Ever since last summer’s Silverliner V equalizer beam crisis, SEPTA has been collecting Center City outbound Regional Rail tickets at the platform stairs in the evening rush. On Tuesday, SEPTA announced that beginning July 10th, it will modify the procedure to punch tickets only, but have passengers retain their tickets and have them displayed throughout …
Category Archives: SEPTA
Should SEPTA add free Wi-Fi to the Regional Rail fleet?
With schedules back to normal after the summer’s Silverliner V debacle, thoughts are turning to how SEPTA can regain the ridership it’s hemorrhaged over the last three months of misery (which isn’t quite over yet; trains are still shorter than quota). Jason Laughlin, writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer, collected a few suggestions on the Inky’s …
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This, too, is America: Burlington Route edition
I’m on the California Zephyr, on my way home from Denver, and the big stories back home are about the continuing lack of Silverliner Vs, and the announcement by Vice President Joe Biden that the Federal Government will be providing $2.45 billion in loans to Amtrak for the next generation of high speed trains on …
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Advanced tips for how to get in and out of Center City during the SEPTApocalypse: Glenside Combined
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 …
Advanced tips for how to get in and out of Center City during the SEPTApocalypse: Manayunk-Norristown Line
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 …
Advanced tips for how to get in and out of Center City during the SEPTApocalypse: Media-Elwyn Line
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 …
Advanced tips for how to get in and out of Center City during the SEPTApocalypse: Paoli-Thorndale Line
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 …
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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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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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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Sic Transit Philadelphia 