After two days of travel woes due to the Silverliner V crisis, some patterns have been established in terms of where the worst delays are, and how best to avoid them. This series will be a listing of the best strategies to avoid the worst.
These will all assume an origin or destination in or beyond Center City Philadelphia. Directions will be for inbound travel, and will be reversible unless noted. There will be some assumption made that money is available to exchange for time and/or comfort.
Wallingford and west
Stations west of Swarthmore are already being bustituted for the Crum Creek Viaduct replacement project; the reduction in trains to Swarthmore is just heaping one tribulation on another. If the prospect of a shuttle bus to an overcrowded train does not appeal, the 101 trolley is the best alternative. The trolley can be reached on foot on State Street from Media or Moylan-Rose Valley, or driven to at Springfield Mall, the most underrated park-and-ride in SEPTAland even in the best of times.
The 111 express bus is another underrated alternative for Elwyn riders, but the best place to park-and-ride for it was Granite Run Mall, and having not been there since the mall was closed and demolished, I cannot give good advice as to how to ride it.
Swarthmore
The 109 bus is a decent option in its own right for reaching 69th Street, or it can be used to connect to the 101 at Springfield Mall, or the 102 at Baltimore Avenue in Clifton Heights. Be aware that the buses stop on the south side of the mall, and the trolleys stop at the northeast corner of the property.
Clifton-Aldan through Morton
Switching to the 102 at Clifton-Aldan is not the fastest strategy, but if your train is dangerously crowded, it’s not the worst idea. From Clifton-Aldan itself, it might be a superior option just on wait time.
Inner stations
Lansdowne has three bus options (109 to 69th Street, 113 to 69th Street, 113 to Darby TC), one of which should be approaching at any given time. Fernwood-Yeadon has the 108, again in both directions, and eastern parts of Yeadon borough may be walkable to subway-surface trolleys 34, 13, or 11. If you are one of the few dozen non-reverse-commute riders from Angora and 49th Street, congratulations on finding my blog, it’s an honor to have such a rare visitor as yourself, now please take the 34 or 13 trolley, respectively. Unless you need level-boarding for accessibility reasons from 49th, in which case, take the 64 bus to 46th Street Station MFL, which is inconvenient but will at least physically allow you on board.
Sic Transit Philadelphia 