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I really cant see how anyone can SEPTA is one of the worst. Last time I checked "ALL" Public Transit agencies have some kinks in them. People fail to realize that. Someone mentioned about DC Metro having more coverage in the suburbs , I'm not sure if they meant distance from the city core, or more stations. If its stations , and distance from city core SEPTA does a great job I mean come on...when the commuter rail goes into two other states is that poor coverage ? and when it goes 33+Miles from the city core ?. I'm a SEPTA /Public transit geek...Philly has five subways.
MFL , BSL, Broad-Ridge Spur, PATCO, SUBWAY-SURFACE LINES (someone said the trolleys don't qualify to be a subway, well obviously they do if they run in the subway and SEPTA calls them a "Subway -Surface" for a reason). Far as I'm concerned SEPTA covers a lot and gets you to point A - B a whole lot better then other cities. And with other cities who are just building light rail lines and giving them tunnels those cities consider it a subway, so no one should not being the trolleys here is not in a subway. I don't see SEPTA poorly serving the area. SEPTA was more extensive 30 years ago, and even with less it still is.
If anything I think SEPTA has some of the best connections with its services then some of the other citites.
I really cant see how anyone can SEPTA is one of the worst. Last time I checked "ALL" Public Transit agencies have some kinks in them. People fail to realize that. Someone mentioned about DC Metro having more coverage in the suburbs , I'm not sure if they meant distance from the city core, or more stations. If its stations , and distance from city core SEPTA does a great job I mean come on...when the commuter rail goes into two other states is that poor coverage ? and when it goes 33+Miles from the city core ?. I'm a SEPTA /Public transit geek...Philly has five subways.
MFL , BSL, Broad-Ridge Spur, PATCO, SUBWAY-SURFACE LINES (someone said the trolleys don't qualify to be a subway, well obviously they do if they run in the subway and SEPTA calls them a "Subway -Surface" for a reason). Far as I'm concerned SEPTA covers a lot and gets you to point A - B a whole lot better then other cities. And with other cities who are just building light rail lines and giving them tunnels those cities consider it a subway, so no one should not being the trolleys here is not in a subway. I don't see SEPTA poorly serving the area. SEPTA was more extensive 30 years ago, and even with less it still is.
If anything I think SEPTA has some of the best connections with its services then some of the other citites.
Absolutely, Philly transit is hardly the worst, or anywhere near it... But the context of the OC is which of the Top 6 listed was the worst... and I didn't care for the word "worst", instead preferring "lesser" or something like that, because they are all superior to the American big-city norm... It's kind of like saying which is the worst college in the Ivy League? Obviously, whichever you decide is "worst" is light years above even above average colleges. US News Rates all Ivies as no worse than 15th best ... in the nation.
Of these six, it's only above SF/Bay Area, so that's pretty close to the worst with respect to this topic. However, the distance between Philadelphia and Boston (the next up) is narrower than the distance between Philadelphia and SF, so there's that.
I'm not an expert on the railroad/local passenger train regs. I do know that commuter cars sharing freight corridors must meet crash standards, meaning they must be heavier with stronger reinforced walls and windows. SEPTA's commuter cars meet this standard. Of SEPTA's 13 commuter lines, only a few of them (and only portions of those few) share trackage with mainline freight runs, and those are primarily the 3 Amtrak routes (Trenton, Wilmington/Newark, DE and the outer-most portion of the Thorndale line). Philly has long segregated the services.
Boston's T commuter system actually carries more passengers than SEPTA's regional rail, despite metro Philly being larger than metro Boston and with Philly's system being fully electrified and connected by the Center City tunnel, while Boston's is all diesel serving the North and South station stubs. If the through connecting tunnel was built to connect North and South stations, I would think the entire network would need to be electrified. So far, only the Providence line is electrified with the Acela trains, but T trains are all diesel running under the wires.
I think Chicago would greatly benefit from electrifying its full commuter network connected to, and compatible with, the Metra electric line to the south side suburbs (plus, of course, the historic South Bend interurban). Metra's mainly diesel operates as traditional suburban commuter rail lines with some in-city stations, whereas Metra Electric is rapid-transit like, with mostly in-city stations very closely-spaced and bundled services along the trunk line producing very frequent headways.
As of Q4 2014
SEPTA Carried more then MBTA on the commuter side.
If you count the Ferries (which are serve the same purpose as Commuter rail) its a wash.
fair though that is just SEPTA and doesnt include any NJT rail into Philly either, though daily ridership is rather paltry on that line with 3K per day
rather than getting cought up in 1K her or 1K there both are pretty widely used and both could be better.
It seems Boston i looking at the through routing which would be a big boost. Philly has this now but will say I believe is sadly under-used bsed on the coverage. The current form could easily handle a 50% increase in riders with no additional infrastructure. Philly does not have the same core demand in terms of number of jobs when compared to Boston. Not sure how close to cpacity Boston RR is as really have no experience with it like I have had with the Green lines and subway there. It seems pretty similar and based on the ridership its very close either way
probably, but i remember reading about one instance where a tourist fell inside the tracks of the redline while holding her baby and people had to pull her up.
i remember years ago a deaf man got hit by a market street subway on septa (they were working on the westbound track so all trains were on the eastbound track so if you couldnt hear you had to poke your head out to see where the train is coming from).
If you count the Ferries (which are serve the same purpose as Commuter rail) its a wash.
Why would a ferry be counted towards the numbers when its not commuter rail ?
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