JANUARY "RUBBER-STAMP" REPORT: LITTLE TO REPORT

Other than a major change in the delivery date of the 5900-series New Flyers, very little happened at today's "rubber-stamp" session of the SEPTA Board of Directors. The meeting, as is per custom, started 10 minutes late (or 5 minutes early using SEPTA standards). Other than the obigitory reports (or lack thereof) and consent calendar approval, the only noteworthy item was Tom Cooper's comments on the Rendell/Gerlach task force's failure to hold public meetings regarding the future of the $chuylkill Valley rail corridor, which were duly noted by Don Pasquale (who indicated that the project is pretty much out of SEPTA's hands). Other than that, with no reports from either SEPTA's Shyster-in-Chief or from Fearless Leader, the meeting adjourned at 3:17pm. Absent from today's meeting were Chester County representative James Rohn and gubernatorial appointee Denise Smyler; State Sen. Stuart Greenleaf (R-12th), Chester County rep Karen Martynick, and Frank McCartney participated by phone.

The only noteworthy items on the agenda were:

An agreement with PennDOT over the reconstruction of the Lindbergh Blvd bridge in Southwest Philadelphia, which would also replace trackage between 54-Lindbergh and 49-Woodland this summer, resulting in a bus-bridge between Woodland Shop and Penrose Plaza (which should be interesting to see how it will be handled, considering there probably won't be any Neoplans left by that time). The project would bus-titute the 36 between June 19 and September 3. As part of the agreement, PennDOT will reimburse SEPTA a net total in the amount of $215,369.18, which would be applied to the track replacement project.
Several changes to the delivery contract with New Flyer, regarding the 5900-series buses due for delivery in FY 2006. For starters, the 5900s will now sport a Cummins ISL-05 (nee L-10) engine instead of the now discontinued DDC Series 50 engine. Additionally, the 5900s, which were scheduled for delivery starting April 1, 2006 through the end of 2006, will now be delivered starting on August 1, 2005. This will effectively mean the end of the Neoplans as we know it by the end of winter.