MORE NEW FLYERS ON THE WAY SEPTA has awarded the contract for the next 340 low floors to New Flyer, pending SEPTA Board approval at next month's meeting. This order will essentially replace the remaining Neoplans on the roster by 2006 at the latest.

ROUTE 208 TO END The 208 bus between Strafford Rail Station (R5 Paoli) and Chesterbrook will be eliminated next month, due to the expiration of PennDOT funding. The funding for the line was made available as part of the US 202/Section 400 reconstruction project. Route 204 between Paoli Rail Station and Lionville will remain, however, as funding for that line - plus two new routes - will be part of the US 202/Section 300 Congestion Mitigation Strategies project. Proposed Route 205 would operate between Paoli Rail Station and industrial parks along the PA 401 corridor; Route 306 would operate between Chadds Ford and Great Valley via West Chester and Exton (this might explain why an ElDorado was seen along Swedesford Rd near the Exton Square Mall about two months ago). SEPTA is also looking to add 100 more parking spaces at Exton and pave over the gravel "temporary" lot at Malvern, as well as extending the 6:45pm R5 departure from Suburban Station from Malvern to Thorndale.

DOES GERLACH FINALLY GET IT? Congressman James Gerlach (R-6th) recently addressed the Schuylkill Valley boondoggle at the Phoenixville Area Chamber of Commerce Regional Development Forum. Noting SEPTA's current funding crisis, the freshman legislator gave a frank assessment of Schuylkill Valley's chances of ever being built:

"With the number of transportation projects being proposed, we don't think we'll see a large portion of Federal money - approximately 60 percent. Now is the time to put heads together to bring some of the costs down on this project."

Really? Geez, that's what most people who've seen the nearly $2 billion price tag for the project have been saying since SEPTA came up with this stupid "MetroRail" alternative...

REALLY BIG SHOES... At last week's SEPTA Board meeting, nearly 2 dozen activists tossed shoes towards the SEPTA Board in protest of the proposed service cuts that were discussed at last week's public hearings. While it's certainly nice to see that people are waking up to the incompetence that seems to exist at SEPTA, isn't that just getting a little ridiculous? On a related note, one of the organizations responsible for the protest is an outfit called the "Save Our Transit Coalition" which is a group of numerous organizations opposing the fare hikes. That's fine, but once the dust settles, do these people plan to stay around for the long term, or are they just going to show up whenever there's a fare hike? Incidentially, nearly 1,000 people testified at the recent series of public hearings on the Operating Budget, including nearly 600 people in Center City. The "morning session" did not officially conclude until shortly before 6:00pm; the "evening session" commenced shortly thereafter.