Monday, August 02, 2004

WORSE THAN FIRST THOUGHT

Mother Nature's wrath was worse than I had originally reported in yesterday's posting...

According to various media outlets, not only was Broad Street Subway, P&W and Regional Rail service impacted, but parts of Upper Darby Township and Darby Borough, in addition to the Overbrook section of the city, were hit hard. Actually, to say that these areas were hit hard would be a major understatement.

In Overbrook, downed trees on Haverford Av east of Lansdowne forced the 30 to operate on diversion via 67 St.

Major flooding in two parts of Upper Darby had severe impacts on SEPTA. The area around State Rd and Lansdowne Av in Drexel Hill was hit very hard, with reports of massive flooding at the Bond Shopping Center. As such, the 110 was forced to divert via West Chester Pike and Township Line Rd, bypassing that part of Drexel Hill.

As reported yesterday, the area around 69 St and Marshall Rd was hit very hard, with reports of flood waters reaching 3-4 feet at the Pathmark on 69 St. This caused the 42 to cut back most trips to 61-Pine, while the 108, 109, and 113 were forced to make major detours around the area. The 108 most likely had to take Garrett Rd, Lansdowne Av, and Baltimore Pike just to get remotely close to being on schedule, much less on route.

In Darby, service on the 11 was cut back due to flooding along Main St; this presumably caused headaches for operators on the 13 who were pulling in or out of service from Elmwood Depot. In addition to Main St, MacDade Blvd near Springfield Rd was closed for most of yesterday, adding to further problems for 113 operators, as well as operators on the 114 and 305. Even though none of the bus routes serving Darby Borough operate on that portion of MacDade Blvd, having that part of MacDade shut down at Springfield Rd, coupled with the flooding along Main St, made navigating around Darby very difficult. (And, yes, as tempting as it is, I'm not going to suggest that the flooding was a sign from God that the powers that be in Darby Borough get their acts together.)

With the exception of the detour on the 30, most routes had returned to their normal routings as of this afternoon.

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