I’m all for an all-day service, but I’m still not sure if I’d go so far as to say a commuter-focused service is pointless? There’s a difference between saying that 9-to-5’s will be less dominant versus implying they’re gone for good. Even businesses are split on this issue (not to mention our community), so I don’t think we should jump the gun and put all our eggs in one basket.
There’s a practical issue, too: @colbyjd3 wrote out earlier what a commuter-leaning train schedule could look like, which has 30min headways some of the time. But if we use his schedule but we say trains run at equal intervals all day, you’d be stuck with trains that come every 50min all day with our current budget. I don’t know about you, but I’d find the former train service more convenient, even if it’s just for certain times of the day.
Our region is planning to double the frequency of commuter/regional trains as soon as it gets the chance (so divide the above numbers by two). But we have to go back to the ballot box and double our transit-dedicated sales tax to do that and save up enough money to pull that off. Until the day comes when we do that, isn’t it better to be okay with something in the meantime?