GUARANTEE? WHAT GUARANTEE? It seems that the Philadelphia Daily News is finally catching on to what many have suspected about SEPTA's alleged "Service Guarantee". It's not quite that effective. In today's Daily News, there's a detailed article about complaints from many Reading side commuters about delays in processing service claims, in which SEPTA is supposed to offer refunds to passengers if Regional Rail, subway, P&W, or Route 101/102 trolleys are over 15 minutes late. The snail's pace in honoring (or rejecting) refund requests has intensified due to the infamous September 9 meltdown on the Reading side of the Regional Rail system.

BROAD STREET SAFETY: After a Daily News article nearly a year ago focusing on the lack of safety measures along the Broad Street Subway, SEPTA is planning to add security devices to the Cecil B Moore/Temple University station. Among other items, SEPTA will install fire alarms, chemical sensors, and closed circuit cameras which would directly link that station to the Control Center at 1234 Market. If the program is successful, SEPTA will add these features to all Broad Street Line stations. There is already a closed circuit system in place on the Market Frankford El.

MORE BUSES TO ROWAN: NJ Transit is about to offer more service to Rowan University. Starting with the January schedule change, the 313 bus will be extended to the Rowan campus in Glassboro, offering the first direct Sunday service from Rowan to Philadelphia. In addition, four new on-campus stops will be added to improve access, following the request of Rowan administrators and Gloucester County officials. In addition to the routing changes, the Rowan University Bookstore is now an authorized NJT ticket agent.

SEPTA's problems maintaining scheduled service apparently are not confined to the suburbs. There have been days where service levels on the 27 have not been met, with reports of 2 buses being spotted on the 27 within a 35 minute period during Monday's PM peak. Part of the reason may be due to heavy congestion on the Vine St Expressway and the Schuylkill Expressway.

In addition to the problems on the 27, the 35 has been suffering from chronic lateness, mainly because the ElDorado buses used on the 35 are having difficulty making turns through the Manayunk routing. Cars are apparently blocking the turns, which has caused cascading delays along the line. In addition, despite the increased ridership, there are rumors that the "new" 35 routing may be endangered, due to complaints from some people along Silverwood St, which has some of the steepest grades in Manayunk.

On a brighter note, the "new" Bridge Street between Penn St and Frankford Av is now reopened to traffic. It will have little to no impact on SEPTA routes in the area, since the construction of the new Frankford Terminal is well underway. As for rumors about the demise of the trackless lines in Northeast Philadelphia, that doesn't appear to be the case right now, as new trolley poles and catenary are being installed in the north side of Frankford Depot. That tends to tell me that the trackless service in the Northeast appears to be safe once service is restored next year. The new Bridge St was reopened at a ceremony attended by - among other people - "Fearless Leader" and outgoing U.S. Rep Bob Borski (D-3). The Northeast News Gleaner reports that part of the former Bridge St will be used to allow storage for additional buses for assignment at Frankford Depot. The new terminal building will be opened next summer.

The board of supervisors in East Vincent Twp rejected a proposal to build a bus shelter at the intersection of PA 724 and Hill Church Rd, which is served by the 99 bus. The Pottstown Mercury reported that supervisors were less than thrilled with the proposed design of the shelter, which one supervisor called "ugly."

And now, for the Press Brown-Noser of the Week, we present Keith Phucas of the Norristown Times-Herald. In Monday's Times-Herald, Phucas' story on the Schuylkill Valley rail project came off as so slanted in favor of "MetroRail", you'd have thought he was on the SEPTA payroll. My question is how could the editors of the Times-Herald allow such a slanted, one-sided "news" story to have run in their paper? Phucas seems to think that Pennsylvania's congressional delegation will be making a trip to Norristown in the near future to hand over a blank check for $900 million - half of the cost of the proposed "Schuylkill Valley MetroRail."

SEPTA will be adding extra Regional Rail, Market-Frankford, and Broad Street line service following tonight's Eagles game. Extra trips will be added to serve Marcus Hook, Warminster, Elwyn, West Trenton, Thorndale, Doylestown, and Trenton. In addition, both the Broad Street Subway and Market-Frankford El will see later train service this evening until at least 1:00am to accomodate the expected large crowd of Eagles fans (and hopefully not too many Giants fans) to and from the Sports Complex tonight.

The missing bus syndrome strikes the 104 yet again. Yesterday, the 1:05pm and 5:05pm (4217 block) departures from West Chester to 69 St Terminal failed to appear. As a result of 4217's no-show, the 6:05pm from West Chester (4215 block) was nearly half full before the bus entered West Goshen.

The 92, 104, 119, and 314 will be impacted later this evening due to West Chester Borough's annual Halloween parade. I have yet to determine what the detour routings are, since SEPTA has been kind enough not to include mention of these detours at its web site. You mean to tell me that the borough couldn't hold it's Halloween parade on a Saturday like Media does? It would make a lot more sense, plus fewer people would be inconvenienced. As a follow up, the West Chester Halloween Parade has been postponed due to rain; there has been no rain date announced as of this update.

The schedule changes for Frontier routes have now been posted. Regional rail changes will be posted no later than Saturday.

There are very few things that gets by this web site. One note in particular comes from - of all places - a web site in Hungary. The Budapest Sun reported that on October 10, SEPTA had initiated legal action against NABI over warantee issues that SEPTA claimed NABI had not fulfilled. Both parties later settled out of court. Of interest is a note where SEPTA has actually invited NABI to submit a bid for the forthcoming 360 low-floor bus order, at least according to a NABI spokesman.

R2 service on the Marcus Hook/Wilmington branch was delayed after a trespasser was struck and killed by an New York-bound Amtrak train. The incident occured at around 10:30am near the Crum Lynne station when an unidentified man was walking southbound (towards Wilmington) on the northbound tracks, and was struck by Amtrak's Metroliner #106. Ridley Park police told NBC 10 that victim made no attempt to get out of the way of the Metroliner as it was en route to Penn Station/New York. Several trains, including Acela Regional #174 and #184 and Metroliner #108, along with SEPTA #9234 to Market East, were delayed while Ridley Park and Amtrak Police investigated. Service was restored by 2:00pm.

SEPTA is planning to make life miserable in 2005 and 2006 for residents along Market St in West Philadelphia (then again, SEPTA tends to make life miserable for virtually everyone to begin with). According to KYW 3, there will be five scheduled outages along the west end of the El lasting nine days each. The first two outages will take place in the summer of 2005, two more will take place in the summer of 2006, and the final one will take place in the summer of 2007. Additionally, the cost of reconstructing the El structure is increasing from $420 million to $567 million, due in part to an increase in steel prices.

So much for that shuttle on the 11. Towards the tail end of the PM peak today (from around 6:00pm to 6:25pm), I observed all of 2 buses running shuttle service in Darby Borough - an unknown NABI and Southern 3186. Considering that trolley service is supposed to run approximately every 10 to 12 minutes during the timeframe I made these observations, that tends to tell me that something isn't quite right. I would shudder to think about what would happen if this was earlier in the peak period. Additionally, because of CSX's "construction complications" at the Main Street rail crossing, buses are now running at all times - including peak periods - instead of during the mid-day. Watch SEPTA try and blame "a lack of resources" for failing to provide adequate shuttle service for passengers in Darby Borough (who seem to be treated just as badly as most riders in West Chester). Well, there is a solution... bill CSX for the added shuttle service. Hey, it's their fault that 11 trolley service is being disrupted.

As strange as this sounds, I just noticed this today when I picked up a new 99 timetable. When SEPTA restructured most of the Norristown hub routes (93, 97, 98, and 99), passengers in Phoenixville were promised 30 minute headways during peak hours. Stop me if you've heard this one, but SEPTA lied to the people of Chester County yet again. Two short-turn trips do operate beyond King of Prussia, but terminate at Egypt Rd and Brower Av, not in Phoenixville as SEPTA promised. This, along with the routing through the Oaks Mills area of Upper Providence - which will add 3 minutes to travel time from Phoenixville, Spring City, Royersford, and Pottstown - is an indication that SEPTA couldn't care less about Chester County.

This just in... SEPTA's getting sued again. This time, it's by a long-time jazz musician by the name of William Byard Lancaster, who told the Daily News that he occasionally practices his various instruments in the Suburban Station councourse. On July 26, 2001, SEPTA Police Officer F. Whitaker (that's how he was identified in the article) cited Lancaster for "excessive noise" in a complaint that was later tossed by a Philadelphia Municipal Court judge (unfortunately, it wasn't Seamus McCaffery) on First Amendment issues (plus the fact that P/O Whitaker didn't bother to show up for the hearing). Lancaster and his attorney, Paul Messing, are suing SEPTA on grounds of false arrest and violation of his First Amendment rights. Not that I'm defending musicians performing in stations, but one would've thought that SEPTA had better things to do with their police department. Next thing you know, they'll be enforcing "Fearless Leader's" recent employee dress code at 1234 Market.

An 11 trolley collided with a car at 4-Main Sts in Darby Borough at around 6:30am today, causing massive delays on the 11 and 13 (the 13 dead-heads to Yeadon via Main St and 9 St in Darby. This was less than 2 hours before bus bridges were supposed to start on the 11 between Island Av and Darby Loop due to CSX track work on Main St.

On Thursday, the operator shortage at Red Arrow hit a new low, as runs on the 103, 104 (the evening short turns to Newtown Square after 7:30pm were not filled) and 120 were not covered. Red Arrow commuters can vent their frustrations on Thursday, November 14, when SEPTA holds an on-site session at 69 St Terminal between 6:30am and 8:30am. That should make for an interesting day to say the least.

For the first time that I can recall, SEPTA is posting schedules for it's "SEPTA On-Site" for the remainder of 2002. Media and Sharon Hill riders should be aware that a SOS event will take place at Drexel Hill Jct/Shadeland Av station tomorrow morning between 7:00am and 9:00am. Another event is scheduled for Chester Transportation Center at the same times, but on Wednesday, October 30.

If there was ever a bad time for the Broad Street Line to suffer signal problems, less than 45 minutes before the kickoff of an Eagles game would certainly qualify. Well, that's exactly what happened today. At around 3:30pm, a southbound Eagles Express train was stalled at Walnut-Locust, just as it was leaving the station, apparently due to signal problems (and not sabotoge by Jon Gruden as one passenger on my train joked). The train was stalled for at least 5 minutes before continuing - albeit slowly - to Pattison. This particular train was overcrowded to the point where people could hardly move; in other words, par for the course when it comes to SEPTA and Eagles games. Fans were still filtering into the Vet shortly after kickoff, due to a combination of (a) the traffic congestion around the Sports Complex, (b) the lengthy lines at the security checkpoints entering into the Vet, and (c) the pitiful service on the Broad Street Line.
Several passengers had noted that there appeared to be fewer trains operating today, despite promises of 10 minute service from Fern Rock. When asked about the apparent lack of trains on the Broad Street Line, the supervisor - whose arrogant attitude probably means he's a closet Cowboys fan - denied that there were missing trains. When I mentioned that the train I was was stalled at Walnut-Locust, his attitude worsened. In other words, there's an assistant's job to Richard Maloney waiting for him if he ever decides to take a desk job at 1234 Market. If you think it's bad this season, wait until next season when the new Eagles Stadium opens and the Eagles and Phillies are playing at once (unfortunately, the Vet will still be open next season) when parking will be worse than it is now. If there ever was an arguement in favor of adding express buses from outlying areas (Frankford, 69 St Terminal, Cornwells Heights, Springfield Mall, Granite Run Mall, West Chester, King of Prussia, Lawrence Park, etc.), today's fiasco would certainly qualify.

Significant delays occured on the 44 and 65 mid-day due to a 2 car accident on City Av in front of the KFC (between Bryn Mawr Av and Bala Av). This may have been the reason that 3428 was thrown into service on a "wildcat" trip.

Trolley service on the 11 will be cut back to Woodland and Island due to CSX track work at 6-Main in Darby Borough. Shuttle buses will operate between Island and Darby Loop. This bus-bridge will take place this Monday through Friday between 8:00am and 2:00pm.

In a follow-up to yesterday's notes on the Regional Rail shuttles, the R1 Airport shuttle bus will be jointly operated by Red Arrow and Southern. About 30 buses will be used over the course of the day, though I doubt that they will all be used at the same time (it most likely is that the Airport shuttle will require 30 runs split between the two depots).

I don't know who's fault this is, but yesterday's Metro paper - October 16 - published the SEPTA News page which originally appeared on September 16. I don't know if SEPTA sent the wrong page or if the publishers posted the wrong page, but that's yet another black eye in the realm of public mis-communication by SEPTA.

SEPTA is in the process of making access improvements to the Malvern station, which many commuters told the Main Line Times were long overdue. SEPTA is planning to move the stairway closer to the sidewalk along Warren Av and make improvements along the north (Thorndale-bound) side of the station. By next year, SEPTA plans to install a walkway in order to avoid having passengers use the Warren Av underpass. For years, passengers at Malvern have risked their lives by crossing the tracks, which has a blind curve just west of the station. Recently, Amtrak installed fencing at Malvern, but a few commuters still take their lives into their own hands by either scaling the fence or crossing the tracks just west of the end of the fence. On a side note, similar fencing has also been installed at Exton - another site of frequent track crossing by passengers - which has reduced the number of such passengers to virtually none.

The Sensible Voice of the Week goes to Tony Roberts - staff writer of the Phoenix newspaper in Phoenixville - commenting on SEPTA's plan to push "MetroRail" service on the Cross County Corridor (the comments are in the last two paragraphs of the article):

This new line is half the price of [Schuylkill Valley], but will still cost almost $1 billion, and is not as sorely needed. Can't we tackle one massive rail line at a time? Can we maybe prioritize? The area has had enough trouble securing money for one rail line, it won't be easy to come up with money for two.

If it weren't for the sometimes dirty politics at SEPTA, someone should hire this guy...

The infamous "block from hell" strikes again on the 92/133. Yesterday, 6019 block (bus 2053 operating the 4:25pm cross-routed 92/133 from West Chester to King of Prussia via Exton) ran nearly an hour late. 6022 block - the 5:25pm cross-routed 92/133 - had passed by the West Chester Courthouse just minutes after 6019 block went north towards Exton. While I can't say for certain if it was the case today, a 92 bus went north on High St at around 5:20pm. Either 6022 block was running very early (doubtful, since it routinely runs about 10-15 minutes late getting in from King of Prussia and Exton) or 6019 was once again running close to an hour late. Thankfully, the new timetables for the 92 and 133 reflect that all weekday and Saturday trips will be cross-routed, thus avoiding (we hope) the problems of 6019 block.

New Regional Rail timetables will be issued to take effect on October 27. The new timetables will not reflect the shuttle bus operation planned as part of SEPTA's catenary replacement between 30 St and Suburban Stations. Some interesting notes coming out of the schedules:

• Buses will depart from 30-Market Sts, then operate via Market, stopping at 16-Market for Suburban Station, then via Market, 15 St, S Penn Sq, Juniper, and Filbert to 11-Filbert (across from Greyhound Bus Terminal).
  
• The return trip will depart from 11-Filbert, then via Filbert, 10 St, Market St, Juniper, and JFK Blvd to 16 St (for Suburban Station), then via JFK Blvd, 20 St, Market (stopping at 30 St), then loop back to 30-Market via Market, 32 St, JFK Blvd, and 30 St.
  
• Ex-RDG side lines will stop at Market East and Suburban; ex-PRR lines will stop at 30 St.
  
• The R1 Airport Line will operate with shuttle buses between University City and Eastwick with a very strange routing. Buses will depart from University City, then operate via Convention Av, South St, 33 St, Chestnut St, Schuylkill Av/29 St, Arch St, 30 St, and into the station driveway itself. From 30 St, the R1 bus will operate via 30 St, Market, 16 St (stop at 16-JFK), Race St, 10 St (stop at 10 St between Filbert and Market), Market St, and I-95 to the Airport. From the Airport to Eastwick, the shuttle will operate via the Departures lane, then via the 37/108/305 routing to Eastwick Station.
  
• The return trip from Eastwick to University City will operate via Bartram Av, PA 291, the Airport Arrivals lane, I-95, I-676, 8 St exit to Vine St, 10 St (stop at 10 St between Filbert and Market), Market St, Juniper, JFK Blvd (stop at 16-JFK), 29 St, Arch St, 30 St (into Amtrak 30 St Station), JFK Blvd, 32 St, Market St, 34 St, and Convention Av to University City.

Now, for whatever reason, SEPTA decided not to operate from Market East to the Airport via University City and Eastwick, but instead decided to operate from University City to Eastwick via Center City and the Airport. Of course, it would make sense to go east to west through Center City, but remember, this is SEPTA we're talking about.

SEPTA will be holding dedication ceremonies for the renovated Stafford Rail Station on Saturday, starting at 2:00pm. The ceremony is part of a full day of events in the Stafford section of Tredyffrin Township, as the annual Old Eagle School open house will take place starting an hour later.

Memo to the folks at the Tampa Bay Business Journal: I realize that the Tampa/St. Petersburg area lacks the extensive rail transit network that Philadelphia has, but when describing SEPTA's Broad Street Line Eagles Express service, you may want to rethink your headline. The headline reads "Philly sets bus schedule for Eagles/Bucs game". There is a big difference between a bus and a subway train (just look north to Atlanta or south to Miami if you're confused). Also, SEPTA is not a agency of the City of Philadelphia - even if the powers that be on City Council try every trick in the book to influence operations. (On a somewhat related note, why would any sensible Tampa Bay Buccaneer fan want to come within a mile of Veteran's Stadium for an Eagles home game? Haven't they heard how notorious Iggles fans are towards those brave (or foolish) enough to wear opposing team jerseys?) BTW, I'll be watching the game from the relative safety of Section 727 on Sunday afternoon...

West Chester Borough Council is contemplating applying for a CMAQ grant to fund a proposed shuttle bus service within West Chester Borough and neighboring townships (specifically, West Goshen and East Bradford). A previous attempt at a shuttle bus - the Run-Around - failed due to low ridership, plus the fact that it was directly operated by Krapf's instead of managed by SEPTA and contracted out. The latter is the setup of the present West Whiteland WHIRL shuttle bus, which seems to have worked out well, so far. Yet, it appears that Borough Council is leaning towards having TMACC manage the service, without any support from SEPTA. With an increasing number of SEPTA riders traveling into West Chester - particularly via the 104 bus - there's no reason why the proposed West Chester loop can't be part of the SEPTA system. If TMACC ends up managing the service independent of SEPTA, it then forces SEPTA pass holders to pay a second fare, which would defeat the purpose of the loop. The full Borough Council is expected to vote on the proposal at their next meeting on the 23rd.

SEPTA is now soliciting bids for 399 bike racks for the NABIs (it may end up being 398, now that 5155 has gone off to that bus depot in the sky). Once the bid is awarded, the bike racks would be retrofit on the NABIs over a 20 month period, a project that should be complete by mid- to late-2004. I would expect Sportworks - which has already provided the bike racks on the ElDorados and New Flyer 5500-series buses - to be awarded the contract.

The Silverliner V project has been pushed back slightly. The deadline for proposals to build the new cars - which was initially scheduled for last month - has been extended until December 4. Apparently, there were some internal issues with the design of the doors which delayed the RFP from being issued.

As service continues to suffer on the 104 during peak hours, SEPTA GM Faye Moore has seen fit to implement a new dress code for employees working at 1234 Market. Now, let me see if I understand this correctly:

• SEPTA won't improve service on key Red Arrow lines (in addition to the 104's problems, both the 108 and 113 are chronically overcrowded on Sundays, when service operates only once an hour);
  
• SEPTA can't be bothered to come up with some sort of marketing slogan (a la DART First State's "Getting there starts here" or NJ Transit's "The way to go" or even WMATA's "Metro Opens Doors") without help from the Center City District's Central Philadelphia TMA;
  
• SEPTA practically caved in to a handful of NIMBYs in Norwood after they whined to their Borough Council and State Rep. Ron Raymond (R-162) about extending the 115 to MacDade Mall via Winona Av, thus forcing SEPTA to create a longer routing via Primos Av in Folcroft and South Av in Glenolden, not to mention the initial inconvenience of 30-45 minute layovers at Darby en route to Delmar Village;
  
• SEPTA is practically railroading (pun somewhat intended) two boondoggle projects with a combined $2.7 BILLION pricetag when they can be built less expensively, thus mortaging the future on two lines which are seemingly only being built to please TPTB at Norristown Courthouse at the expense of other projects in the region (restoring Regional Rail service to West Chester, Quakertown, and Newtown (Bucks), as well as the proposed Roosevelt Blvd rapid transit corridor); and
  
• SEPTA has failed to address the sporadic and scaringly frequent operator and vehicle shortages in the suburbs.

But, "Fearless Leader" has managed to take time out of running the 5th largest transit system in the nation to express concern about how the behind the scenes employees at 1234 Market (not just management, but also dispatchers and other control center personnel) are dressed. It must have been a real slow day for "Fearless Leader" to make such a big deal out of it.

SEPTA's legal department did something seemingly impossible in recent years - they actually scored a legal victory in a major court case. In a 2-1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia ruled that one of SEPTA's strict physical standards for new police recruits were fair, despite 90 percent of female applicants failing the test. The running test, which was at the heart of the controversy, required recruits to complete a 1.5 mile run in under 12 minutes. The court ruled that "[a] SEPTA transit police officer must be ready and able to apprehend not just the numerous sedentary, petty criminals, but also the fleet-footed few who, from time to time, wreak serious harm on the people of Philadelphia." The running test rule does not apply to police officers who were hired before the standard took effect in 1991, thanks to an arbitrator's ruling. The U.S. Justice Department was also a party to the suit when it was first filed during the Clinton Administration in 1997, however the DoJ withdrew from the suit after the Bush Administration was sworn in.

SEPTA issued a "revised" 61 timetable, as well as a new 61 Express timetable to reflect a couple of minor printing changes. I doubt this new 61 Express is doing any better than the old 61 Express trips, as yesterday's 4:16pm from 8-Market Sts ran empty upon arrival at Wissahickon Loop.

The reason for last Monday's shutdown of the El was a report of a suspicious cooler left at the 8 St station. Sources say that a passenger had allegedly left a cooler behind at the 8 St station during the peak hour, forcing SEPTA to run shuttle buses between 5 and 15 Sts. Service was restored approximately 45 minutes later.

A reminder that Frontier timetables will change on October 27 and 28. In addition, the 111 and 115 will also see new timetables issued. There will be two new 111 departures from 69 St to State and Township Line Rds (Drexeline Shopping Center), departing at 5:40pm and 6:20pm. The 115, as previously reported, will be extended from Delmar Village to MacDade Mall via Primos Av, Chester Pike, and South Av. In the original timetable issued before the Norwood fiasco, there were at least two added evening departures from MacDade Mall to Darby, which were essentially dead-head moves off of the recently created 122 both on weekdays and weekends. It is believed that Saturday service will indeed be extended to MacDade Mall when the new timetables are issued.

The changes to the 111 and 115 were added as part of a re-picking at Red Arrow. Because of an operators shortage, SEPTA had to reschedule most of the runs, with most runs scheduled for about 10 hours, up from the previous 8-9 hour runs that were part of the current picking.

Not to beat a dead horse, but the 5:05pm 104 West Chester Express continues to be a source of frustration for West Chester Pike corridor commuters. Today, the 5:05pm didn't even bother showing up. This resulted in a heavier than usual load on the 5:35pm West Chester Express. SEPTA needs to add PM peak express service from West Chester to 69 Street. I can't think of any other line in the system where express service operates in one direction during only one peak period while service in the other direction operates both ways. SEPTA promised improvements to the 104 - especially for West Chester commuters, but, as is SEPTA tradition, Chester County commuters are lied to yet again.

The Norristown Times Herald reports that SEPTA staff is "thisclose" (tm Stu Bykofsky) to determining a locally preferred alternative (LPA) for the boondoggle that is known as "Cross County Metro." SEPTA is recommending the same "MetroRail" farce being proposed for the Schuylkill Valley corridor. The $900 million project is proposed to link Trenton with Thorndale, making the following stops: Trenton, Morrisville, Falls Twp, Oxford Valley, Woodbourne, Langhorne, Feasterville, Willow Grove, Dresher, Fort Washington, Cold Point, Norristown Transportation Center, Hughes Park, Port Kennedy, King of Prussia, S Gulph Rd, Great Valley, Glenloch, Exton, Downingtown, and Thorndale. The complete Cross County line would be operational in about 10 years. Knowing SEPTA's history, my newborn daughter will probably be in her freshman year at West Chester Henderson High School before either Schuylkill Valley or Cross County are fully operational.

For those scoring at home (and if you're scoring the cost of SEPTA projects like I do, you need to get out more {paraphrased and stolen from ESPN's Dave Revsine}), that's $2.7 BILLION for two brand new rail projects. Meanwhile, proposed restoration of SEPTA rail service to Wawa, West Chester, Quakertown, and Newtown (Bucks) are in an indefinite holding pattern. And that's not factoring in replacement of the trackless trolley fleet or the hopeful restoration of streetcar service on the 23 or 56, not to mention a planned branch of the P&W to Port Kennedy via King of Prussia. But, when certain politicians decide to be brain-washed by a SEPTA staff that seems hell-bent on getting a lot of money from Washington and Harrisburg on on projects that only seem to benefit certain areas rather than the region at large, this is the end result.

For those who may have missed the notation in the guestbook, yours truly was profiled as part of a transportation related story in today's Philadelphia Inquirer magazine.

Back to the lines... On the east end El shuttle today, mostly NABIs from Comly and Neos from Frankford were used today, with the usual artics from Allegheny on the Express routing, and a few artics from both Allegheny and Midvale on the local routing. This will probably be the last El Shuttles run this year.

Part of the reason that the El Shuttles won't be needed is because of a major reconstruction project on the railroad side. The viaduct between 30 St and Suburban Stations will see replacement of the catenary, forcing SEPTA to bus passengers between 30 St and Market East (the best guess at this point is that the shuttles will come from Allegheny and Midvale, as a lot of people are going to need to go between the two stations), with a likely stop at 15 St/City Hall/Suburban Station. In addition, the R1 Airport Line will see shuttle service from Center City to the Airport via University City (Southern will probably pull this assignment, as they had the last time the Airport Line saw shuttle buses). The rail shuttles are set to start on the weekend of November 2-3, and will continue for 4 weekends thereafter. Rail service will be restored during the holiday season, then shuttle service will be reactivated on or around the first weekend of January 2003. Normal weekend rail service will also operate during the Philadelphia Flower Show in March. The project is expected to be complete by the middle of 2003.

Bensalem Township police reported that a Nintendo Game-Boy was stolen from a car parked at the Trevose Rail Station (R3 West Trenton) on Thursday. Police told the Courier Times that the thief attempted to steal the stereo, noting damage to the car's dashboard.

There haven't been too many bus moves in recent weeks, hence the seemingly unchanged roster. However, I'd expect that to change early next year as the next batch of low floors arrive. Also, once the end of the month approaches, it's probable that some 3000s could be pulled out of service once their inspection expires.

Chester County Commissioner Chairman Karen Martynick was unanimously reappointed to another 5 year term on the SEPTA Board of Directors. This is noteworthy because (1) earlier this year, Martynick accused certain SEPTA Board members of "micro-managing" the authority and (2) the 3 Chester County Commissioners rarely agree on anything - most of that can be blamed on Democrat Andrew Dinniman (which makes a little bit of sense, because he is the only Democrat among the three commissioners, hence plenty of 2-1 votes).

SEPTA workers performing track work along the R3 West Trenton line found the body of a 33 year old Bristol Borough woman Monday evening. Shortly before 7:00pm, workers found the body of Kristen Lynn Longhitano about 15-30 feet away from the Center City-bound tracks between Woodbourne and Yardley stations. Middletown Twp (Bucks) Police suspect that Longhitano, who has had several run-ins with police in Lower Bucks in recent years, may have been murdered elsewhere.

On a happier note, SEPTA sent it's new hybrid bus out to the Granite Run Mall in Lima on Monday as part of a transportation fair being sponsored by SEPTA and the Delaware County TMA. 5601H made an appearance in the Red Arrow territory as part of the fair, which was held to promote the recent route changes and new services in Western Delaware County.

The 113 and 115 buses will be re-routed off of Lansdowne Av in Lansdowne during mid-day weekday hours due to water main repairs being performed by Philadelphia Suburban Water. The affected area stretches from Baltimore Pike to Strafford Av and from Ballfour Cir to Drexel Av. Service on the 109 may encounter delays, but service will remain on it's normal routing.

El service between Frankford and Spring Garden will see shuttle bus service this weekend. The usual west end shuttle patterns will be in effect, with local buses between Spring Garden and Frankford combined with express buses from 15 St/City Hall to Frankford via Market St, I-95, and Bridge St, with a stop at Bridge and Torresdale.

ElDorado 4569, which was in a serious accident while in service on the 89 in March, is now back in service, sans bike rack. This bus was spotted on - ironically enough - the 89 (3426 block).

Downed catenary wires caused massive headaches along the Media and Sharon Hill trolley lines during the evening peak hours tonight. The wires went down along Springfield Rd near the Clifton-Aldan Rail Station in Clifton Heights at around 4:00pm, causing traffic tie-ups in the Clifton Heights-Aldan area. As a result, all 101 Woodland Av short turns were cancelled, with SEPTA running all 101 cars local to Media. On the 102 Sharon Hill line, all North St short turns were cancelled with local service to Baltimore Pike, where shuttle buses made the rest of the trip to Aldan, Collingdale, and Sharon Hill.

Also causing headaches tonight was an incident on the El between 5 St and 15 St stations, causing shuttle buses to operate between the two stations. Because of the incident, El service throughout the line, particularly west of 15 St was severely impacted as very few El trains were observed arriving at 69 St Terminal during the 5:00pm hour when passengers literally crowd the platforms. Several 65 buses left for Germantown with much smaller loads than usual. There is no word on what caused the service disruptions on the El this evening.

SEPTA staged an emergency drill at the Chinatown station on the Ridge Av Spur line yesterday. Philadelphia Police and Fire personnel joined SEPTA in participating in a mock chemical weapons attack. During the drill, two members of the Philadelphia Fire Department suffered heat stroke and were taken to area hospitals, according to KYW-3. A United Press International story also had this interesting tidbit:

A transit police officer learned a lesson of another kind during the drill. The publication says that had it been a real gas attack he would have entered the "control area" too quickly to try to render assistance. An organizer of the drill walked up to him and said: "You're dead."

Nice to know that my fare dollars are going towards top of the line training of our transit police officers...

On a related note, FOX 29 reported last night that the union representing the SEPTA Transit Police officers staged a silent protest related to their forthcoming contract negotiations.

Three assailants mugged a Drexel University student at the 33 St subway-surface station on Tuesday evening. Jonathan Mullen, 24, was attacked on the mezzanine level of the 33 St station shortly before 9:00pm, stealing his wallet, keys, and cell phone. Two of the suspects were apprehended on the 3900 block of Pine St in West Philadelphia by two detectives from the Philadelphia Police Department. Drexel Public Safety officials report that SEPTA plans to increase security in the area (haven't we heard that line before), since SEPTA Police is responsible for the station area proper, while Drexel officers (who are not sworn police officers as they are at Penn or Temple) patrol the street level area on the Drexel campus. In addition, Philadelphia Police are also increasing their presence in the Drexel University area on weekend evenings. (Some information from The Triangle, the student newspaper of Drexel University)

Those geniuses of the Philadelphia City Council are at it again. Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell (D-3) is calling for public hearings to determine whether or not SEPTA should reimbuse businesses along Market St during west end El reconstruction. I would think the City of Philadelphia would have to chip in some of the costs if SEPTA decides to reimburse Market Street businesses due to the various street closings in West Philadelphia for the next 5 years, unless the City tries to (for lack of a better term) extort the funding from SEPTA by threatening to withhold payment of subsidies (a tactic they tried during the 1998 and 2001 SEPTA/TWU disputes).

SEPTA displayed it's brand new diesel-electric hybrid low floor as part of the "Get Philadelphia In Motion" day today at the Reading Terminal Market. The pilot bus - 5601H - was displayed in front of the Marriott on 12 St near Market, complete with bike rack and full wrap touting the enviromental advantages of the hybrid bus. The rear destination sign is not in the same position as the diesel New Flyers, but rather it is in the upper curb side corner of the rear of the bus. The hybrids are also unusual in that the HVAC system is in the rear of the bus rather than on top. A page featuring the DE40LF is now posted, with photos hopefully to follow soon.

In apparent response to the latest Red Arrow bus shortage, SEPTA has sent over at least 3 junkers from the city - 3157 and 3166 from Comly, and 3221 from Southern - plus Callowhill 5044. Once the 12 New Flyer DE40LF hybrids arrive at SEPTA, Southern will probably send some EBs out to Red Arrow.

The pilot DE40LF - 5601 - is being displayed at Reading Terminal Market on 12 St near Arch on Thursday as part of a special promotion sponsored jointly by SEPTA, NJ Transit, PATCO, DVRPC, and the Central Philadelphia TMA. The display will take place from 11:30am until 2:00pm. Bring your cameras to get some shots of this bus...

After weeks of relative peace on the equipment front, there was yet another bus shortage encountered at Red Arrow on Thursday. This resulted in an absolute mess on the 4:05pm 104 to West Chester, which is supposed to be an express but instead ran as a local. This bus didn't even arrive at the terminal until 4:20pm to begin its run. The trip departed at 4:22pm, and arrived in West Chester well over a half hour late. It didn't help that the operator was stuck behind a tractor-trailer for a stretch between Delchester and Chester Roads and didn't even think enough to pass said truck. On a side note, the 2:45pm from West Chester was crowded yet again, and arrived about 15 minutes late yet again. If that doesn't send some red flags at 1234 Market about the need for PM peak express service from West Chester to 69 St, then I don't know what does. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 28)

The 92 and 104 buses are expected to be detoured away from the West Chester University campus next Saturday due to the annual WCU Homecoming Parade. With High Street expected to be blocked off, I would expect a lot of headaches on Saturday morning for riders on both lines. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 28)

Meanwhile, SEPTA is planning to display the first of 12 New Flyer DE40LF diesel-electric hybrid buses on Thursday between 9:00am and 2:00pm on 12 St near Arch, across from the Reading Terminal Market. These buses will be assigned to Southern, and will be numbered 5601-5612. One has to question the logic of this numbering plan as these buses will be decidedly different from the D40LFs currently on the road. The next batch of 100 D40LFs - which will be numbered 5613-5712 - are expected during the first part of next year. As noted earlier, the bulk of the buses (up to 85) will go to Midvale, with Frontier getting the rest. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 28)

SEPTA is apparently going ahead with a purchase of MCI D4500 cruisers, despite a long delay since the demos made their apperances on SEPTA property over the summer. The 15 cruisers (tentatively numbered 6000-6014) will be assigned to Red Arrow, and used on the 104 and 124/125 (though, I wouldn't be shocked if they slip one in on a Sunday 120 trip; between the large ridership on those trips and the amount of luggage carried, a cruiser would be perfect for some late Friday night and/or Sunday trips). No firm delivery date has been set, nor has it been determined if SEPTA will "piggy-back" onto New Jersey Transit's massive MCI order, as at least 30 other agencies around the country have done. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 28)

As a result of the arrival of the MCIs, SEPTA is planning to restructure the 124/125 service. Red Arrow would operate service from Center City to Gulph Mills and points north, bypassing Wissahickon, with Frontier operating service from Wissahickon to Gulph Mills and points north, using NABIs and New Flyers (when the arrive next year). Considering that express service between Center City and Wissahickon is provided by the 9 and 27 buses, this shouldn't prove to be a major issue. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 28)

The Bucks County TMA is at it again, as a fourth RUSH service is being planned for the Street Rd (PA 132) corridor in Lower Bucks. The planned "Street Rd RUSH" is tentatively slated to operate between Lower Southampton, Warminster, and Bensalem via PA 132, with buses to serve the Warminster, Trevose, and Cornwells Heights stations. For some reason, this sounds remarkably similar to SEPTA's planned Route 303 bus, which would also have operated along PA 132, but between PA 611 and Bustleton Pike, and which would have operated bewteen Doylestown and Neshaminy. In any case, the "Street Rd RUSH" could begin operating as early as next March. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 28)

In other LBC news (that's Lower Bucks County for those of you who don't speak "Lower Bucks-ese"), SEPTA is planning to rehab the Croydon and Levittown-Tullytown stations along the R7 Trenton line. SEPTA Board Chairman - and Bucks County land developer - Pasquale T. Deon, Sr. recently bragged to a local Bucks County newspaper that SEPTA had invested nearly $30 million in recent years to improve service. My question is when do the other counties get their fair share of the pie from SEPTA? I mean, some of the stations along the Marcus Hook line look as though they could use a little sprucing up... (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 28)

Trolley service on the 11 was short-turned at 58 St due to a block party near 65 St/Woodland Av. Despite the printed timetables indicated 12 minute headways, there were, at points, 25 minute gaps between arriving trolleys at 58 St, which caused made for a lot of frustrated commuters between Darby and 58 St. The supervisor at 58 St was not only less than helpful in explaining why there was a 25 minute gap, he was, according to one witness, extremely rude. (If that supervisor gets taken off the road, he can always get a job as a SEPTA spokesman/apologist/liar - see Maloney, Richard.) (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 22)

As expected, the 104 bus was detoured off Gay and High Sts due to the West Chester's annual Restaurant Festival (which seems to invite more arrogant drunks than a typical weekend night on off campus homes near West Chester University). Buses operated via Chestnut St to New St, then via New St, Market St and High St to the West Chester University routing before returning to High and Market and en route to 69 St. Amazingly enough, there were actually signs posted notifying passengers of the detour. That's almost a first for SEPTA as it relates to detours in West Chester. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 22)

On the schedule front, Frontier timetables are tentatively set to change on October 28. It's reported that all weekday and Saturday trips on the 92 and 133 will be through-routed, something that should've been done from the very beginning. This is being done presumably after numerous complaints from 92 passengers about missed connections at Exton Mall for the 133 (I've filed at least 3-4 of said complaints, particularly about 6019 block). The 92 will also be routed into the Main St at Exton complex currently served by the 207/Whirl and the TMACC Phlyer. There are also expected to be minor changes on the 124/125; weekend shuttle service between King of Prussia and Chesterbrook will be replaced by one-seat ride service from Center City to Chesterbrook. If there are any other changes on the Frontier routes, they may involve minor time adjustments. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 22)

Also set to change on October 28 is the 115, which will finally be routed to MacDade Mall in Glenolden. The routing will be via Delmar Village, Hook Rd, Primos Av, Chester Pike, and South Av to MacDade Mall. This is a change from the original proposal which sent all off Norwood into a histrionic fit of anti-transit rage (the 115 was to have been routed via Winona Av in Norwood). (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 22)

And then, there was one... Due to upcoming construction around the areas of the Tasker Homes projects in South Philadelphia where the 29 has it's western terminus, it's very possible that the only trackless line remaining in service for SEPTA would be the 79 along Snyder Av. The plan by the City of Philadelphia would be to run Morris St through the complex (there are presently two turns west of 30 St).

SEPTA's initial plan was to operate buses between 13 St and 33 St with tracklesses operating between Front and 23 St. Because of the tight turns onto 13 St, that proposal would not appear to be an option. Another option that was considered was to reroute the tracklesses on Tasker between 29 and 32 Sts, which would require (1) new overhead along 29 St between Tasker and Morris, (2) two-way operation along Tasker, which is one-way in the westbound direction, resulting in the loss of parking in that stretch (and if there's one thing people in South Philly get fired up over, it's the loss of even a single parking space) and (3) new overhead along Tasker on the eastbound side of the street. So far, neither of these options appear to be feasible.

The planned bus substitution would start as early as the February 2003 sign-ups, and last for at least 3 years. It's probable, given SEPTA's past history towards streetcars and trackless trolleys (see the 15/23/56 controversy), that this long-term "substitution" could spell the beginning of the end for electric trackless trolley service in the City of Philadelphia, if the "temporary bus substitution" in Northeast Philadelphia hasn't hastened this already. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 19)

Despite being about 2 weeks behind the rest of the routes, SEPTA has finally issued a new Route 108 timetable, dated September 15. Also recieving a new timetable with that date is the 28 bus between Fern Rock and Northeast Philadelphia, which is presently operating on a detour routing off of Rhawn St in Fox Chase. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 19)

SEPTA appears to be starting the phase out of the 3000-series Neos. At least two have been confirmed to be at Midvale scrap yard (3080 and 3094). This tends to tell me that either SEPTA is much closer to getting the 5600-series New Flyers or that those buses are falling apart. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 18)

A large number of accessibe Neos and NABIs were recently swapped from Frankford to Comly, with Frankford getting some 3100s from Southern and some 3000s from Comly in exchange. There seems to be no reasonable logic for this move, since only the 3 trackless routes (which are busing for at least the next 12 months) and the J & K buses are the only non-accessible bus routes which operate out of Frankford. On a related note, some 3300s are being swiped from Frontier and appearing on routes at Southern. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 18)

SEPTA announced that it will operate express trains on the Broad Street Line for Sunday's Eagles game against the hated Dallas Cowboys. Of course, there are no express trains to Pattison for tonight's Rolling Stones concert at the Vet, nor is there any mention of the fact that SEPTA offers direct service to the Tower Theater (across from 69 St Terminal at 69 St & Ludlow) for Sunday's concert, where about 3,500 Stones fans are expected to converge. On Sunday afternoon and evening, expect very heavy traffic along 69 St and Market St, which could cause lengthy delays on the 108 and 113 buses, and possibly on the El Shuttle, 21 and 65 buses, which reach 69 St Terminal via Market St. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 18)

Detours are also the order of the day in West Chester on Sunday as West Chester Recreation presents the Chester County Restaurant Festival. With the eastbound re-routing of the 104 bus via High St, I have not been made aware of any detour routing for westbound travel to West Chester University. If past history is any indication, I wouldn't expect SEPTA to go out of their way to help people in West Chester get around the festival site, which will have Gay St closed between Matlack and New Sts, and High St closed between Market and Chestnut. (See, the old 104 routing was much simpler in that westbound buses could simply detour via Chestnut to New St.) (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 18)

And now, the Frankford Terminal web site is pleased to present the latest ridiculous statement from SEPTA's chief spokesman/apologist/liar Richard Maloney. Maloney recently told the Jewish Exponent newspaper an incredible whopper about the Schuylkill Valley rail project. "When it's in full service, it will serve approximately 50,000 passengers a day," he said. "That's about half [of what we currently serve] on our commuter-rail system, so it's a lot." 50,000 riders between Reading and Philadelphia? I have the gut feeling that SEPTA is just pulling numbers out of thin air in order to justify the nearly $1.9 billion price tag.

(ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 18)

As a follow-up to yesterday's Regional Rail fiascos, SEPTA did issue a detailed (by SEPTA standards) statement about what had happened. The Melrose Park wire problems occured at 5:03am, delaying trains arriving into Center City on the Glenside-Airport, Warminster, West Trenton, and Lansdale-Doylestown lines, and causing residual delays on the Elwyn and Paoli lines. The wire problems were caused by a maintenance crew who failed to properly repair the wiring after complete work in that area. The wire problems were worsened after a Center City bound train's pantograph was caught in the catenary at around 9:00am.

Then, to make matters worse, switch failures at Newtown Junction caused further delays to Fox Chase and West Trenton line trains. The system was entirely halted at around 11:00am, when the Centralized Train Control system failed.

Instead of holding trains north of Melrose Park and diverting passengers to either shuttle buses or alternate transit lines (passengers could easily have been placed on shuttle buses at Jenkintown, or directed to the 22 bus at Glenside or 55 bus in downtown Jenkintown for connections to Olney Terminal and connections to the Broad Street Line). This resulted in delays of up to 3 hours throughout the entire system, with most of the delays focused on the Glenside-Center City trunk line. Service was restored to normal sometime before the PM peak period.

SEPTA's AGM for Operations Patrick Nowakowski called the September 9 fiascos "the worst day on the railroad in 20 or 30 years." He also noted that had maintenance done its job properly the night before, "most people would have been looking at one-hour delays." DUH! Maybe if SEPTA hired some REAL railroad professionals to manage the Regional Rail system instead of plucking people with "transit" experience, SEPTA's Regional Rail might not be the laughing stock of the industry. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 10/UPDATED SEPTEMBER 19)

SEPTA's "statement" was published in the Metro newspaper, but not posted on-line. Presumably, there were also seat drop notices on all Regional Rail trains. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 10)

The fire that put 5155 into the scrap yard at Midvale started in the wheel area before spreading into the interior of the bus. Another recent arrival into the Midvale scrap yard is 3133, which also suffered unrepairable fire damage. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 10)

The Red Arrow buses are finally starting to be retrofit with the new CARD control panels. Two of the first buses to get the new system were 3126 and 5298. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 10)

Not a good day to be a Regional Rail commuter today. Delays over anywhere from 20-40 minutes were the norm on all Regional Rail lines due to (1) a downed wire south of Melrose Park station along the RRD Main Line; (2) a disabled train at University City station; and (3) a computer outage affecting the control of interlockings systemwide. Passenger services at both Market East and Suburban were less than forthcoming in explaining to passengers why the trains were delayed. Customers at least are owed an explaination tomorrow by RRD management as to why their commutes were as long as an hour behind schedule (as it was on one particular R7 train returning from Trenton). (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 9)

As a result of the delayed trains, an R8 Chestnut Hill West train was annulled and put into service as an R3 to Elwyn. Passengers who were en route to Chestnut Hill were ordered off the train in Center City and forced to wait for the next R8. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 9)

There are STILL no new 108 timetables anywhere in the system, even though there were only the addition of school trippers. The only timetables available are dated from June and being distributed at the 69 St Customer Service office. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 9)

On Friday night, Frankford 5513 was involved in an accident on Roosevelt Blvd at Summerdale. There was no further information available about the cause of the accident or the damage sustained. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 3)

Frontier 3474 suffered rear damage while on the Schuylkill Expressway near Conshohocken on Monday. 3474 caught fire while deadheading on the expressway sometime Monday afternoon. Most of the interior was undamaged, but about 80 percent of the rear exterior of the bus was damaged. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 3)

Two days after SEPTA schedules changed, there are no 108 timetables anywhere in the system. There are no timetables dated from June or from either August or September. (ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 3)

Welcome to the newly restructured SEPTA News Page. As you may have noticed, the format for the news page has been altered a little bit. I'm experimenting with something called a "blogger", which is essentially a web log. SEPTA news and information will be posted here on a trial basis. Be assured that the guestbook will remain open during this time. Thank you again for visiting the Frankford Terminal web site!