jfrey40535 wrote:What gives?You can probably buy a bus for about 250K (just my guess)
A new trolley costs 3mm.
At that rate, you can buy 12 buses for the cost of one new trolley.
Railroad Forums
Moderator: AlexC
Clearfield wrote:They literally don't have the trolleys to run the service. The 23 is the longest city route. That means they need alot of equipment to run it. If SEPTA can get the capital cash to buy enough trolleys to run the route, (and I do not know how many that would be, although I'll bet that Matt does) it could come back.<lurch>Youuu raaang?</lurch> (I actually sound like that at the moment)
Clearfield wrote:The price of buses is not that low any more. And the economic life of trolleys is at least twice as long, probably three times (look what great shape the subway-surface cars are in--anyone remember what the RTS buses of the same era were like after about five years?). Put together with the abovementioned capacity advantage, the capital cost difference is a lot less than a factor of 12.jfrey40535 wrote:What gives?You can probably buy a bus for about 250K (just my guess)
A new trolley costs 3mm.
At that rate, you can buy 12 buses for the cost of one new trolley.
Urban D Kaye wrote:is there any chance that Route 23 will use the currently idle PCC-II cars to fill the previously mentioned equipment shortage...and that we'll see a return of trolleys to Rt 23 rather than Rt 15?Unfortunately, the PCC II's use alot more power than the original equipment. This meant that the entire Route 15 power infrastructure had to be rebuilt. You can run PCC II's on the 23, but of you had all of the cars running, you'd be tripping substation breakers or worse.
Clearfield wrote:Unfortunately, the PCC II's use alot more power than the original equipment. This meant that the entire Route 15 power infrastructure had to be rebuilt. You can run PCC II's on the 23, but of you had all of the cars running, you'd be tripping substation breakers or worse.Hmmm. That's a real problem. OK, thanks for the info.
jfrey40535 wrote:Why didn't SEPTA just have all of thre remaining PCC's rebuilt instead of 18?The condition of the remaining units is iffy. If SEPTA can get capital money to buy trolleys for Route 23, they would last 40 years.
Silverliner II wrote:Considering that the average (i.e. non-transit/rail/bus fan) SEPTA commuter doesn't even CARE what their vehicle is, just as long as it shows up reliably every day, is it any surprise that there is no action over restoring 23 and 56 to rail? When the trackless trolley lines were operating, I continually heard people referring to the TT coaches as "buses".When I worked in CC, a co-worker (with a graduate education, btw) told me he was going to take the "34 bus" to Drexel. I said that the 34 was not a bus, then waited for his response ... "yeah, it's the bus that runs in the tunnel next to the subway."