Christof Spieler, author of “Trains, Buses, People: An Opinionated Atlas of US Transit,” revealed his latest transit mapping on his Twitter page on Ottawa’s Trillium Line. Spieler calls the Trillium Line the most frequent commuter rail service in North America on a single track line, claiming the Bayview Station, located at the end of the line, sees more trains a day than San Francisco’s Caltrain station, which has 12 times as many tracks.
“As a train pulled in [the Bayview], you’d see the passengers get off and the operator leave her cab and switch ends,” Spieler says. “Eight minutes after arriving the train pulls out in the opposite direction. Four minutes after that, the next train pulls in, then leaves after another eight minutes. A train every 12 minutes.”
“This is absolutely maximizing the infrastructure,” Spieler claims. “But, above all, it’s due to attitude. Usually, when a U.S. transit agency wants to improve a commuter rail line, they hire a consultant to come up with a plan for infrastructure, and in this case they’d come up with a few billion dollars for a double track.