SEPTA hailed as ‘best of the best’ in North America (Philadelphia: maintenance, live)

[acenturi]

This should give the negadelphians here a field day : SEPTA hailed as ‘best of the best’ in North America

[Duderino]

Originally Posted by acenturi

This should give the negadelphians here a field day : SEPTA hailed as ‘best of the best’ in North America

Wow, very interesting. I think this demonstrates that there has been an earth-shattering turnaround in SEPTA's management. It's light years away from where it used to be.

SEPTA's infrastructure and state-of-repair may be another story (although that, too, seems to be improving of late), but physical improvements definitely start with better management.

[ElijahAstin]

I'm no Negadelphian, but this story confuses me as well. I do think SEPTA gets a lot of (undeserved) flak and is actually pretty decent in most regards, but "best of the best" is definitely an overstatement.

[Clark Park]

Originally Posted by HeavenWood

I'm no Negadelphian, but this story confuses me as well. I do think SEPTA gets a lot of (undeserved) flak and is actually pretty decent in most regards, but "best of the best" is definitely an overstatement.

I would agree with that assessment. Having lived in a couple of other large cities like New York and Miami, I would rate it as pretty good - I would grade it a "B".

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by Clark Park

I would agree with that assessment. Having lived in a couple of other large cities like New York and Miami, I would rate it as pretty good - I would grade it a "B".

I gave it a "B" as well.

[mancat100]

Septa gets a B. Septa riders, on a hot, humid July day, get an F for Funk.

[rotodome]

I think a key phrase from the OP article is:

There are 64 transit agencies of that size in North America, although not all of them applied for the APTA recognition.

[SirGreenDown]

Bingo^

[drive carephilly]

Originally Posted by rotodome

I think a key phrase from the OP article is:

There are 64 transit agencies of that size in North America, although not all of them applied for the APTA recognition.

Ha - 64 transit agencies that carry +20 million passengers per year. SEPTA carries 340 million per year.

You can't really compare the transit system in Philly to the one in St. Louis or Cincinnati or even Pittsburgh.

The comparable transit networks are in places like DC, Boston, the Bay Area, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, etc.

Except that Dallas and Houston don't have heavy rail, Miami doesn't have light rail, Atlanta and Houston don't have commuter rail. The DC Metro doesn't operate light rail (yet) and the commuter rail operations are run by VRE or MARC, The Bay Area has commuter rail even more limited than DC and there are no fewer than 7 different transit operators - and even if you're just narrowing it down to San Francisco you still have light rail and buses run by Muni, subways run by BART and commuter rail run by Caltrain.

Boston is really the only apples-to-apples comparison.

I'd also add that Chicago, DC, SF and Boston (and even NYC) are going through tough times right now because they've deferred so much maintenance. As much as it annoys me to have to fumble with SEPTA token vending machines they've done a pretty good job at rebuilding a completely broken network.

[rotodome]

Originally Posted by drive carephilly

Ha - 64 transit agencies that carry +20 million passengers per year. SEPTA carries 340 million per year.

You can't really compare the transit system in Philly to the one in St. Louis or Cincinnati or even Pittsburgh.

The comparable transit networks are in places like DC, Boston, the Bay Area, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, etc.

Except that Dallas and Houston don't have heavy rail, Miami doesn't have light rail, Atlanta and Houston don't have commuter rail. The DC Metro doesn't operate light rail (yet) and the commuter rail operations are run by VRE or MARC, The Bay Area has commuter rail even more limited than DC and there are no fewer than 7 different transit operators - and even if you're just narrowing it down to San Francisco you still have light rail and buses run by Muni, subways run by BART and commuter rail run by Caltrain.

Boston is really the only apples-to-apples comparison.

I'd also add that Chicago, DC, SF and Boston (and even NYC) are going through tough times right now because they've deferred so much maintenance. As much as it annoys me to have to fumble with SEPTA token vending machines they've done a pretty good job at rebuilding a completely broken network.

Well, the MTA is very actively upgrading and expanding their infrastructure at the present so I'm not sure where you're going with that one.
And Toronto? Vancouver? Montreal?

I will definitely say that SEPTA is a totally underrated system (esp by Philadelphians!), but "best of the best in all of North America" is crazytalk. IMO.

I do wish we could see a list of exactly which systems did actually apply for this APTA ranking so that this recognition would be a little more meaningful.