Reverse Commuting on Upswing in New York

The commuter trains headed to Grand Central Terminal from the suburbs to the north are still packed each work day morning, but a now cars headed in the other direction -- out of Manhattan -- are also full. A story this week in the New York Times describes changes in job locations and marketing efforts by the railroads.

The result? Less than half of the riders on Metro-North are now traditional suburb-to-Manhattan commuters. And this hasn't come at the expense of traditional commuters as their numbers are higher than at any time since Metro-North began operation 23 years ago. Instead, seats are filled with day-trippers, reverse commuters, and people traveling between suburbs.