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View Poll Results: Philly has the best public transportation in the US
Agree 9 16.07%
Disagree 47 83.93%
Voters: 56. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 05-21-2013, 09:27 PM
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pa
1,436 posts, read 1,874,302 times
Reputation: 1631

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Quote:
Originally Posted by WestPhillyDude75 View Post
What do you mean always empty?
On the few occasions that I was on the subway, very few people were on. Perhaps it's crowded throughout the morning and afternoon rush, that's probably the case.

But being down on those platforms alone scare the day lights out of me.
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Old 05-21-2013, 09:29 PM
FBJ
 
Location: Tall Building down by the river
39,605 posts, read 58,797,374 times
Reputation: 9451
Quote:
Originally Posted by chris123678 View Post
On the few occasions that I was on the subway, very few people were on. Perhaps it's crowded throughout the morning and afternoon rush, that's probably the case.

But being down on those platforms alone scare the day lights out of me.

I can only shop at one store for clothes in the city and it's on Broad and Federal. I hate catching the sub to the store because it's something about that Federal and Ellsworth stop that is a good spot to get robbed.
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Old 05-21-2013, 09:34 PM
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pa
1,436 posts, read 1,874,302 times
Reputation: 1631
Quote:
Originally Posted by WestPhillyDude75 View Post
I can only shop at one store for clothes in the city and it's on Broad and Federal. I hate catching the sub to the store because it's something about that Federal and Ellsworth stop that is a good spot to get robbed.
And that's what scares me. Getting robbed down there. It can happen on the El to, but the El is always busy, there are always people on those platforms.
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Old 05-21-2013, 10:06 PM
FBJ
 
Location: Tall Building down by the river
39,605 posts, read 58,797,374 times
Reputation: 9451
Quote:
Originally Posted by chris123678 View Post
And that's what scares me. Getting robbed down there. It can happen on the El to, but the El is always busy, there are always people on those platforms.

That I will agree with, the broad and federal stop is spooky
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Old 05-22-2013, 01:12 AM
 
Location: Germantown, Philadelphia
13,956 posts, read 8,816,997 times
Reputation: 10261
Quote:
Originally Posted by WAOrganicFarmWannabe View Post
You're not scared on septa buses? I'm afraid to go down into the subway nowadays. Portland's rated the best. Valley Metro in Arizona still small but if all goes well, the light rail will be 52 miles long eventually. Also, Olympia Washington is or at least was rated #1 for a small city. I don't want to hear about crapola Philadelphia. I'm escaping from this place.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WAOrganicFarmWannabe View Post
You think this is better than Portland? Consider the cold winters, walking to and from mass transit in ice and slush.
Your posting handle gives your sentiments away. Not everyone is cut out to handle living in a large, dense, older city in the Northeast, where winters are more severe than they are in the Pacific Northwest thanks to the Japan Current over there.

And I live in a neighborhood where you'd probably be quaking in your boots were you to walk its streets. I don't feel uncomfortable or unsafe walking it, even though I know crime is a problem in it because I get the stats every week. As a friend of mine said once, "If you look like you know what you're doing, you probably won't get hassled."

Portland has no subway, save for that tunnel on the line west from downtown. That city's system is all light rail. Light rail is nice, don't get me wrong, but it's NOT rapid transit. We have rapid transit here. Seattle's light rail system is closer to rapid transit than Portland's, though I think the engineering of the downtown subway tunnel will slow it down a bit. But what you say above here suggests to me you'd not be happy as a Seattleite even. (After visiting both Seattle and San Francisco for the first time in 2006, I told my friends, "If you told me I had to choose between spending the rest of my life in San Francisco and spending the rest of my life in Seattle, I'd spend it in Seattle." The place is much more down-to-earth and far less smug.)

Quote:
Originally Posted by chris123678 View Post
Septa is a heavily bus-oriented system.
The subways and light rails aren't doing enough to serve the Philadelphia area.
Septa's made some rather poor decisions aswell.
Removing the 56 as a light rail line was very poor. They need to run 3 buses back to back in order to accommodate everyone.

I think the El should have an express and local line. The stops are to close together and A and B trains service is mainly in the Northeast.

The Broad Street Line is one subway that scares me. I'm not on it alot but It always is empty.
You must ride it only late at night, and board it only at the local stations outside Center City. My daily journey begins and ends at the line's original northern terminus, Olney, which IIRC is the fourth busiest station on SEPTA's rapid transit system after City Hall and the two Market-Frankford Line termini. Headed north from Center City, the trains are never empty, though some of the local platforms might be.

Yes, the Market-Frankford Line should have four tracks like the Broad Street Line does (trivia: the BSL is one of only two four-track rapid transit lines located outside New York; the other is the main line serving Chicago's North Side). But Front Street, Kensington Avenue, and Frankford Avenue are too narrow to support a four-track elevated structure over them; a four-track subway would have to have a two-level tunnel for the same reason. A/B skip-stop service is a practical response to the line's physical constraints. (And I can bring Chicago into the discussion here too: that city had A/B skip-stop service on just about all of its lines until sometime in the late 1990s.) Adding two tracks adds expense - and a four-track elevated would block all light from reaching Market Street (the widest elevated structure I know of carries three tracks, not four).

The "poor decisions" largely predate SEPTA's creation in 1963, and most of them had to do with lack of money, a perennial problem when it comes to public works in this city. We have about one-sixth of the rapid transit the City Councils voted to build back in 1915. Turning either Chestnut Hill Regional Rail branch into rapid transit would plug one hole.

As for trolleys vs. buses, yes, SEPTA management has not been enthusiastic about preserving or adding trolley service even where the infrastructure is in place. But adding that infrastructure back costs a lot too.
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Old 05-22-2013, 01:20 AM
 
Location: Germantown, Philadelphia
13,956 posts, read 8,816,997 times
Reputation: 10261
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2e1m5a View Post
Build the Roosevelt Boulevard Subway and connect it to the MFL.

Make the R6 Manayunk R7 Chestnut Hill East and R8 Chestnut Hill West quasi-subway lines with more frequent and later service. Fence in the tracks, build high platforms and ditch the conductors. (Also maybe R7 Trenton and R8 Fox Chase)

Use the Reading Viaduct to build a loop subway line that connects the Museum District with Old City, University City, South Street, Graduate Hospital.

Build the Riverline to run from the Stadiums down Packer and up Delaware Ave.

Extend the BSL to the Navy Yard and maybe even North and West running along Cheltenham Ave.

Bring the 23 trolley back and market it more as a tourist attraction for seeing the sites in historic Germantown, Mt. Airy, Chestnut Hill.

Have one smart card available for use on Patco/SEPTA/NJ Transit.

Then yes, Septa will be in contention for the best.
Let me note that the award APTA gave SEPTA this year - "Best Large Transit System 2012" - had more to do with its stewardship of the resources it had to keep the system running and some moves to anticipate future needs. I think the agency deserved the honor.

Some of these suggestions make a lot of sense - in fact, the idea of running either or both Chestnut Hill Regional Rail branches like rapid transit has been raised before.

Running the loop subway you propose from the east end of the City Branch cut would cost an awful lot for what would be a glorified local circulator.

And should it ever get built, the Boulevard subway would be what it was designed as: the Northeast Spur of the Broad Street Line.
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Old 05-27-2013, 04:46 PM
 
Location: NJ
690 posts, read 959,581 times
Reputation: 141
does anyone else wonder why they came up with name septa? sounds like septic, not too appealing
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Old 05-27-2013, 05:06 PM
 
Location: Cumberland County, NJ
8,631 posts, read 12,924,145 times
Reputation: 5766
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stechkin View Post
does anyone else wonder why they came up with name septa? sounds like septic, not too appealing
SEPTA stands for "Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority". I have no problem with the name.
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Old 05-28-2013, 12:03 AM
 
Location: NJ
690 posts, read 959,581 times
Reputation: 141
Quote:
Originally Posted by gwillyfromphilly View Post
SEPTA stands for "Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority". I have no problem with the name.
i know, but still
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Old 05-29-2013, 10:04 PM
 
Location: Philadelphia, Pa
1,436 posts, read 1,874,302 times
Reputation: 1631
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stechkin View Post
i know, but still
It use to be called PTC.
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