Philadelphia Transportation Thread (Pittsburgh, York, Norristown: crime, buses, authority)

[chris123678]

Since we have a crime thread, I thought we need a transportation thread as well.

For all those new to Philly.

Septa (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) is the nations 6th largest transit agency.

3 heavy rail lines.
Market Frankford El
Broad Street Subway
Norristown High-speed line.

7 trolley lines.
10, 11, 13,34 and 36( the subway surface lines) 15, 101, 102. (other)
Over 120 bus routes.

Interesting facts
Septa is one of only 2 transit agencies that operate all five modes of transportation
Light Rail
Heavy Rail
Commuter Rail lines
Buses
Trolley buses.


Here's the map

[gwillyfromphilly]

Here is some news on Bus Rapid transit coming to Philadelphia. I posted this a while back on the "New Jersey suburbs of Philly" sub-forum.

Bus Rapid Transit Is Coming to Philly – Next American City

[BPP1999]

Nice idea. I thought the subway, el, and NHSL were considered light rail while the regional rail lines were heavy rail?

[chris123678]

Originally Posted by BPP1999

Nice idea. I thought the subway, el, and NHSL were considered light rail while the regional rail lines were heavy rail?

Septa considers the Route 100 and heavy rail line.

The Subway and Elevated MFL line are heavy rail lines.

The 13 commuter rail lines are just that, commuter rail lines.

[drive carephilly]

Originally Posted by BPP1999

Nice idea. I thought the subway, el, and NHSL were considered light rail while the regional rail lines were heavy rail?

This is a common misconception. It has nothing to do with the actual weight of the train. It has to do with the capacity.

In Philadelphia most people still call them trolleys and, as our vehicles are sorely outdated, rightfully so. The Media & Sharon Hill trolleys are light rail. The RiverLINE is also light rail. Other nearby examples of light rail are the "T" in Pittsburgh, the Hudson-Bergen light rail in North Jersey, the light rail route in Baltimore. The usually run on overhead catenary in one or two car consists and can run in their own right of way or in the street with mixed traffic.

Heavy rail (also called a subway, metro or "el") comes in the form of the Market-Frankford Line, the Broad St. Line, PATCO, the NHSL and looking further afield - the PATH in North Jersey and the different "Metros" in DC and Baltimore. All of these run in an exclusive right of way and draw their power from a 3rd rail.

Commuter rail - also called regional rail - can be diesel (Atlantic City Line), they can draw their power from overhead catenary (all of SEPTA RR) or from a 3rd rail (Long Island RR). These are the only passenger trains that are permitted to share track with freight trains.

[chris123678]

Subways typically take you from one part of the city to another. For instance, the Market Frankford Elevated Subway takes us from Upper Darby,to Northeast Philly.
The Broad Street subway takes us from North Philly to South Philly.

Commuter rail lines, take us out of the county.
If I'm not mistaken, one line goes to Dolyestown.

So we're going from Philly to Dolyestown.

I also believe that many confuse commuter rail lines with services provided by amtrack.

I can't tell you how many times I've been asked if Septa goes to New York

[soug]

Originally Posted by chris123678

I can't tell you how many times I've been asked if Septa goes to New York

There's a lot of people who think it should haha, or at least to New Brunswick. Or they think NJ Transit should continue past Trenton and on to Philly. Either way, it would be a regulatory mess but could perhaps be something to look into some time in the future.

[drive carephilly]

Originally Posted by soug

There's a lot of people who think it should haha, or at least to New Brunswick. Or they think NJ Transit should continue past Trenton and on to Philly. Either way, it would be a regulatory mess but could perhaps be something to look into some time in the future.

It has nothing to do with regulation. NJTransit was supposed to take over the Clocker from Amtrak and had looked into running service from Penn Station with stops in:

Secaucus
Newark
Newark Airport
Metropark
New Brunswick
Princeton Junction
Trenton
Cornwells Heights
30th St.
Suburban Station

NJ Transit does run those trains but they terminate in Trenton because Pennsylvania/SEPTA didn't want to pay for their portion of the route - i guess the argument was "we already pay for the Keystone". But when Amtrak dropped the Clocker service it left a hole in the schedule - NJTransit picked up its part but that still left a few trains per day, that were geared towards commuters, that don't run anymore from Philly through to NYC

[soug]

Sounds like a regulatory mess to me.

[gwillyfromphilly]

Originally Posted by soug

Sounds like a regulatory mess to me.

It sure does. Though it would be nice to have a one seat train ride from Philly to NY that isn't only provided by Amtrak.