thus passes the city of brotherly love
SEPTA’s long hearing season is starting off today and tomorrow with budget and NPT implementation hearings being held in Delaware and Montgomery Counties, today (Monday) and tomorrow (Tuesday), respectively. Today’s hearings will be held at the Delaware County Courthouse in Media at 2:00p and 6:00p. SEPTA is breaking with tradition in holding two hearings apiece …
Continue reading “Hearing season leads off with doubleheaders in Media, Norristown”
Almost missed this entirely, but there were Regional Rail schedule adjustments that went into effect Sunday. They come in two primary groups, both affecting only weekday middays. The first, to accommodate wire work, is the bustitution of the Doylestown Line east of Colmar. Buses will leave Doylestown inbound 12 minutes before the train schedules, and will …
Continue reading “Midday service changes on Doylestown, Norristown Lines”
Friday night I went to visit some friends in Upper Darby who I hadn’t seen in quite a while. It was a pleasant evening, with games and the entertainment of small children, but I was struck by how heavily the effect of SEPTA’s proposed fare changes would have fallen on this trip, so I present …
Continue reading “A trip to Upper Darby, a Fare Hike tragedy in three parts”
One measure of unlimited passes is: at what point do they become cheaper, per ride, than paying for rides individually? This ratio is one that calls for balance from any transit agency. Lower pass prices encourage the prepayment of fares, which is good for the agency financially, and increases discretionary ridership that drives mode shift …
Continue reading “FY2014 and NPT: The Monthly Pass Break-Evens”
As much as I give SEPTA a hard time for its failings, I try to also point out where it does a good job. This goes doubly for the realm of customer service and communications, an area where SEPTA has historically done quite poorly, and where it still falls short on occasion. In that spirit, …
Continue reading “Another weekend of bustitution on the Manayunk/Norristown Line”
At a ceremony this morning at the Hyundai Rotem assembly plant on Weccacoe Avenue in South Philadelphia, officials from SEPTA and Hyundai Rotem celebrated the construction of Silverliner Vs 881 and 882. When this pair of cars completes its testing period and is accepted by SEPTA, it will mark the end of the Silverliner V …
The transit side of SEPTA’s July 1 fare hike is, mercifully, easier to write about than the railroad side. One almost sees why SEPTA has such a mania for oversimplifying its fare structure. But such is the lot of the (alleged) transit professional: while Your Humble Blogger gets to complain about typing volume, the accountants …
Continue reading “FY2014 and NPT: City and Suburban Transit Divisional tariffs”
SEPTA is required by law to hold public hearings whenever it enacts major fare changes. SEPTA, at least in its current incarnation, takes these meetings seriously. To reiterate the point I made Friday night, they are not show trials. This is not the MTA. While some things are unavoidable (a complaint about a fare increase …
Going into further depth on SEPTA’s proposed fare changes, I am seeing disturbing trends. Apart from the flaws in the technical implementation of NPT (another post in itself), SEPTA’s changes to fare rules and structures indicate an attitude of not wanting to deal with the complexity of the world it exists in and the ridership …
Continue reading “FY2014 and NPT: Railroad Division tarriff”
Updated 2013-3-16 7:00p After months of speculation, and not a little bit of pleading from this blog and others, we are finally learning some of what is waiting in store for SEPTA riders when NPT rolls out later this year. This is coming wrapped up with fare hikes and rule changes that SEPTA will be …
Continue reading “SEPTA releases proposal for July 1 fare hike and NPT-related fare rule changes”
Sic Transit Philadelphia 