Nelson Harvey receives a lead from Eco-chick
Mixing Modes: Bikes on the Metro North Railroad
by Nelson Harvey
With the price of gas hovering around $4 a gallon, driving a car looks increasingly unattractive for environmentally and economically minded folks alike. But even if you already commute by rail into NYC, you may face obstacles to making your trip 100% car free.
Currently, the Metro North Railroad does not allow bikes onto trains at peak travel hours, when most people are commuting to work. And since the trains feature no bicycle storage space, cyclists who ride at other times are required to stand with their steeds near train doorways, making entry and exit awkward for other passengers.
Recently, a group of activists calling themselves “Rail*Trains*Ecology*Cycling” have been campaigning to change all of this. Metro North has contracted to purchase at least 300 new train cars by 2011, and advocates of so-called “inter-modal” transit want to see at least four bike parking spots in every other car, according to Richard Stowe, the group’s leader and a longtime bike activist and transportation wonk.
If Stowe is the face of support for expanding bike-on-train access, then the most public opponent of the idea has been Jim Cameron. He chairs the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council, a Metro North advisory body that voted against a resolution favoring increased access and storage. Cameron laments the potential crowding and remodeling costs that more bikes could bring. “Right now, it's standing room only at rush hour,” said Cameron, a retired news anchor. “We don't have enough seats the trains for passengers now, and allowing bikes on could mean even less room for passengers.”
Stowe counters that installing the storage his group desires would only require removing two seats from the 100 currently contained in every car, and he said that complaints about the cost of new storage “ignore the avoided cost of building a new parking space for the car that you’ve taken off the road.”
There is also contention over the level of demand for increased access. Cameron claims he has “never had a commuter come to me and say they wanted to take their bike on the train." Stowe, who cut his activist teeth campaigning to get bikes on trains in California, says that the current ban on bikes at peak hour artificially suppresses demand. “Lack of demand was the same argument used with [California rail agency] Cal Train,” he says. But after Cal Train installed bike storage cars and allowed cyclists to ride at all times, “the number of riders with bikes grew to 8 percent of its total ridership.”
According to Stowe, getting bikes allowed on at peak times is “the backbone” of his effort, in part because when commuters see people riding with bikes, they will be encouraged to try it themselves, or at least to ride their bikes to the train station.
Cameron, by contrast, favors simply increasing bike storage at stations. As he wrote recently on his blog “Talking Transportation,” "If bikers really wanted to build support for their cause, I have a suggestion. Rather than rant against those who reasonably argue against bikes on trains, the bikers should instead lobby for bike racks and lockers at rail stations."
Stowe and his allies are due to meet with Metro North officials this month for a second time, and he says Metro North has expressed a desire to resolve the issue by July or August. The first of the agency’s new train cars should arrive by August 2009, with delivery continuing monthly through 2011. Stowe’s goal now is to commission a letter to Metro North from Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell, who has voiced her support for increased bike access.
“For me it is all about taking a bike a using it as a car, said Stowe. “Bikes get the equivalent of 3000 miles per gallon.”
Connecticut residents can email Governor M. Jodi Rell at
by Nelson Harvey
With the price of gas hovering around $4 a gallon, driving a car looks increasingly unattractive for environmentally and economically minded folks alike. But even if you already commute by rail into NYC, you may face obstacles to making your trip 100% car free.
Currently, the Metro North Railroad does not allow bikes onto trains at peak travel hours, when most people are commuting to work. And since the trains feature no bicycle storage space, cyclists who ride at other times are required to stand with their steeds near train doorways, making entry and exit awkward for other passengers.
Recently, a group of activists calling themselves “Rail*Trains*Ecology*Cycling” have been campaigning to change all of this. Metro North has contracted to purchase at least 300 new train cars by 2011, and advocates of so-called “inter-modal” transit want to see at least four bike parking spots in every other car, according to Richard Stowe, the group’s leader and a longtime bike activist and transportation wonk.
If Stowe is the face of support for expanding bike-on-train access, then the most public opponent of the idea has been Jim Cameron. He chairs the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council, a Metro North advisory body that voted against a resolution favoring increased access and storage. Cameron laments the potential crowding and remodeling costs that more bikes could bring. “Right now, it's standing room only at rush hour,” said Cameron, a retired news anchor. “We don't have enough seats the trains for passengers now, and allowing bikes on could mean even less room for passengers.”
Stowe counters that installing the storage his group desires would only require removing two seats from the 100 currently contained in every car, and he said that complaints about the cost of new storage “ignore the avoided cost of building a new parking space for the car that you’ve taken off the road.”
There is also contention over the level of demand for increased access. Cameron claims he has “never had a commuter come to me and say they wanted to take their bike on the train." Stowe, who cut his activist teeth campaigning to get bikes on trains in California, says that the current ban on bikes at peak hour artificially suppresses demand. “Lack of demand was the same argument used with [California rail agency] Cal Train,” he says. But after Cal Train installed bike storage cars and allowed cyclists to ride at all times, “the number of riders with bikes grew to 8 percent of its total ridership.”
According to Stowe, getting bikes allowed on at peak times is “the backbone” of his effort, in part because when commuters see people riding with bikes, they will be encouraged to try it themselves, or at least to ride their bikes to the train station.
Cameron, by contrast, favors simply increasing bike storage at stations. As he wrote recently on his blog “Talking Transportation,” "If bikers really wanted to build support for their cause, I have a suggestion. Rather than rant against those who reasonably argue against bikes on trains, the bikers should instead lobby for bike racks and lockers at rail stations."
Stowe and his allies are due to meet with Metro North officials this month for a second time, and he says Metro North has expressed a desire to resolve the issue by July or August. The first of the agency’s new train cars should arrive by August 2009, with delivery continuing monthly through 2011. Stowe’s goal now is to commission a letter to Metro North from Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell, who has voiced her support for increased bike access.
“For me it is all about taking a bike a using it as a car, said Stowe. “Bikes get the equivalent of 3000 miles per gallon.”
Connecticut residents can email Governor M. Jodi Rell at
Labels: bicycling, bike-to-work, bikes-on-trains
posted by Richard Stowe at 9:17 PM
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