July Taxi fare hikes ought to help SEPTA (ought to)

It was announced in this morning's newspaper that a rather significant fare hike for Phila's taxi fleet has been approved starting 7/05/05. Airport to downtown fares will jump from approx. $20 to $25, and shorter trips will also be increased by about $1 or more depending on mileage.

While the fares have been flat for 15 years and this was due, this should be an incentive for otherwise oblivious consumers to look into the R1 and the convenience it offers twice hourly, 18 hours a day, seven days a week. Also I think it allows SEPTA to increase the train fares this year as they are planning to do without ridership being lost in droves to taxi service.

Except the R1 is a tortise. I was looking at the schedule for the 37 the other day, and its only about 20 minutes longer using the BSL from City Hall to Synder, then the 37 to the airport, not to mention how much cheaper it is.

The R1 is 23 minutes from City Hall (when ontime). The 37/BSL is about 45 minutes (7 min on BSL, 35 mins on 37), but only $1.90 if you're using those aincient coins called tokens, verses the $5.50 anytime fare on the train. SEPTA really needs to work on speeding their trains up if the airport line is going to be of any use.

One encouraging thing though---> I do see alot of Airport workers riding the train, but just about anything going in and out of the Airport seems to be doing well (R1, 37, 108).

(when ontime)

A big "when." When I take the 3:10 to Norristown, the 3:04 Airport train is always at least a couple minutes late, and they often have to change it to another track so it doesn't delay another train.

what is the fare when you enter a cab? Here in Boston the starting fare is $ 1.75, then is goes up .30 every 1/3 of a mile. I took a cab for my company once from Cambridge to Hyde Park and it cost 44.00. The meter also goes up while sitting in traffic.

Even at $25, the flat taxi fare to Center City is cheaper than, for example, San Francisco, where I paid $38 to go from/to SFO.

At PHL, my options are a $7 each-way fare per person on the railroad, a $35 taxi ride, or park for $7.50 a day at an independent lot near the airport. The train station is a 15 minute walk with luggage. Parking requires an additional 15-minutes to take the shuttle bus from the lot to the airport. When you're travelling as a group, the taxi and parking options start to look a lot better than the train.

I predict that the taxi rate increase would have little effect on the R1, since people are willing to pay a premium for faster, personal service, and taxi fares are still pretty low.

mb41 wrote:what is the fare when you enter a cab? Here in Boston the starting fare is $ 1.75, then is goes up .30 every 1/3 of a mile. I took a cab for my company once from Cambridge to Hyde Park and it cost 44.00. The meter also goes up while sitting in traffic.

Last time I was in Philly, about 3months ago it was $1.80 with $0.30 increases.

From 23 and South St to Penn Station was $3.30 give or take a few cents.