SEPTA: Fix It, Fund It, Nuke It, Start Over?

I think that transit problems are very widespread right now, and are not necessarily peculiar to SEPTA. That would include a lot of the airline industry right now where the large carriers cannot readily adapt to customers needs. Many other large cities seem to have similar transportation problems, but on a smaller scale - Buffalo, Pgh, etc. that also have to deal with a shrinking population. Also, one major problem is the high cost of fuel which would be less severe if SEPTA ran fewer busses and more alternate forms of transportation perhaps.

From my perspective, it seems that SEPTA is too large and cannot respond to producing an integrated transportation system that was largely laid out prior to 1950 (except for the CC tunnel & airport line).

In some respects, this is an interesting time because of the recent opening of the River Line in NJ. Plus, the infrastructure is still here even it it is being paved over. So, I don't think that things are as gloomy as they seem.

At any rate, I think their biggest problem is customer satisfaction - they don't see riders as customers, but as people that have no other option to get to where they are going. I think this is the basis of the general hostility that I find toward riders on their system.
Greg 19051

That's the thing---people aren't getting loud, people don't care. How many people did SEPTA get to go to Harrisburg last week?How many people go to board meetings? It would be nice if big meetings like that where the public can make comments were held on the weekend, like when people didn't have to be at work. Who's going to take a day off from work to go testify before the board, and does the board care?

Unfortunately, when election time comes around, everything but transit seems to be on the table. Yes there are other important issues both locally and nationally, but we hear very little about transit and urban issues that affect how and where we live.

We need officials at SEPTA or DVRPC to plan and operate a system in a auto-centric society. Unless we run out of oil, or oil goes to $80/bbl, people are not going to give up their cars. That being said, we need to make this system work for people who drive, and for the most part we all do.

So how do we get people involved? Or are we all just too turned off by it all to care? Would be nice if we still lived in the days of sit ins and protests where we could easily bring the system to a halt until SEPTA promised to change their ways.

jfrey40535 wrote:That's the thing---people aren't getting loud, people don't care. How many people did SEPTA get to go to Harrisburg last week?How many people go to board meetings? It would be nice if big meetings like that where the public can make comments were held on the weekend, like when people didn't have to be at work. Who's going to take a day off from work to go testify before the board, and does the board care?

Indeed... What was the old song lyric - "Been down so long I don't know what Up looks like" or something along those lines. When you've been pushing for 15 or 20 years to try to make a change, to try to get your voice heard, and all you do is find layer upon layer of bureaucracy melded with incompetence and outright stupidity, it's hard to remain upbeat. Even some of the people I know who make me look like an amateur [actually, I guess I am one] when it comes to trying to reform SEPTA, are reaching the point of giving up. At some stage it becomes like trying to help a critically-ill relative who is not only being mishandled by their doctors, but also keeps drinking and smoking and overeating. You can only do so much.

Unfortunately, when election time comes around, everything but transit seems to be on the table. Yes there are other important issues both locally and nationally, but we hear very little about transit and urban issues that affect how and where we live.

See the issues that tipped the election to Bush. Not real security around the world, not making sure everyone at home has a chance for a job and health care, just whether "they" will be coming to destroy our "values" [for "they", fill in terrorists / non-Chrisitians / non-heteros / anyone to the left of Arlen Specter / any other bogeyman you can think of]

Would be nice if we still lived in the days of sit ins and protests where we could easily bring the system to a halt ...

It looks as though Harrisburg will be bringing the system to a halt for us.


On one other topic - several of the posts re token machines appeared to confuse them with RRD ticket vending machines. They're completely separate technologies serving (well, maybe "serving" is too strong a word) two different parts of the system. What does relate them is SEPTA's inability to keep them updated, maintained and available in enough places so that riders are not forced to shell out extra bucks for the one-way cash fare all the time.

Marte wrote: A SEPTA contract could have saved The Budd Company of Philadelphia from closing in 1987; instead, the then order for SEPTA railcars went to a close bidder - Kawasaki. That nailed the coffin shut for Budd. There went 2300 jobs at Budd, plus who knows how many jobs created by local suppliers.

SEPTA was hamstrung by regulations requiring them to go with the lowest bidder. That was the way of every bus and railcar order until the regulation was rescinded prior to the first New Flyer bus order. Now they can either do bids or negotiated contracts.

Joe

queenlnr8 wrote:Well, then. Shouldn't this be the time for the State of PA to step in and get the DOT to pony up the cash to subsidize the freight running of the RRD?

This is Pennsylvania we're talking about here. Not going to ever happen....as evidenced by their refusal to even pony up $$ to keep Amtrak's Pennsylvanian running.

Joe