Reaching Equilibrium on the Commuter Rails

The New York Times reports in this morning's edition that the New York City commuter line Metro-North no longer carries mostly Manhattan-bound working stiffs. With jobs moving to the suburbs and suburban roads increasingly clogged, the train system that connects Connecticut, suburban Westchester County and upstate New York to Grand Central Station in Manhattan only half of its riders now go to work in the city in the morning and travel back home at night. "Metro-North’s ridership is higher than it has ever been in the system’s 23-year history," says the Times, citing Metropolitan Transit Authority numbers. "But [non-traditional] categories of riders have grown at a much higher rate, including reverse commuters traveling to jobs north of the city, riders traveling between suburbs and day-trippers on shopping or sightseeing trips."