SEPTA Needs to Restore Full Service to the Bethlehem Branch

[Suburban Station]

Bethlehem, the new Newtown thread 🙈 Sooner they make it into a trail/bike path the better

Is it really sensible to compare newtown, pa (pop. 2250) to bethlehem (pop. 75,000)? Seems like apples and oranges

WoW how misleading! Newtown Township actually has a population of 18,000. What a troll you are.

Although presumably you are joking bethlehem region has 70 not 18k

[zebrasepta]

Bethlehem, the new Newtown thread 🙈 Sooner they make it into a trail/bike path the better

Is it really sensible to compare newtown, pa (pop. 2250) to bethlehem (pop. 75,000)? Seems like apples and oranges

WoW how misleading! Newtown Township actually has a population of 18,000. What a troll you are.

Although presumably you are joking bethlehem region has 70 not 18k

He's talking about Newtown Township, not Newtown Borough and definitely not Bethlehem

[NorthPennLimited]

This week, there has been activity on the former Bethlehem Line north of Lansdale.

There have been SEPTA track department machines on the tracks north of the end of catenary wire repairing the tracks between Lansdale and Schwab Road.

Not sure if SEPTA is sponsoring the track repair work with their machines, or if this work was contracted to SEPTA by the Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad who operates on the Bethlehem Line from Lansdale to Telford.

[mcgrath618]

It did say in their budget reports that they would look into restoring service to Quakertown...
Could this be the start of something new?

[JeffK]

It did say in their budget reports that they would look into restoring service to Quakertown...Could this be the start of something new?

I can't speak about Quakertown specifically, but previous budgets have licluded a lot of proposed service resumptions or expansions that have never gone beyond the gleam-in-the-eye stage. E.g. restoring the 56 trolley has been listed for at least a decade.

[bikentransit]

The Lansdale parking garage was SEPTA's response to need for service north of Lansdale. Despite the population explosion in Quakertown and in-between, and the horrendous traffic on 309, there's no drive for this. It's unfortunate that Bethlehem/Allentown restoration couldn't have been packaged into funding that went along with the millions going into the NE Extension expansion.

[jrevans]

SEPTA seems to have service expansion in the works on the Bethelehem Branch, unfortunately, it's trail expansion.

Yup, more rails are being ripped out. This time from Shelly to the North. Sad.

[bikentransit]

It's part of SEPTA's Regional Trail Division. It's their newest and fastest growing mode. It's unclear at this point when SEPTA Key readers will be deployed at the trail heads, however users can expect the same fare structure as the Regional Rail sister division.

As you can see, our region is very proud of the Regional Trail division, codenamed "The Circuit", because unlike Regional Rail, your experience on the Circuit does not rely on a completed circuit of catenary that's needed on Regional Rail.

[bikentransit]

For now, users can buy a Trail pass.

[R36 Combine Coach]

The Lansdale parking garage was SEPTA's response to need for service north of Lansdale. Despite the population explosion in Quakertown and in-between, and the horrendous traffic on 309, there's no drive for this. It's unfortunate that Bethlehem/Allentown restoration couldn't have been packaged into funding that went along with the millions going into the NE Extension expansion.

Even so, Trans-Bridge service between Bethlehem-Quakertown-Doylestown is rather limited.

[RDG467]

<snip> It's unfortunate that Bethlehem/Allentown restoration couldn't have been packaged into funding that went along with the millions going into the NE Extension expansion.

I believe the NE Ext expansion is being funded by toll dollars, not general transportation funds. Or, were you referring to the Act 44 funds going to Septa, which keep driving the yearly toll increases???

[SemperFidelis]

To save non residents from having to read up on PA Act 44, boy did they screw the pooch on that.

Apparently the Turnpike Commission has to pay around $450 million per year to PennDot, a number they agreed upon when they thought they were going to add tolls to I-80, all across the state, to help fix our deplorable road system. Then, of course, they decided not to add tolls to I-80, so the entire cost of the annual payment must be bourne by PA Turnpike users.

A trip from one end of our crumbling state to another is now over $40 for a passenger automobile. Incredible.

[jrevans]

To save non residents from having to read up on PA Act 44, boy did they screw the pooch on that.

Apparently the Turnpike Commission has to pay around $450 million per year to PennDot, a number they agreed upon when they thought they were going to add tolls to I-80, all across the state, to help fix our deplorable road system. Then, of course, they decided not to add tolls to I-80, so the entire cost of the annual payment must be bourne by PA Turnpike users.

A trip from one end of our crumbling state to another is now over $40 for a passenger automobile. Incredible.

Agreed, the PA Turnpike is really in a bind here, due to this poorly executed act. I drive across the turnpike a couple times a year to visit family and the costs have risen dramatically, and there's nothing they can do about it.

Their website mentions it:
https://www.paturnpike.com/pdfs/about/PTC_Executive_Summary.pdf

Our role has changed, as well, and since the passage of Act 44 in 2007, the
Commission is providing funding to PennDOT to help with road, bridge, and mass
transit projects across the Commonwealth. In the first six years of Act 44, the
Commission transferred nearly $4.1 billion to PennDOT. The payment requirements
were modified as a result of Act 89, passed in 2013, and the Commission will
continue to assist PennDOT with funding through 2057. The Commission is working
more closely with PennDOT than ever before to achieve efficiencies for Turnpike
customers and all taxpayers.

[ChesterValley]

To save non residents from having to read up on PA Act 44, boy did they screw the pooch on that.

Apparently the Turnpike Commission has to pay around $450 million per year to PennDot, a number they agreed upon when they thought they were going to add tolls to I-80, all across the state, to help fix our deplorable road system. Then, of course, they decided not to add tolls to I-80, so the entire cost of the annual payment must be bourne by PA Turnpike users.

A trip from one end of our crumbling state to another is now over $40 for a passenger automobile. Incredible.

I just want to provide some context. A family member of mine works for PennDOT and was mentioning this problem. What happened was the turnpike commission tried to toll I-80 but the Federal government told them to pound sand,
citing that federal dollars were used to build I-80. Three times the Commission tried, and three times the Feds told them to go away

The reason for the payment has been that PennDOT and the Turnpike Commission are two separate entities, and the turnpike commission for the most part kept money in its own spot. The point of the act was to help balance the budget gambling on the money coming in from I-80 as you said, so they are indeed screwed.

[bikentransit]

It should have been policy that when a major highway is upgraded, the parallel passenger rail corridor is upgraded/restored, in this case 476 and the Bethlehem branch. We need to do better.