R7 TROUBLES

A dead body was found along the R7/NEC ROW near Croydon early Monday morning. The discovery forced Amtrak to impose speed restrictions on southbound SEPTA and Amtrak trains to 25 mph. Northbound trains were not as heavily impacted by the tresspasser, who was struck by the Federal (#67) heading southbound to Washington shortly after 4:00am Monday morning. While Amtrak police are still investigating, neither Amtrak nor Bucks County officials have been able to identify the victim.

MORE HEARINGS THIS MONTH

SEPTA is scheduling two public hearings regarding the 316/Lucy and 103 lines:

• The hearing on the 316/LUCY will take place on Friday, November 21 at the University City District Board Room, 3940 Chestnut, Philadelphia, starting at 10:30am. Routing changes that extended the Green and Gold loops to 40 and 41 Sts are being submitted for permanent approval.
  
• The hearing on the 103 will take place at 6:30pm on Tuesday, December 2 in the People's Republic of Lower Merion's Municipal Building, located at 75 W Lancaster Av in Ardmore. The 103 hearing involves a recent change in routing along Cricket Terrace. Residents had complained about two-way traffic along Cricket Terrace; as a result, the northbound 103 was re-routed to Ardmore Av.

EL ACCIDENT FOLLOW-UP

It's apparent that either (1) SEPTA's Ministry of Mis-Information can't get their stories straight regarding last week's mishap at the 8 St El station, or (2) either The Daily News or The Inquirer didn't bother to check details about the incident.

The Daily News basically took a story off the AP wire, in which SEPTA spokeswoman Sylvana Hoyos told the AP that it was unclear what caused the tiles to fall.

Meanwhile, Tom Gibbons from the Inquirer was given a completely different version from SEPTA's Minister of Mis-Information Richard Maloney.

"The ceiling had lost its integrity and it came down on the train as it came into the station," said Maloney, speaking as workers began cautiously restoring power to the third rail allowing the train to back out of the station.

When it comes to lost integrity, Maloney is right at the top of the list, but that's another story...

In any case, the incident occured shortly after 9:00am as a train en route to 69 St approached 8 St station. Debris then fell from the ceiling, landing onto the tracks, causing the 4th car of the 6 car train to short out. Some of the debris was then put into one of the non-damanged cars as it was taken to the 69 St yard for repair work. Shuttle buses were used on the El between Spring Garden and 15 St for over 2 hours until service was restored. PATCO service within the city was also suspended during this time as a precuationary measure.

Doesn't it seem odd that SEPTA is (rightfully) spending a substantial amount of money rehabbing both stations and guideway along the Market St and Frankford portions of the El, but hardly anything has been said about the conditions of the subway portion of the El? Let's just hope this was an isolated incident which could serve as a wake-up call to be more vigilant regarding the section between 2 St and 40 St.