Long Island has a great rail system huh?
The two largest criticisms of the LIRR (and Metro-North) are frequency and price. The commuter rail lines around New York should be running every 15 minutes per branch, all forming together to provide a fast and very frequent service in the city. It should be like the RER in Paris or good S-bahn systems in Germany. The commuter rail should also cost as much as the subway within the city, it’s far too expensive. Seriously, look at commuter rail systems in cities less than half the size of New York and the systems are just so much better. This standard of frequent service (maybe less frequent on rural branches) should be the standard for commuter rail in North America. For cities that are starting to get it right, look to San Francisco, Denver, Toronto, and Salt Lake City. San Francisco and Toronto are both electrifying their lines for more frequent service and Denver already has service every 15 minutes to the airport with fully electrified lines.
the LIRR is great (if a little pricey) but the downside is you have to be in Long Island
and as soon as you leave brooklyn/queens you’ll need a car to get anywhere else
SEPTA’s regional rail isn’t half bad. not in the level of NYC mind you, but still decent enough
Death to America
It’s not bad. Just needed more high density and walkable infrastructure around it. The Main Line rail stations are relatively accessible (though so many of the neighborhoods immediately off Rt30 is just suburban sprawl), as are Manayunk-Norristown Line, but a lot of stops along the Norristown High Speed Line between the bookends are just stupid: Train station surrounded by single-family housing with no sidewalks beyond the parking lot.
This is SEPTA erasure
TBF when talking about commuter rail, you might as well forget anything outside of the tri-state exists.
