SEPTA TESTING A "NEW" NEW FLYER

Last Tuesday, SEPTA had a New Flyer DE40LF in the new streamlined design on display in front of 1234 Market. Today, SEPTA engineers were doing testing of the bus on, of all places, the 104. No passengers were taken, as most of the seats were occupied with bags of rock salt (I recall someone once mentioning that was a weight simulation test, but don't quote me on it). The hybrid system on this particular test bus is different from the existing hybrids running out of Southern presently.

MULTIPLE PERSON v. VEHICLE INCIDENTS

Yesterday was one very busy day for EMS workers across the region, as far as SEPTA related incidents are concerned.

The mess started at around 07:00, when two teenage girls were struck by a SEPTA bus at 29-Allegheny in North Philadelphia. The injuries were non-life threatening.

Shortly after that incident, a 23 bus was involved in an accident involving 3 other vehicles on the 7500 block of Germantown Av in Chestnut Hill. At least two passengers on the bus were taken to local hospitals.

Later in the afternoon, police and EMS were dispatched at around 13:30 to Glenolden, where a tresspasser was struck and killed by a train along the NEC/R2 Marcus Hook line in the area of Ashland Av bridge. Service was delayed by about 20 minutes in both directions until around 17:00, when service slowly returned to normal (my R2 from Delaware - scheduled to depart Claymont at 16:51 - was delayed by less than 10 minutes; arrived in Chester only 7 minutes down, but missed my connection to the 118).

Two hours later, in Bucks County, a 24-year-old male was struck and killed by a train near Chalfont Station on the R5 Lansdale line. The victim was discovered at around 15:30 by a northbound train crew. It is believed that the victim may have been struck by an earlier train; the matter is still under investigation.

Finally, a 73-year-old woman was struck and seriously injured in South Philadelphia. The incident occured shortly before 21:00 last night on the 400 block of Oregon in South Philadelphia as the victim was struck by a 57 bus. The victim was taken to Jefferson Hospital with severe leg injuries.

That's 7 people confirmed to have been killed or injured on the SEPTA system in a nearly 14 hour period due to accidents. Yipes...

SOME GOOD DEED...

Last month, SEPTA donated 20 retired Neoplans to the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (NORTA) to help replenish their bus fleet that was damaged due to Hurricane Katrina. New York City Transit, the MBTA, and at least one other agency had sent buses to New Orleans as well. Now, there's word that NORTA has rejected the donated buses from SEPTA and the other agencies for reasons that are unknown at this time, but one would have to guess the condition of the used buses had something to do with it.

HERE WE GO AGAIN...

Once again, there's more controversy flaring up over the 15 fiasco...

Today's Daily News (a fully paid subsidiary of Michael Moore, Inc.) reports friction between a TWU representative and SEPTA's Minister of Mis-Information Richard Maloney over the re-start date for trolleys to return to the 15:

"If they really wanted to do this? It shouldn't take any more than two weeks, tops," said Willie Brown, executive vice president of Transit Worker's Union Local 234.

Of course, SEPTA doesn't seem to want to restart trolley service along Girard Av...

This is lucky, since one of the 18 antique cars, which cost $1.3 million each to rebuild, is due to go off its two-year maintenance warranty in August. And a second warranty is due to expire three months later.

But it's also strange, since SEPTA has insisted the cars can't be launched until September.

No, it's par for the course for these clowns...

Last month, when City Councilman Michael Nutter helped end the yearlong political standoff that had stalled this $84 million public works project, SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said union work rules would force another delay of at least three months. He also said there weren't enough trained operators to get the trolleys moving right away.

"Of the 30 operators who were trained and qualified last year, most have been dispersed," Maloney told me.

Turns out both those statements are false.

What a shock...

In fact, Brown said that at least 29 of the operators who were trained for the Route 15 line last year are still assigned to that route, and have been driving the Route 15 bus. All they need is a four-hour refresher course and they're ready to get the trolleys rolling.

And the contract rules that Maloney said would cause the delay?

They simply don't apply, Brown said. And even if they did, the transit agency could easily speed them up, and does so all the time.

Of, Maloney is just making it up. That might work well if this were "Calvin-ball" but not a major capital project...

All of this would be inside baseball, except for the alarming and potentially expensive matter of the two-year warranties that came with these cars when they were delivered.

At first, SEPTA told me all the cars would be under warranty until late 2006.

But later, after I'd seen a roster that showed the first car coming off warranty this summer, Maloney admitted his "error."

"We must have overlooked that," Maloney said.

Of course you did, you stupid f**k! What other possible explaination can there be other than the fact that this is the most incompetent transit agency this side of Boston?

Frankly, warranties on expensive equipment like this ought to be a little harder to miss.

Not if you work for SEPTA...

As any good mechanic knows, the kinds found on new machines can get expensive, particularly on complicated electrical machines like these rebuilt trolley cars.

San Francisco, for instance, has been using refurbished Philadelphia trolley cars on its wildly successful streetcar lines, and officials there say the first six months are critical.

"The more you can use a warranty, the better off you are, especially since SEPTA's using all new propulsion components in their cars, and this is brand-new technology that hasn't been tested," said Karl Johnson, assistant supervisor at the San Francisco Municipal Railway.

Johnson said San Francisco's cars had numerous problems, all of which were fixed under warranty.

"We had some breakdowns, due to problems we didn't find out about until they'd been running," Johnson said. "We had some nickel-and-dime stuff, like roof leaks, but then we also had some wiring problems.

Luckily, all this happened while the cars were still under warranty.

"They were lucky to hire this one guy who really worked hard to find the problem, and fix it, because he dug them out of a hole and saved them a lot of money, " Johnson said.

In Philadelphia, it looks like we won't be so lucky.

Between the Live 8 meltdown on the railroad (and I'll be commenting on that within the next few days) and the latest chapter in the Girard Av fiasco, what legislator in Harrisburg in his or her right mind is going to stick their collective necks out on a limb to provide dedicated funding for SEPTA?