Tomorrow and Sunday will be the second weekend out of six of bustitution on the Chestnut Hill West Line for a track maintenance blitz. Catching up to this project six days after it’s started disrupting travel is a new low for timeliness on this blog, which I’m sure that this summer-of-moving will see surpassed, ironically even as SEPTA Regional Rail itself is maintaining high standards for on-time performance.
Shuttle buses are running an inner zone/outer zone pattern, with the cutoff between Allens Lane and Carpenter stations (confirming, if there was any doubt, that Intermediate ridership on the CHW is presently negligible). Trains are meeting buses and turning at North Philadelphia station; times on Fox Chase trains are affected on Saturdays but normal on Sundays. Canny riders with passes may wish to opt for the Broad Street Line between Suburban Station/City Hall and North Philadelphia, although that connection is not guaranteed.
SEPTA also suggests the Chestnut Hill East Line as an alternate, but no extra service is running, in another missed opportunity; the four outer zone stations (CHW, Highland, St Martin’s, and Allen Lane) are less than 15 minutes walk from CHE stations. SEPTA could have had a natural experiment in what 30 minute headways on weekends did to CHE ridership, under the guise of saving a bus and a driver for the shuttle operation. (The details would be more complicated than that, due to the legalities regarding the presence of ADA accessible stations on the CHW line, but the concept still holds.)
The Saturday bustitution schedule is here (PDF).
The Sunday bustitution schedule is here (PDF).
Outbound Fox Chase trains run 10 minutes later than scheduled on SATURDAYS ONLY.
Sic Transit Philadelphia 