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I haven't ridden SEPTA since 2019. I like that you can still use transpasses(if they still sell those) anywhere on regional rail on weekends. The BSL was clutch with the express and spur, as well as the NHSL. RR frequency is garbage but usable. But you absolutely can NOT shut down bus service when there's a few inches of snow. That's inexcusable. Hills aren't an excuse. Here in the Twin Cities they do a terrible job of snow removal yet buses aren't shut down; same with Fort Wayne.
Interesting point about the snow. Actually, SEPTA stops only one or two routes (one of them a loop that climbs a steep hill connecting Manayunk with Roxborough) at the drop of a snowflake; they keep all the others in service unless or until conditions make it impossible for the buses to surmount the hills on their routes. I believe that both Minneapolis-St. Paul and Fort Wayne have much less hilly terrain than Philadelphia, which sits on the fall line, does. And have you seen the grades on some of the hills around here?
And yes, weekly and monthly transit pass holders can still ride Regional Rail for free on weekends. All fares and passes, however, are loaded on SEPTA Key cards now.
You're posts are so good, I've been missing them for quite some time.
You make great points. For a city in a state like PA, Philadelphia's transportation system is doing better than it should be. I really wonder why sometimes.
Being from Boston, where we have an odd love for Philadelphia, maybe I am biased... but I think Philadelphia is one of the best run systems on the East Coast.
I think sometime this fall I am going to go to Philadelphia and just ride some of their lines (Im a Transit Planner, so its fun for me)
Also, I was unaware of 'near-daily' equipment breakdowns on the el. Railcars on the El are 25 years old but are of the more modern variety with several amenities many would still consider state-of-the-art. I've never had an equipment issue of any kind in my many regular runs riding an El car.
SEPTA actually released an Expression of Interest (EOI) regarding the next-generation El cars--which will be called M5s--recently. Though the M4s are only about as old as I am, they have some major issues that I've become aware of in the last year. In fact, the M4s are so bad that SEPTA lists that the next-generation M5s must have a Design Life of at least 40 years in the Technical Specifications section of the EOI.
This is hard for me to say, as the M4s played an important part in my childhood; however, as I've gotten older and have taken the El on my own, even I realize that AdTranz did not provide SEPTA with a good product.
SEPTA actually released an Expression of Interest (EOI) regarding the next-generation El cars--which will be called M5s--recently. Though the M4s are only about as old as I am, they have some major issues that I've become aware of in the last year. In fact, the M4s are so bad that SEPTA lists that the next-generation M5s must have a Design Life of at least 40 years in the Technical Specifications section of the EOI.
This is hard for me to say, as the M4s played an important part in my childhood; however, as I've gotten older and have taken the El on my own, even I realize that AdTranz did not provide SEPTA with a good product.
The M4s, unfortunately, were and are craptastic. ISTR there was some controversy over the bid process for them, similar to the flap over the Silverliner V RRD cars; SEPTA gave the contract in both cases to the low bidder, but one of the bidders (in the case of the SL Vs) / a state legislator from the suburbs who wanted the bid to be awarded to a Pennsylvania-based firm (the M4s) objected that the winning bidder wasn't "responsible" (the operative word in the contract awarding language, appearing between "lowest" and "bidder").
The company that got the award for the M4s, ABB, had not built equipment for the US market before (same thing with Hyundai Rotem for the SL Vs). It merged with Daimler-Benz to form ADtranz midway through the M4 manufacturing process. ISTR that ABB also won the contract to build the (not craptastic but too heavy) N5 Norristown High-Speed Line cars; btw, between the time the oldest two NHSL fleets were retired and the arrival of the N5s, SEPTA used both 1961 "Almond Joy" Market-Frankford Line cars and surplus CTA PCC rapid transit cars to operate service on the line. I'm guessing the latter were classed as "N4" because they were new to the SEPTA roster. ("N3," if I get this right, would have been the "Liberty Liners" — the ex-Electroliner articulated trainsets the Red Arrow Lines acquired from the Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee interurban after it shut down.)
I hope SEPTA takes the "responsible" part to heart this time around. Unfortunately, one of the companies I would put at the top of any responsible-bidder list, Kawasaki, now has egg on its face too for axle defects on the 7000-series Washington Metrorail cars. Siemens, anyone?
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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I had a thought cross my mind about new rail projects coming online in the 2020's and immediately I thought of Honolulu's new HART system. It's an elevated line pretty much running parallel to the traffic clogged H-1 freeway with planned service from the western Oahu suburbs to the Ala Moana Center at the edge of Waikiki. It's planning and construction has been in the works for several years and I thought perhaps this should be coming online soon.
After looking into it further, the line will be starting service this summer from Kapolei Station to Aloha Stadium. As typical of American transit services, this project has had no shortage of cost overruns and several years of delays on planned openings. If you look at a map of Oahu and the metro Honolulu area, to say this line is very incomplete would be an understatement. Aloha Stadium, where this line terminates and will for some years to come, is not a walking area and though it's close to Pearl Harbor, it's not a big destination stop outside of stadium events. If you want to continue on to busier destinations such as HNL Airport, downtown Honolulu, or Waikiki, you'll need to do a bus transfer. The line is not expected to reach the Ala Moana Center until 2031.
For an area that's heavily reliant on a tourism based economy, tourists won't get much use out of this line for quite some time.
Is Seattle getting heavy rail like the cities mentioned?
Seattle has what I call a "light metro" — a system that uses light rail vehicles but operates with metro/subway characteristics. (Yes, I know some of the lines have grade crossings, but they make up a small portion of the total mileage.)
AFAIK, there are no plans to convert the Seattle system to full heavy rail.
Even though it runs on the surface in the middle of the street downtown, I put the Buffalo, NY, system into this category as well because the stations on the surface have high platforms as well. San Diego ditto.
In Seattle we wish we were fully grade-separated! On the plus side, the new additions are almost (so close) fully separated. East Link will have a stretch at-grade in Bellevue approaching Redmond unfortunately. The north and south extensions will be grade-separated. Next up are extensions to West Seattle and Ballard, which will share some of the current track, and thankfully the plan is to separate the current at-grade crossings at Holgate and Lander south of Downtown.
It'll never be heavy rail. Maybe when we're some years into autonomous cars we'll do the same for at-grade rail systems?
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