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.