as Sound Transit, began operating the Sounder commuter rail service in 2000. Sounder commuter rail operates from Lakewood in Pierce County, through Seattle in King County, to Everett in Snohomish County in Washington. • Rail Runner. Rail Runner is New Mexico’s first commuter rail service. In 2006, the State of New Mexico, through the New Mexico Department of Transportation, purchased the cor- ridor from BNSF to develop passenger rail. Rail Runner operates from Belen to Albuquerque to Santa Fe, providing service to 14 stations in Valencia, Bernalillo, Sandoval, and Santa Fe counties. Rio Metro Regional Transit District manages day-to-day service. • Music City Star. Music City Star connects downtown Nashville to Lebanon in Wilson County, using the rehabilitated freight tracks of the Nashville and Eastern Railroad (NERR). RTA of Middle Tennessee launched the Music City Star in 2006. • FrontRunner. FrontRunner is a commuter rail system operated by UTA. UTA began operat- ing FrontRunner in 2008 to connect Salt Lake, Davis, and Weber counties with stations in Salt Lake City, Pleasant View, and Ogden in Weber County, and towns in Davis County. In 2012, UTA extended FrontRunner to Orem and Provo in Utah County. • WES. WES is a commuter rail line operated by TriMet on tracks shared with the Portland and Western Railroad (P&W), a short-line freight railroad. WES connects suburban cities Wilsonville, Tualatin, Tigard, and Beaverton to the regional TriMet bus and light-rail ser- vice at the Beaverton Transit Center. The commuter rail corridor does not go to downtown Portland. TriMet opened WES service in 2009. • Northstar. Northstar is a commuter rail system operated by the Northstar Corridor Develop- ment Authority (NCDA), a public entity established to plan and deliver commuter rail services between St. Cloud and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Northstar opened for service in 2009 and now operates between Minneapolis and Big Lake, with plans to extend to St. Cloud. • MetroRail. Capital Metro in Austin, Texas, began operating MetroRail commuter rail in 2010 from Leander to downtown Austin.

History of Commuter Rail 19 • A-train. The A-train is a commuter rail service provided by DCTA from Denton and Lewisville in Denton County to Carrollton in Dallas County. In Carrollton, commuter rail passengers can transfer to DART light-rail and bus transit at the DART Trinity Mills Station. DCTA began A-train operations in 2011. • SunRail. Florida DOT—in cooperation with Volusia, Seminole, Orange, and Osceola counties; the Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority (LYNX); and the City of Orlando—is providing SunRail commuter rail service in the four-county corridor that extends north and south of Orlando. SunRail service began in 2014. Florida DOT will man- age SunRail for the first 7 years of revenue operation. In 2021, Florida DOT will transition the operations and management of SunRail to the Central Florida Commuter Rail Commission comprising five members representing Volusia, Seminole, Orange, and Osceola counties and the City of Orlando. • RTD Commuter Rail. The Denver RTD opened commuter rail in 2016. When completed, the commuter rail system will comprise four lines that converge at Denver Union Station. The Colorado A Line from Union Station to the Denver International Airport opened in April 2016. The B Line from Union Station to Westminster opened in July 2016. Extensions to the B Line and two additional commuter rail lines are in development and will open in the future. RTD is developing the commuter rail system as a public–private partnership or P3. • SMART. The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District is the regional transportation district established in 2002 to oversee the development and implementation of passenger rail service in Sonoma and Marin counties in California. A passenger rail and bicycle–pedestrian pathway will follow a 70-mile corridor along the historic Northwestern Pacific Railroad alignment. The first 43-mile segment connecting Santa Rosa and San Rafael opened in August 2017. Summary As late as the 1980s, commuter rail served only a few U.S. cities. These included Boston, New York City/Connecticut, New York City/New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, and San Francisco. Commuter rail was in operation in Canada in two cities, Montreal and Toronto. The 12 commuter rail systems that transitioned from private to public are known as legacy systems. Commuter rail experienced its first real growth in the United States between 1989 and 1999. In January 1989, Tri-Rail was the first new start commuter rail service in the United States. Within a few years, additional new start systems had begun operations in Los Angeles and Northern Virginia. In total, seven U.S. commuter rail systems and one Canadian commuter rail system were new starts in the 1990s. Between 2000 and 2017, 11 new starts began service in states from Florida to Washington and from Texas to Minnesota. Several of these new starts were sponsored by multimodal public transit agencies. Other new starts were sponsored by public agencies that were created specifically to provide commuter rail service. As of August 2017, 31 commuter rail systems provided passenger rail service in North America. This expansion of commuter rail has led to a variety of strategies and approaches for manag- ing the operation and maintenance of these systems. While several legacy systems operate and maintain the commuter rail service directly with agency staff, until recently, most new start systems contracted operations and maintenance functions and some new start systems recently became agency operated. These approaches to operating and maintaining commuter rail will be discussed later in the guidebook.