A Long Walk is Actually Better

After Sunday's big game at the Meadowlands, we saw the havoc that can be caused when large amounts of people arrive at a rail station in a short amount of time.  I have long held the belief that the distance a transit station is from an event makes a huge difference in the crowding that often becomes a problem following major events.  While many of us might not be a fan of a several minute walk all the way to a train station after an event, a big separation between the egresses of a venue and the station entrance is actually a 'blessing in disguise.'

Before I begin, let me try to describe what service levels are typically experienced during the different stages of the post-game pandemonium.  After getting all of the passengers to the venue before the event begins, the agency will typically run some sort of regular service level during the game, just in case there is anybody that has to leave the event early (i.e. does not fell well, gets kicked out, or lives at some distant diesel terminal which has a large gap in overnight service).  This base service level varies from agency to agency, but it is typically a similar service level to what would normally be provided if there wasn't an event going on (in respect to events at Citi Field, that would be half-hourly Port Washington Branch service) (I will be frequently referencing how the LIRR handles train service for Mets Games since that is the operation I am most familiar with).  On Sunday, NJTransit was providing hourly headways during the actual game.

Immediately after the event has ended, there is usually two or three train consists that are sitting around close to the station (if not in the station) waiting for the event to conclude.  When the first wave of people start arriving at the station, these trains are put into service to add a quick boost in service levels until the next stage kicks in.

Since most transit stations for stadiums/other venues are not typically near large rail yards, the bulk of the trains have to be brought in from elsewhere.  Since there is no real way of telling exactly when a sporting event or concert will end, it is difficult for railroads and transit agencies to have an exact amount of trains ready immediately following the conclusion of an event.    In many cases, the trains cannot be brought into the station in advance too early, as they normally have to leave soon after they arrive.  In the case of the Port Washington Branch at Mets-Willets Point, the LIRR cannot have a bunch of trains blocking the main while the Mets fight out the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth innings of the game.  At this point, you begin to impede the regular flow of trains through the area (and in the case of the Meadowlands, it is not possible to have extra trains waiting in the station since there are only three tracks).

Typically, railroads will stage equipment someplace that is both close by and out of the way.  In the case of the LIRR, the railroad stores a handful of extra sets by Great Neck.  The Section A dispatcher listens in to the game on WFAN (or someone listens/watches the game and figures out when it is over), and when the last out is made, the extras are sent out of Great Neck and make their way down to the stadium to meet the crowds.

We then enter into the period where the agency is able to provide peak levels of service.  By this time, the trains that initially left the station are starting to make their way back, and the railroad or transit agency can maintain consistent headway for a length of time.

Eventually, service levels will drop off as the majority of passengers have exited the venue.  The service ultimately drops back down to the baseline service level until the night is over and all but the really stumbling drunk have made their way back home.

Visually, the service levels that can typically be provided by a transit agency or railroad will resemble something like this graph:

The next thing to consider is the level of passenger loads as they arrive at the station, and this is where the distance between the venue and the station becomes very important.

Let's take the example of a bunch of Mets fans leaving Citi Field after a Mets game.  A handful of people may leave before the game is completely over (depending on various circumstances that may or may not be related to their current record), but the vast majority will stick around until the last out or so.

Once the game has ended, everybody heads for the exit all at once.  The exits are designed to get large amounts of people out of the stadium, but not everybody all at once.  Large amounts of people manage to get out of the stadium fairly quickly and start heading towards the station.  Mets fans have to walk up a set of stairs and across the boardwalk that goes over Corona Yard to get to the station, a considerable distance.  Among this first batch of people that get out of the stadium, the young, able-bodied Mets fans who walk quickly (or have a Montauk connection to make at Jamaica) will get out ahead of the mob and arrive at the station gates first.  People of various slower walking speeds will make their way to the station shortly behind this initial wave.

At this point, everybody else is able to make their way out of the stadium and towards the station.  A similar process repeats here.  The young and fast make their way ahead and eventually catch up to the slow people of the first groups and the slow people from the second round fall even further behind. 

The process repeats again and again as the stadium empties with fast people being allowed to get out in front and slow people falling behind.  Ultimately, the levels of the people who show up at the station following an event resembles something like a bell curve depicted in the following graph:

When you assemble both of these graphs together, you get service levels and passenger demand that are pretty much even.  It does not work perfectly, but for events at Citi Field, what the LIRR does tends to work pretty well:

For all intents and purposes, the red lines on the graph are fixed.  There is very little that transportation agencies can do to radically alter the way that line jumps up and down without constructing a huge rail yard right next to the station.  Luckily, the blue bell curve, which is the only real variable here, is able to arrange itself so it more or less fits within the service levels that will get the most people leaving.

But what happens with that blue curve when there is a short walk from the venue to the station?  When the distance between the venue's exit and the station entrance is shorter, there is less opportunity for the slow people and fast people to spread out and create that nice bell curve.  As a result, there is often a big influx of passengers that swarm the gates as soon as the game is over.  It also takes less time for the slowest of the slow to make their way to the station gates as they don't have to travel all that far.

In essence, the curve we see above is shifted over to the left when the station is close to the venue's egresses, producing a graph like this:

The above graph illustrates what you might see following an event at the Meadowlands.  When you match up this graph with the red service levels graph (which is essentially fixed, especially at the Meadowlands station).  When the blue line (passenger demand) is high above what service can actually be provided (the red line), big crowding conditions ensue:

 
As it turns out, the distance between the venue's exit and the station entrance makes a huge difference.  Crowds are much more dense and come much quicker when the station is right across the street.

Lets compare some distances between stadiums and their respective rail stations.  At Citi Field and Yankee Stadium, where the post-game rail service often goes very smoothly (not perfectly, but nothing like what we saw on Sunday):

At both these stadiums, the rail stations are over a quarter of a mile away from the actual venue.  This distance allows the swarms of eager rail goers to spread out and for the railroads to get their peak service levels together.

Philidelphia's Sports Complex also has its major stadiums quite a walk from the nearby transit station:

The LIRR's Belmont Park Station is comparatively closer to the grandstand exit.  On the station's busiest day of the year, the Belmont Stakes, the station is frequently stormed with people after the races for the day are finished.  I believe that one of the main reasons this becomes an issue is due to the fact that Belmont Park's station is so close to the exit:

The distance between Belmont Park and its station is about half the distance between the venue and the station at Yankee Stadium (1,400 feet versus 700 feet).  And if that wasn't trouble enough, take the distance between the venue's egresses and the platform entrace at the Meadowlands:

It's only 350 feet!  While the designers of the Meadowlands might have been thinking that the station's close proximity to the station would be convenient for the station goes, in reality it subjects the infrastructure to far too many people far too quickly.

While there are many design failures and shortcomings of the Meadowlands Station, many of which contributed to the mess we saw Sunday night, but in my opinion, the placement of the station so close to the stadium is a major complication that New Jersey Transit has to deal with.  While adding more platforms or putting in a loop might help capacity through the station, the best thing NJT could do with the Meadowlands Station is to move it to the other side of the parking lot and make people walk a quarter mile to get to it. 

While a long walk might not be ideal after you've been standing for hours screaming your lungs out at a sporting event, in the end, a long walk to the station following an event is probably much better in the grand scheme of things.