NTRAC Final Study - Nebraska Department of Roads - State of ...

Appendix A
RIDERSHIP COMPARISONS
ACE Comparison
Altamont Commuter Express (ACE) operates commuter service between Stockton and San Jose
via Pleasanton. The service provides 3 peak direction round trips to Silicon Valley employment
centers in the morning and returning in late afternoon. For this analysis, 3 origin stations in the
Tri-Valley area were selected, and compared with 3 destination stations in the South Bay Area.
(Ridership from San Joaquin Valley stations could not be compared because local MOP travel
data does not identify travel from individual traffic analysis zones in that area.) ACE ridership
between specific stations was not available, so point to point ridership was estimated using on
and off counts provided by ACE for a typical commute day (Wednesday, May 8, 2002). The rail
share of morning home to work trips for these station pairs ranged from under 1 percent to nearly
17 percent. As with Caltrain, the share generally increases with trip distance. Trips to Santa
Clara exhibit unusually low rail shares. This may be because Santa Clara was recently added to
the ACE system, and ridership may not have developed to the same extent as other stations. The
results for ACE ridership are shown below. Great America is the major southbound stop, and
accordingly ridership there has the largest shares.
Table A-1: ACE Current Share of Morning Work Trips
Station Pair
Trains
MTC AM Peak
HBW Trips
ACE Commuter
Avg. Weekday Trips
Rail
Share Miles
Vasco Road-Fremont 3 150 11.4 0.076 22.4
Vasco Road-Great America 3 373 63.2 0.169 35.0
Vasco Road-Santa Clara 3 227 12.7 0.004 39.0
Livermore-Fremont 3 758 14.4 0.018 19.7
Livermore-Great America 3 1,709 80.0 0.047 32.3
Livermore-Santa Clara 3 1,035 14.8 0.014 36.3
Pleasanton-Fremont 3 1,499 28.4 0.019 12.9
Pleasanton-Great America 3 3,608 171.1 0.047 25.5
Pleasanton-Santa Clara 3 2,329 27.3 0.012 29.5
Totals 11,688 423.3 0.036
Note: Average ACE trips estimated by WSA from available on and off counts for a typical weekday.
Caltrain Comparison
Caltrain operates intensive commute service on the San Francisco Peninsula, between San
Francisco, San Jose, and Gilroy. Caltrain’s service pattern includes “skip stop” service during
peak hours, with some trains skipping selected stations in order to reduce running times. The
weekday service consists of 40 round trips between San Francisco and San Jose. Analysis of
selected station pairs used the local MPO’s travel model data and compared the data with actual
2001 September and October ridership on trains operating during the morning peak period (trains
arriving by 9:00 am). The analysis revealed a rail mode share ranging from under one percent to
384180
NEBRASKA TRANSIT CORRIDORS STUDY
Page A - 1
WILBUR SMITH ASSOCIATES