SEPTA Contingency Plan (Norristown, Lansdale, Doylestown: leasing, trains, suburban)

[Becca8377]

Caught the train home after it finally showed up to Suburban 20 min late. By the time we got to Jefferson, only a few more people could fit on the train. It took me 50min from the time I left my office to the time I walked in my house. I certainly can't do this every day without going crazy. I just don't have many other options. I may try to take the 62 back home tomorrow but I'm worried it'll take even longer with evening rush hour traffic on 76.

If these are my only options, I may end up seeing about shifting my work schedule or even working out of our Conshohocken office.

FBRC, yep I'm in the same boat as you with the pass. I posted on their FB and SEPTA said I have to go through my employer for the fare credit. HR said to talk to Benefits and Benefits told me to talk to HR. Basically no one knows wtf to do but hell I will try and get my stupid $25 because this is so ridiculous.

[FamousBlueRaincoat]

Originally Posted by Becca8377

Caught the train home after it finally showed up to Suburban 20 min late. By the time we got to Jefferson, only a few more people could fit on the train. It took me 50min from the time I left my office to the time I walked in my house. I certainly can't do this every day without going crazy. I just don't have many other options. I may try to take the 62 back home tomorrow but I'm worried it'll take even longer with evening rush hour traffic on 76.

Are the 9, 27, or 32 convenient at all for you? More frequent than the 62 anyway. Although with the 9 and the 27 the expressway is the wildcard.

Good connections to the BSL is definitely one of the pluses for the Germantown-Mt Airy- Chestnut Hill part of the NW. Comes in handy whenever something goes wrong.

[Becca8377]

Originally Posted by FamousBlueRaincoat

Are the 9, 27, or 32 convenient at all for you? More frequent than the 62 anyway. Although with the 9 and the 27 the expressway is the wildcard.

Good connections to the BSL is definitely one of the pluses for the Germantown-Mt Airy- Chestnut Hill part of the NW. Comes in handy whenever something goes wrong.

The 27 is the only one out of those that would work, I live at the bottom of the hill so going all the way up to Ridge or Henry isn't really a good option. But at that point I might as well do the 62 since it also goes on 76 and drops me off much closer to my house.

Yeah unfortunately Manayunk really doesn't have good transit options outside of the rail.

[FamousBlueRaincoat]

Originally Posted by Becca8377

The 27 is the only one out of those that would work, I live at the bottom of the hill so going all the way up to Ridge or Henry isn't really a good option. But at that point I might as well do the 62 since it also goes on 76 and drops me off much closer to my house.

Yeah unfortunately Manayunk really doesn't have good transit options outside of the rail.

Yeah - I know someone who lives in Roxborough who can't afford the train but his bad experiences has set him against getting on a bus that takes the expressway to get to work. He takes the 61 all the way in to work everyday.

[Becca8377]

Originally Posted by FamousBlueRaincoat

Yeah - I know someone who lives in Roxborough who can't afford the train but his bad experiences has set him against getting on a bus that takes the expressway to get to work. He takes the 61 all the way in to work everyday.

The few times I've taken the 62 into work, it's usually about a half hour which I can deal with. Although the bus was 10min late today. I've never taken it back home though. The 61 takes way longer for me because my work is at 17th/Market and the 61 goes the opposite way into the city... then I would still have to either walk or take the MFL from 9th St area so that tacks on even more time.

Pretty much there's no way I can win at this situation

[FamousBlueRaincoat]

If you check out SEPTA train view right now...pretty late into the evening, past rush hour, of the first day of this experiment, it's pretty whacked. A bunch of trains 30-60+. It's going to be an interesting summer.

If they manage to figure this out a little bit I'd be willing to go back to the regional rail. The scheduled train times and arrivals aren't that much different. But some things are way out of whack. For example, with the regular M-F train schedule there would have been 3 Chestnut Hill East Trains and 2 (+1 borderline) Chestnut Hill Wests train arriving in Center City before 8 AM. Right now we're down to one Chestnut Hill East that gets to suburban at 6.55. There's also a CHE that gets to Suburban at 7.55 and a CHW that gets to Suburban at 7:59 - all guaranteed to be late at this point. So you're basically turning 5 or 6 trains of people into one possible train.

A lot of people also seem to use the regional rail to get to the Penn Hospital Complex at U City Station - something which I assume is completely shot for those who started at 7. There's no earlier train on the supposedly "enhanced" CHE like they said there was, and there certainly isn't on the CHW.

On the brighter side, SEPTA may tweak these schedules based on their experiences with them. And the SV 5's probably aren't going to all come back at one time, which means that things could gradually get better as they add trains back into service, even if it's not completely back to normal till later in the year.

[jessemh431]

Ok so is Amtrak taking SEPTA passes or no? Because I commute to Trenton and the Amtrak lines take half the time as SEPTA to get there, but an Amtrak pass is several hundred dollars more expensive so I can't afford it.

I pay my own pass, so at least the partial refund helps me out a bit.

[AJNEOA]

Originally Posted by jessemh431

Ok so is Amtrak taking SEPTA passes or no? Because I commute to Trenton and the Amtrak lines take half the time as SEPTA to get there, but an Amtrak pass is several hundred dollars more expensive so I can't afford it.

I pay my own pass, so at least the partial refund helps me out a bit.

My coworkers were going to call again. If I were you, I'd call myself. That will give you the most reliable answer.

[cpomp]

As if the Media/Elwyn line wasn't bad enough with the shuttle busing at Swarthmore, now the lack of train cars, it was chaos today.

[asiandudeyo]

I am one of the fortunate one who reverse-commute from the city to the burb to work.
And I did not work today. So I will see what happens tomorrow.
I feel bad for those people who are catching the train back to the burb. So as I understand, there will only be one train back to Lansdale/Doylestown per hour. How can they fit all those people?
Anybody care to share their experience today?