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If Philadelphia is anything like Boston, commuter rail trains board in 20-30 seconds while en route to their final destinations.
The only difference between commuter rail and subway (besides the layout of the train) operations is that they are much less frequent and stops are further apart.
Agree and for what it is worth there are stations underground even on the regional rail though these are the stops that go through and under center city.
am guessing this is off peak as there is hardly any people traffic in the first video - Phildelphia suburban station (oddly directly under all the tallest skyscrapers) The maker of this says this was the traffic over 10 or so minutes
Next stop Market East but coming from the North Philadelphia Regional Stop at Temple University but MD may get the picture, dedicated and elevated ROW to underground ROW and stations
This MD gives you sense of a typical rail line and length of stops, from the Elkins Park stop, it seems to be less than 10 seconds to your question; they also have rush hour express services from the farther stations, the system is actuall prtty efficient and has good coverage per the maps posted earlier
I'm sorry but you can't compare a subway system that operates almost entirely under ground to commuter rail. The metro stops for about 15 seconds to 30 seconds for people to load and unload and you are on your way. You can't compare a subway system to a commuter rail system. Also, D.C.'s metro alone at 1,000,000+ daily ridership has about double the ridership of Philly's entire transit network and that is without MARC and VRE. Silver Line is under construction so the gap is only going to widen even more.
I saw that last night on my way to Dulles. That's going to be a long @ss line from dc to Dulles.
How fast do people board commuter trains in Philly?
Also only about 30 stations out of 86 are above ground.
So then you would agree that Philly has as many if not more underground. The Metro is very effeciant and a great asset to DC no doubt but you are discounting the integrated rail that Septa and even Patco have in the area, the all function cohesively and even all have connections underground
I think they're both equally busy. I grew up in Wilmington, DE (20 minutes from Center City Philly) & I go to college in Washington, DC.
To put it simply, DC has more vibrant neighborhoods in the city (Chinatown, U Street, Georgetown, Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan) & a lot of foot traffic however Philadelphia has a city feel that DC can't duplicate. DC can feel stale after a while. Sometimes I'd drive up 95 North past the stadiums, into center city & just marvel at the view. If Philadelphia wasn't sandwiched next to New York, people would rate the city higher. If you stood on Broad Street or near Rittenhouse Sq during mid-day, you would think you were in Manhattan.
That sounds very ambitious, and I hope it comes to fruition. There has been plenty of discussion in the Philly area, too, about transit expansion projects. Still, I think it's only worth considering current transportation infrastructure, as many "pie in the sky" projects will have a hard time getting off the ground without huge funding commitments that no state -- nor the federal government -- has now. I would not expect any new public transportation projects in the country to begin for at least another few years.
Actually, Montgomery County is footing the bill for their 120 mile BRT system and money is not an object for Montgomery County. Maryland is in the process of raising the gas tax right now to foot the bill for all their transit projects. Remember this is a region that was building a 23 mile metro extension and 2 street car lines during the height of the recession. D.C. will continue to boom.
Septa Regional Rail with 289 miles and a ridership of 120,700 daily riders = major FAIL. You would have been better off not including Septa Commuter Rail and just boosting Septa Heavy Rail. At least it has good ridership for the amount of miles it has. Trying to disguise commuter rail for a subway = Major FAIL. Look at the ridership difference between heavy rail and commuter rail. Probably shouldn't compare any kind of Philly transit to D.C.'s metro system anyway.
Downtown DC has a lot more foot traffic than Center City during working hours. There's far more traffic and congestion in DC than in Philly in general. In that sense, yes, DC is a faster-paced city.
Away from downtown, I think Philly is faster-paced than DC...by a good margin. Much of DC has a very sleepy feel to it. In some parts, it is downright southern. Washington, DC (and I don't mean Dupont Circle and Georgetown...I'm talking about Ivy City, Deanwood, Kingman Park, Rosedale, Hillcrest, etc) has a genteel quality about it. Old ladies sweeping their porches will wave. The people are quite cordial, actually. You also see many more idle men...just check out the corner of Florida Avenue and North Capitol Street.
Philly is, for the most part, a city on the go. People are always moving. Germantown and Chelten is always littered with vendors selling knockoff bags, incense, or mixtapes. Same with 52nd and Market. Same with Broad and Erie. There's not anything that's really "chill" about Philly. So in that sense, Philly is faster than DC.
Actually this makes a lot of sense now that I think about it. Downtown DC is way more busier than Center City, but the neighborhoods in DC do have a southern twist to them albeit very little. Mostly its the eastern half of the city. West of 14th st is very busy and a totally different atmosphere.
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