Bring people to work: A sustaining function of commuter rail services

Evidenced by the services provided to travelers for almost a century, commuter rail proved that it not only played significant roles in reducing congestion but also a sustainable mode in providing safe, reliable and high qualify option for commuters. Recent travel behavior changes show that the share of commuting trips during the peak periods are declining while recreational, social, and personal trips during non-peak and weekends are rising. This manuscript records an effort to explore viable ways for a traditional commuter rail, Atlantic City Rail, serve current travel market. After a brief review of the historical development, the authors have focused on temporal distribution of travel demands along the ACRL corridor. Responding to the demands of patrons, a schedule optimization was developed and partially implemented for the service.