MFSE vs. I-95

To be fair to the roads, Septa doesn't always report delay, such as with last years' unattended backpack scare. When there are problems, they aren't always clear. Ex. I work in Plymouth Mtg, and we depend on the 27 bus to get our workers to us. When it snows they often cut sevice back to Barren Hill, or worse, Wissahickon. KYW usually reports this as a "detour".

I suspect that the MFSE is doing about as well as it can do with regard to speed. Doing such things as making the A-B situation more extensive might increase speeds slightly, but the MFSE is naturally limited by its two track configuration ( no physical provision for true express trains) Given physical nature of the area it serves, the only way to get a significant increase in speed would be to put the whole railroad underground. You might still have a bottleneck problem in the existing two track subway, but even having a four track line in the area outside of Center City ( now occupied by the elevated structure-- on both ends) would allow for much more flexibility in creating true express service. Of course I don't expect to live long enough to ever see this happen. Boston has done this with its old elevated lines over the last 20 years, so its not an impossible undertaking.

Would help if they fixed whatever track problem they're having on the WB track between Girard-Spring Garden

The only practical way to increase average speeds on the El is to skip stops. Increasing the acceleration or top speed will shave 5-10 seconds off each stop, while skipping a stop saves 40-60 seconds a stop. The time lost to braking and acceleration is at least 10-15 seconds. Opening doors, letting passengers on and off, and closing doors takes 30-60 seconds. What's worse, any delay of one train at a station has a snowball effect where at the next station, there will be more people waiting to get on the train because of the delay, increasing the dwell time and the delay down the line.

If it gets really bad, the best thing to do may be to skip all stops to the end of the line or until it is back on schedule, which they sometimes do in the NYC subway.

They do the occasional "skip everything till the end of the line" if there is a severe delay.

Back in 1999, I was doing video of the M4's at 2nd Street and an eastbound train arrived after a long gap. The operator announced that the next stop would be Margaret-Orthodox several times.

Then the following train (a set of the old Budds) arrived, and the operator and conductor had to go car to car yelling that Allegheny would be the next stop for that train. The train behind that made all stops normally.

Skipping stops yields some savings in travel time, but unless an express type train is able to pass stopped, or slower running local trains, real time savings are hard to achieve. This is the primary limitation on faster travel times of the two track MFSE.