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 …
Author Archives: Michael Noda
The Silverliner V fleet is grounded. How you can avoid the mess.
A defect in the trucks of the SEPTA Silverliner V has rendered 120 cars of the Regional Rail fleet inoperable until replacement parts can be fabricated and repairs can be made, a process which is expected to take the rest of the summer. With approximately 1/3 of the fleet illegal to run, SEPTA Regional Rail will …
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STRIKE WATCH: NJ Transit Rail Operations
Conditions are favorable for the development of negotiation breakdown capable of producing a strike. If deadlock has either produced a strike or radar has indicated intense walkout activity, then a Strike Warning will be issued. All 17 unions representing workers at NJ Transit Rail may either strike or be locked out beginning at 0:01 on Sunday, March …
The pros and cons of SEPTA’s King of Prussia Rail
SEPTA’s King of Prussia Rail project has finally selected a Locally Preferred Alternative, and much to my surprise, the winner was not the elevated alignment over US 202, but rather the alignment alongside the PECO transmission line and the Pennsylvania Turnpike. There’s a lot to take in, so I’ll just hit the top five highlights on each side. …
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Still more questions than answers in the wreck of Amtrak 188
The NTSB released its preliminary findings into the Amtrak 188 derailment on February 1st, and to be perfectly blunt, we still know about as much as we did the day after the crash. We know the “how” of the derailment — that the train went into the curve at Frankford Junction at 106 mph instead …
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Closures, delays and suspensions announced in advance as Winter Storm arrives
Cars parked on snow emergency routes in the City of Philadelphia will be towed starting at 21:00 Friday. PPA garages in Center City are offering flat-rate $5 parking for each 24-hour period. SEPTA will be shutting down all service except the Market-Frankford and Broad Street Lines at 4:00 AM Saturday. CCT will run for dialysis patients …
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A brief summary of my remarks to the NEC FUTURE hearing
I wasn’t expecting to speak at Monday night’s hearing on the NEC FUTURE Draft EIS, mostly because I failed to do my homework and realize that they would be accepting spoken testimony. So I winged it, with some hastily jotted notes. Here are the highlights of that extemporaneous speech, heavily revised and extended, as best as …
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New Year / New Mayor Resolutions for 2016
It’s a time of new beginnings, and hopes for a better future! Or at least, trying to be better than we are now, in ways that will fade along with our newly-renewed gym memberships. In no particular order: No more “SEPTA Key is Late” complaints. It’s very late. We all know it’s very late. We …
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The argument for Philadelphia from cost control
A lot of local political bigshots came out to the Navy Yard last Monday to announce full funding for another study of the case for extending subway service to the South Philadelphia office park. It may not be the most pressing transit need in the region, but it does have good potential. Perhaps more important: if …
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The Wandering Bus
It’s coming up on Halloween. The air is finally getting colder, the days are shorter, and a mix of fallen leaves and election flyers start clogging the storm drains. As we stand on the point of transition into the dark half of the year, a ghost story — or a fairy tale, depending on your point …
Sic Transit Philadelphia 