walt wrote:How times have changed!
The P&W ran "tripper" service into the late 70s, with local cars running to Bryn Mawr while others operated semi-express out to Radnor or Conshy Road. There were also (I think) Limiteds from Norristown that began skip-stop service around Gulph Mills or Radnor. End-to-end on the Limiteds was around 20 minutes. The principle was, the further out you boarded, the faster the trip.
The trippers and other express services were cut back as the old Brill cars started to fail. For a while there was nothing but local service when the CTAs were first brought in. Once they had enough rehabbed CTAs and regauged Almond Joys, the current pattern of Bryn Mawr locals and Norristown Expresses was established.
It never seems to have dawned on anyone that the N-5s could provide something resembling the old level of service, adjusted of course for current travel patterns which have more reverse-commute trips than 30 years ago. Instead, SEPTA has stuck with the CTA pattern for a decade and a half. In fact, for the first 3 years or so of N-5 service, most trips were with 2 cars even on runs where the second car always ran empty. One of the operators told me that when they went to management to suggest running single cars, they were told that since the CTAs ran in pairs, the N-5s had to as well.
Even Homer Simpson might have been able to figure out that the CTAs were in married pairs and
couldn't run alone.