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).