R8 commute this morning :-\

This morning, my commute from fox Chase to center city was a bit congested. The 7:17 train out of Fox Chase is usually 4 cars long, which is (barely) enough to sit all passengers. I don't know why SEPTA decided to use only 3 this morning, but it was absolute hell having people stand over you and all. I think they like to play games and see how pissed off they can make passangers by making rush hour trains smaller. Anyhoo.. the conductor appologized but still, SEPTA should no better than that.
Another thing... today I had to go down to Market East to pick up a service garuntee form (cause my monday train home was over 20 minutes late) and when I went up to Temple, I caught one of those super trains. I've never been on one, but I must say they are quite nice. Kinda made me jealous that certain lines get the super trains. What makes these trains so special? can't they just put like 6 or 7 silverliners together and that'll do the same thing? I wish they would use it on the R8. you know... give passengers a little treat. *sigh* oh well... thats SEPTA for you.

That's not terribly uncommon, in my experience. About four or five times during the last school year, the usual 7:34 six car train out of Elm Street was cut to four cars. What usually happened was they packed the four cars until there wasn't even standing room left (around Manayunk), and then announce there that the train would become an express to North Broad, and another train would be along "shortly" to pick up the last couple stops. I always felt sorry for the people waiting for the next train, because who knows how long they had to wait for it.

Super train? What do you mean? If you are referring to the push/pull trainsets, how would you accomplish that with 6 or 7 silverliners?

Sorry, I was just left terribly confused by your post...

Umblehoon wrote:Super train? What do you mean? If you are referring to the push/pull trainsets, how would you accomplish that with 6 or 7 silverliners?

Sorry, I was just left terribly confused by your post...

Yea I meant those, the push/pull trains.. couldn't SEPTA just use like 6 silverliners? or is there a lot more room on those push/pulls?

They use the Push-pull trains on the most heavily patronized express trains on certain lines (R2 Warminster, R3 West Trenton, R5 Thorndale, R7 Trenton) due to higher top speed (but at the cost of acceleration). I am sorry to say, but a push-pull train on the R8 Fox Chase just would not work out. The line's stations are too closely spaced for a push-pull train to be economical.

Here is a pic i took this morning on the R3 West Trenton, just south of Langhorne station. Low-res of course, for the web.

It seems that SEPTA needs more MU cars in service. I don't know if it's due to lack of maintenance, or if there just aren't enough cars to go around, but during rush hour, there never seem to be enough cars for the number of passengers.

It's costing SEPTA riders and costing the city jobs and residents and people decide that the transportation system is a mess and decide to relocate elsewhere.

I've been noticing that, as well. Different things here and there...

--The last express to West Trenton (5:36 p.m. @ 30th Street) used to be a 5-car consist, now it's usually a 4-car consist. Frequently it and the 5:33 R5 express to Doylestown end up coming up from the lower yard on Track 6. One day, they actually only delivered two cars, and we ended up linking up with two others at either Suburban or Market East.

--One of this morning's express trains (6:48 @ Langhorne) had only four cars instead of its usual five, and the front car was closed off for some unknown reason, making the train extremely packed this morning (usually there's enough seats for everybody; it was at standing room only by the time we reached Forest Hills).

Yet every time I ride by Penn Coach yard during rush hour there are cars parked there. If they're broken, shouldn't they be at Overbrook or Roberts Ave?

I swear I think the conductors purposely keep cars closed sometimes just to annoy us. Happens to me every time I ride a R7. I get on the train and all the seats are taken. They're not full, but you might have one person sitting in a (2) seater with his bags in the seat next to him, so I have to always ask people to move their stuff or get the conductor to and then sit next to some crabby person cause they had to put their bag on the floor so I could have a seat. All while the front car is closed.

They do this alot on 2 car trains where they keep the front car closed. Passenger comfort obviously isn't a concern with SEPTA.

jfrey40535 wrote:I swear I think the conductors purposely keep cars closed sometimes just to annoy us.

It's not just to annoy you--it's to give crew members and deadheading employees a place to sit away from the passengers, and to reduce the work the conductor has to do to collect fares.

Under most circumstances(*), crews are under orders to open all cars of the consist to passengers, but like many other SEPTA passenger service instructions, this often violated.

*--exceptions include mechanical failures and situations where a train is carrying extra cars in its consist for a positioning move. But circumstances where only one car of a two-car consist is open should be rare.

Matt,

I think it is standard practice now to have only one car on a 2 car consist closed. This only occurs at night after peak traffic has ended, usually after 7 or 8pm.

Usually the one car is enough to accomodate everyone, but I have noticed on just about all regional routes that this is practiced. This includes Chestnut Hill East & West, Warminster, Norristown, and Fox Chase.

^ That's also done on the West Trenton trains, depending on the conductor. Some chain off the front car, others don't. I've also seen it where they don't open the front car until they get to Market East. And then there's also passengers sneaking back into the third car, though the conductors usually catch them.

You are a Fox Chase Rider too? So am I! I board the train at Ryers, almost every day, although not always.

I have been riding the R7 for 5 days a week for the past 6 years. I take the 5:31 PM out of Market East for my trek home. When I first started riding we had 4 cars, all in use. The ride was comfortable with almost every seat being filled. Lately in the past year we have been knocked down to 3 cars. It's not bad but it gets a little tight, all the 3 seaters filled with a few standing. Last week for 2 days they knocked us down to 2 cars with everybody who gets on at 30th St. left standing or left on the platform. I get so frustrated when I see an R5 go by with 6 cars being half fillled. A few weeks ago I thought that we were going to get our 4 cars back but the conductors wouldn't allow us to sit in the last car even know a few people chose to stand rather than sit next to an overweight passenger. I pay $1,700.00 a year to ride SEPTA, I'd be better off working closer to home.

My g/f commutes to the University of Pennsylvania every morning using the R5 out of Lansdale to 30th Street Station. Its usually about 1-2 times a week that theres some type of power issue. Last week it was the power lines just died and that made her an hour late for work.

Then the next day it was the catenary that failed on the engine, so they went like 1-2 mph ( she said she could have walked faster lol) to the next station, said everybody off and wait for the next train, which was like another 30 mins for some odd reason.

Needless to say...she had some choice words for SEPTA last week lol. I have yet to ride down, but im bound to one of these days.

Kevin