Philadelphia Inquirer - SEPTA stops work on proposed King of Prussi

Well only 54 Million spent on this project.
Perhaps this will bode well for the Philly to Reading service.
This program was WAY to heavy in costs, 1234 would have fallen over if all the consultants showed up at one time and started dancing! It died from over feeding of dollars and planning.

Another SEPTA error, Harrisburg is really getting tired of the failures of this "company".
WE need to split SEPTA into buses and heavy rail.

when talking to SEPTA about rail service hold up pictures of a horse, a wrench and a train.....keep pointing to the train.

RDG Fan - Here is the Inquirer story link - subject to paywall restrictions:
https://inquirer.com/news/septa-stops-k ... 30317.html

The "King of Pressure" NHSL line extension was denied Federal funding due to extreme cost overruns...
The Feds would have paid for the "Lion's Share" of the entire project costs...

Splitting up SEPTA into separate companies may be more problematic than it is actually worth - what makes
SEPTA somewhat unique is that all of the operating divisions are under one "umbrella"...

Politics will come into play with a proposal such as a Roosevelt Boulevard Rapid Transit Line for the City...
Having Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties along with the City of Philadelphia sometimes
made it easier to obtain transit funding for SEPTA - especially during times of GOP control of PA and Federal
funding and/or subsidies - the heavily-Democratic City going alone with a separate CTD company may face a
more hostile reception from the "Loyal Opposition" in cases like this one in the future...

Philadelphia to Reading Rail Service depends if SEPTA can work out some sort of an agreement with Norfolk
Southern - and for Berks County and/or BARTA to further subsidize service west of Pottstown...

In closing the thought "Be Careful of What You Wish For" could describe splitting up SEPTA...MACTRAXX

rdgrailfan wrote: ↑Fri Mar 17, 2023 3:52 pm Well only 54 Million spent on this project.
Perhaps this will bode well for the Philly to Reading service.
This program was WAY to heavy in costs, 1234 would have fallen over if all the consultants showed up at one time and started dancing! It died from over feeding of dollars and planning.

Another SEPTA error, Harrisburg is really getting tired of the failures of this "company".
WE need to split SEPTA into buses and heavy rail.

when talking to SEPTA about rail service hold up pictures of a horse, a wrench and a train.....keep pointing to the train.

But think of the benefits. It seems you wait 10 years, then all the studies are out of date and you can pay friends, relatives and political pals 54 million dollars all over again. I believe the Glassboro line overseen by the DRPA has been doing this almost 40 years and has managed to hand the "consultants" nearly half a billion dollars. SEPTA might think they have all the bases covered but I think they could learn quite a bit from the Delaware River Pork Authority.

Here's the article without a paywall.
https://www.fox29.com/news/septa-pauses ... rest-rates.

That's EXACTLY what happens - projects like this have a lot of different clocks that reset if work pauses. More than money is forfeited; if the project eventually resumes some or all of the associated work has to be repeated to account for what's changed in the interim.

The whole debacle's playing out as feared. Like the SVM and Cross-County projects, SEPTA made avoidable mistakes and dawdled while costs escalated. That said, as the Inquirer story pointed out costs are out of line for projects around the country. No one seems to know or care why comparable improvements in other western countries are coming in at half or even a third as much.

Another editorial from the Inky: https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/editor ... editorials

I don't agree with the piece 100% but I'm glad they're finally starting to question SEPTA's planning and decision-making blunders.

SEPTA suffers from the problems that most American government suffers from in terms of going big instead of going small. There is a lot of small, low hanging fruit projects that could improve SEPTA, but aren't going to be flashy enough to get money. For all the money for the KOP extension, you could have basically built out Regional Rail to West Chester, Quakertown, Atglen, and Pottstown plus done a lot of other stuff on the bus/trolley side.

It's because officials want something that they can pose for photos in front of.

So assuming the Schuylkill Rail Project goes forward how would KOP really benefit.

The nearest station location is in Valley Forge National Park and the line seems to hug the water AWAY from all that development.

Billybob wrote: ↑Sun Jun 11, 2023 11:28 am So assuming the Schuylkill Rail Project goes forward how would KOP really benefit.

The nearest station location is in Valley Forge National Park and the line seems to hug the water AWAY from all that development.

My understanding is that a new station would be built just east of the 422/23 interchange. That would seem to be a good spot for shuttle buses like seen at Paoli with the Great Valley Corporate Center area.

Billybob wrote: ↑Sun Jun 11, 2023 11:28 am So assuming the Schuylkill Rail Project goes forward how would KOP really benefit.

The nearest station location is in Valley Forge National Park and the line seems to hug the water AWAY from all that development.

Outside box thinking, but could be a case for an ariel tram.