“Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee”

Smoking gun e-mails have now been produced that definitively tie the September 2013 closure of approach lanes at the George Washington Bridge from Fort Lee, New Jersey, to the office of Governor Christie. They additionally provide concrete evidence that the action, taken by Christie appointees at the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey (PANYNJ) who have since resigned, was politically motivated retribution against Fort Lee and its mayor, Mark Sokolich (D).

The irony, of course, is that if the PANYNJ had, in fact, taken any kind of traffic study, which they falsely claimed to have in the aftermath of the incident, those of us who believe that driving cars into cities ought to be more difficult and/or expensive would have applauded the move. And if the number of toll lanes assigned to Fort Lee had been reduced from three to two instead of three to one, they might have been subtle enough to get away with their malfeasance, at least for longer. Instead, the Governor of New Jersey has been exposed as a thug who sanctions the abuse of government power for petty vengeance, and allows transportation policy to be set by a combination of caprice and windshield perspective rather than need.

Meanwhile, even rid of the New Jersey appointees directly responsible for the closure of the Fort Lee toll lanes, PANYNJ is still fairly useless from a transportation reform perspective. The Lincoln Tunnel Exclusive Bus Lane (XBL) is arguably the most successful and efficient transit facility in the country, but the XBL runs eastbound-only from 6:00a to 10:00a on weekdays, with not even a hint that PANYNJ might build on that success by creating a westbound XBL in the evening. Or implement any kind of bus priority at any other time. Or at any other crossing under its jurisdiction. For Greater Philadelphians who travel up the Turnpike of Anger by bus, who still number thousands of passengers daily, this is a big deal and a big problem; it’s far worse for daily commuters at the PANYNJ crossings. And with Greyhound, Peter Pan, their subsidiaries BoltBus and Yo!, Megabus, and the resurgent Chinatown carriers all looking like they’re here to stay, and Amtrak fares likely to remain out of reach for the bottom tiers of the market, this is one New York problem that strikes home in Philadelphia.

If PANYNJ were to ever get wise and implement 24/7 bidirectional bus priority lanes at the Lincoln Tunnel, or any kind of improved bus approach to the George Washington Bridge, it’s probable that the concerns of us here in Philadelphia wouldn’t have had the slightest bit of influence on the decision-makers. But you’d better believe that, when they do, we’ll care. Meanwhile, we have the unfortunate task of anticipating a third of our region’s transportation decisions being made by a temperamental bully for the next three years. Oh, rapture.

One more trip around the sun

Happy New Year! Time to ring in 2014 with a whole palletload of service changes!

One final reminder: with all this extra transit service tonight, you’d have to be very stupid to drive while intoxicated, and you’d have to be very foolish to drive tonight with all the very stupid people who will inevitably find their way onto the roads. Stay safe!

My own New Year’s plans involve radio silence through to the 2nd of January, so best wishes to everyone for a better 2014.

Ruminations on Long Distance

I’m currently on an Amtrak train, headed back south from upstate New York, where I have been far away from exciting happenings in Greater Philadelphia. But I thought I’d take some time, while I’m in an appropriate spot, to think aloud about Amtrak, specifically about long-distance trains.

2013, to borrow phraseology from trite year-in-review articles, was the year in which I turned 30. The significance of which, as far as I can tell, is that I’m reaching the phase of life where overnight trips in coach are no longer worth the monetary savings. There are a few I might still do, if I was in a pinch and by myself, but this ship has, for the most part, sailed. It’s sleeper or bust.

I have a developing theory of sleeper trains, which is that they are essentially a point-to-point service. A sleeper passenger who is willing to pay a fare that is going to pay for most, or all, of her costs, wants a train that is leaving in the evening and arriving in the morning. Perhaps a short ride in daylight can cover more another market or two with the same departure, but the basic form is evening-morning. It requires two trainsets to operate the entire service. No sleeper service in the entire Amtrak system looks like this. The Auto Train, which is sui generis, comes closest, and doesn’t quite manage the late evening departure. This is largely not Amtrak’s fault, because the endpoints of trains in the National System are just so obnoxiously far apart. But the point stands that any stops made between 11:00pm and 6:00am are basically economically meaningless, and should be covered by another train that runs in daylight. Continue reading “Ruminations on Long Distance”

Simple Answers to Silly Questions

One of the odd “perks” of owning a WordPress blog is getting to see some of the search terms that cause people to find your blog. For instance:

  • how much does a parking permit cost in philadelphia

$35 per year for one car. More for additional cars.

  • manayunk/norristown line safe

Yes. (Assuming that’s a question with “Is the” in front.) Much safer than driving, certainly.

During the snow last week, we had,

  • is septa closed today

SEPTA does not close for weather short of an actual hurricane. Maybe a 25-year blizzard. Snow and ice can shut down individual rail lines, or cause buses to detour around specific problem spots, but SEPTA will keep running through fairly serious weather. It is generally safe to assume that SEPTA is harder than you.

And last night’s inspiration for this post:

  • does the government own septa

Uh, YES. YES YES YES IT DOES.

Specifically, SEPTA is a wholly-owned arm of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, so if you care about SEPTA, it’s your State Rep, State Senator, and Governor you need to put pressure on. And by “put pressure on”, I mean tell them to work harder to fund SEPTA, or else you will vote for someone else. And then, if they don’t, follow through on that threat, in a primary if your conscience prevents you from voting for another party in a general election. State politicians get away with things because they assume that nobody knows who they are, and nobody cares. Sadly, they’re right too often. I don’t like that, and neither should you. This stuff matters.

All I want for Christmas is for the R-numbers to stay dead

Sandy Smith may be the most awesome man in Philadelphia. I tend to refer to Sandy as “the man who’s forgotten more about Philadelphia transit than I’ll ever know”, which is illustrative but slanderous: I’ve never known him to forget anything. I am reminded of his awesomeness frequently, given his prolific writing as editor-in-chief at Philadelphia Real Estate Blog, contributor to Philadelphia Magazine, and being generally ubiquitous in any place online where Philadelphians gather, where he’s identifiable by his usual sobriquet “MarketStEl”. I got to reconnect with Sandy last month, at the Urban Geek Happy Hour at Frankford Hall in Fishtown, the next edition of which is tonight at 6:00. (I won’t make it tonight due to other holiday commitments, but if “Urban Geek Happy Hour” sounds like your thing at all, you should totally drop by.) Talking with Sandy in meatspace is always pleasant, but I was reminded that there is one topic on which he and I are on opposite sides.

Background: On July 25th, 2010, SEPTA renamed its Regional Rail lines, removing the R1-R8 numerical designations they had borne since the opening of the Commuter Tunnel in 1984. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move. Including, rather publicly, by Sandy Smith. Continue reading “All I want for Christmas is for the R-numbers to stay dead”

Why It (Probably) Couldn’t Happen Here

I’ve been wrestling with the recent Spuyten Duyvil derailment on Metro North; other people have covered what we know about it much better than I could, and honestly there’s very little more to say in the face of a human tragedy such as this. I’ve been swinging wildly between despair and vitriolic anger, and had no desire to inflict any of that on you. But it does merit a few words here.

If you are looking for a good summary of the crash itself, I would commend you to The LIRR Today’s writeup, which is the best I’ve seen. I will not attempt to duplicate that work. Continue reading “Why It (Probably) Couldn’t Happen Here”

Reminder: buy your tickets today!

Travel protips for Thanksgiving week:

Just as a reminder, while many ticket offices are open for extended hours tomorrow, they will be swamped by people trying to get out for Thanksgiving travel. This especially applies to the SEPTA and Amtrak ticket offices at 30th Street Station, as well as the Amtrak and NJ Transit TVMs there. If you still haven’t yet bought or picked up your train ticket for tomorrow, do it on your way home today. Some outlying ticket offices may have extended hours today as well; if they do, take advantage of that. Getting tickets a day or more early saved my bacon as an undergrad in the suburbs, when the lines at the ticket office could be up to 15 minutes long leading up to every midday departure on Wednesday.

Also, if your Regional Rail trip involves Trenton or the Airport, remember to get your ticket through to those points to save time and money.

If you have any choice in the matter at all, don’t pay cash on board tomorrow; that’s going to be a mess, and you will make a conductor’s already hard life even worse.

Amtrak, of course, is on a modified schedule throughout the holiday week, and if it’s part of your holiday plans you should have booked weeks ago. But, there are still a few seats available on most trains tomorrow to both New York and Washington, although your procrastination tax will be to pay through the nose for those last tickets. Reserved seating is in effect for all Keystone Service trains.

Travel safe, travel smart, and have a happy holiday!

You will go to space today

Given the massive cloud of rumor, uncertainty, and arm-twisting that hung over Harrisburg this morning, I resolved not to write up a final postmortem of transportation in Pennsylvania until the General Assembly’s 11:00p curfew had passed tonight, to allow for any last minute surprises. Still, I was riding a train out to the suburbs to watch NASA launch a rocket from Wallops Island when the unexpected word came in, that a third vote on the Micozzie Amendment had passed the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

So, thanks to the 98 Representatives who voted ‘aye’ yesterday, and six Republican and two Democratic switchers who got us over the line tonight, we will have merely bad roads, bridges, and transit in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as opposed to non-existent roads, bridges, and transit. Hooray for small miracles. But that will keep the wolf from the door for the next year, as we enter a major election year and normal politics grinds to a halt. And for the 10,500 daily riders of the Media/Elwyn Line, that should be enough to keep their ride moving. So, thank you, PA House. After trying every alternative, you managed to do your job. And since you did have a choice in the matter, and seriously contemplated not doing your job, I supposed I’m grateful for it.

The official roll call on the vote is here, for those of you who want to know where your Representative stood. The bill now goes back to the Senate for approval.

My especial thanks to Mary Wilson and Kate Giammarise for live-tweeting the action from the State Capitol. They brought as much sense as could be brought to an often nonsensical week, and opinion-slingers like me couldn’t function without shoeleather reporters like them on the ground. Thanks, and we’ll see you again in 2015.

Late breaking news: Micozzie Amendment fails 98-103, PA Transportation in limbo

The Micozzie Amendment, which was the House’s compromise plan to fund transportation in Pennsylvania, was defeated 98-103 at 9:52pm tonight. Word from livebloggers in the gallery in Harrisburg is that moderates from both parties voted aye, while staunch union backers on the left of the Democratic caucus teamed up with anti-everything members of the Republican far right to kill the bill.

No word yet on what Plan B is.

Transportation bill on the floor of the Pennsylvania House

We’ve been baited and promised and jerked around continuously since September, but with debate now underway and hours in, a vote on a transportation package seems genuinely imminent tonight. The bill under discussion is a $2.3 billion/year plan, with $1.65 billion going to roads and bridges, and $497 million for transit and $144 million for everything else, including bikes and waterways. That’s not really enough transit funding to get SEPTA out of the deferred capital spending hole it’s in, but it can stem the bleeding until the next election.

I’ll be keeping a close eye on this (there’s a live stream on the PA House Republican Caucus website, but it’s getting hammered into unusability), and I’ll update tomorrow with a recap and any last-minute detail changes, but the traditional practice of the General Assembly is to hold off any shenanigans to the dead of night, after newspaper reporters’ deadlines have passed. In this case, shenanigans might involve not having a vote, or further amending the bill and then voting on it. Presumably the choreography has been set, and we’re waiting to see what happens with bated breath. Stay tuned…