SEPTA Fleet News - July 2001 Archives

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SEPTA FLEET NEWS ARCHIVES

July 2001

July 31, 2001

Finally, after weeks of delays, I have uploaded about 20 new images to the site. This batch focuses mainly on the R5 Bus Bridge at Jenkintown and Ambler. I hope to have the Roadeo pictures up by the end of the week.

July 27, 2001

SEPTA will be operating a bus bridge on the Frankford side of the El this weekend. Shuttle buses will operate from Spring Garden to Frankford with express buses operating between Frankford and City Hall via I-95 and Bridge St. For the next four weekends following this weekend, SEPTA will operate bus bridges on the Market side of the El, between 15 and 69 Sts.

Midvale 3006 was involved in an accident at 4 & Spruce Sts yesterday. 3006 was southbound on the 57 when it was struck by a van making a turn onto 4 St from Spruce. There were no reports of injuries, however 3006 suffered some damage to its front curb side area.

July 21, 2001

Wire problems on Amtrak's Keystone Line caused 30 minute delays on the R5 Paoli/Thorndale line last night. The R6 Cynwyd line was forced to operate a bus bridge between 30 St Station and Cynwyd.

Whomever the genius was who put 30 foot buses on 104 trips to West Chester should have his or her head examined immediately. Twice in the past 10 days (and probably more), an ElDorado was spotted in West Chester operating on the 104. What's next, a cutaway for the 124/125?

For those who thought that the 4th of July fiasco in Center City was a mess, feel some pity for our bretheren in Baltimore City, who have had to endure three days (and counting) of bus bridges, detours, and other assorted fun due to that fire in the CSX tunnel near Downtown Baltimore. Of course, if SEPTA managers were running a similar operation, nobody would know what the hell was going on.

On Saturday, September 8, SEPTA and the National Railway Historical Society (Lancaster and Philadelphia chapters) will sponsor a special excursion train between 30 St Station and Strasburg. The train is scheduled to depart 30 St at 9:00am, and will make a stop at Paoli (you were expecting, maybe St Davids?) at 9:30am. Click here for more info.

July 20, 2001

A couple of site related notes to start off. First, some new images, particularly from the SEPTA Roadeo, will be uploaded this weekend, as well as several bus photos taken during the R5 Fort Washout bus bridge between Jenkintown and Ambler. Secondly, the Frankford Terminal web site will be moved to the new URL early next week. I am in the process of adjusting the links accordingly, which will also be completed this weekend. The new URL will be posted no later than Tuesday.

Speaking of Fort Washout, construction of the replacement bridge at Ft Washington has been completed, and rail service will resume for the morning peak hours on Monday. This means that the bus shortages at Midvale will subside and older buses can be retired. It also means that not only will Paoli Line passengers no longer have to suffer delays - no matter how minor (bear in mind that the average Paoli Line commuter tends to be more intolerant of delays than most SEPTA riders) - now that Lansdale branch service has been restored.
In a rare PATCO note, fares for the Lindenwold Hi-Speed line will increase on Sunday. This is the third and final phase of a three part fare increase which began in 1999. The fares will now increase as follows:
- The fare between Philadelphia stations (8-Market and 15/16-Locust inclusive) will increase to $1.15. The $1.15 fare will also apply for travel between Philadelphia and City Hall/Camden or Broadway/Camden. By comparison, a one-way bus ride on NJ Transit between Center City and Broadway/Camden (Walter Rand Transportation Center) will still cost only $1.10.
- The intra-New Jersey fare between all New Jersey stations (City Hall/Camden to Lindenwold inclusive) will increase to $1.30.
- The fare between Philadelphia and Ferry Avenue/Camden will increase to $1.85.
- The fare between Philadelphia and Collingswood, Westmont, and Haddonfield stations will increase to $2.15.
- The fare between Philadelphia and Woodcrest, Ashland, and Lindenwold stations will increase to $2.45.
- The SEPTA-PATCO transfers will increase to $2.10.
SEPTA is now facing controversy on two fronts (so what else is new?). A paratransit rider and several advocates staged a protest on N Delaware Av near Allegheny on Wednesday by delaying a paratransit vehicle for nearly 5 hours until a high-ranking SEPTA official arrived. SEPTA has been in the center of several major controversies involving paratransit, not the least of which has been the recent fare increase. Other paratransit controversies include an investigation by the Montgomery County District Attorney over King Transportation's handling of SEPTA's MontCo paratransit contract (a contract which was recently awarded to Krapf's); the departure of King as paratransit provider in Delaware County, replaced by Community Transit of Eddystone; and a report on KYW-3 over missed rides following Sunday's Phillies-Yankees game at Veteran's Stadium (a game I was at, BTW), a charge that SEPTA (predictably) denied.

Adding to SEPTA's problems was an incident last week in which a 12 year old child was killed on the Broad Street Subway after he entered a supposedly locked motorman's booth. The child reportedly stuck his head out the window and fell to his death about 20 feet south of Race-Vine Station. News reports indicate the child had reportedly got past the lock, and into the motorman's booth. The Philadelphia Daily News reports that a contract to upgrade the locks on the B-IV fleet - at a cost of $28,487 - was agreed to in 1999, and was not scheduled to be completed until 2002. Isn't it wonderful that SEPTA's spokesman/apologist Richard Maloney called this incident a "vandalism problem, not a safety problem"? NEWS FLASH: It's now a safety problem!

July 13, 2001

A 45 year old Philadelphia man was struck and killed by an Philadelphia-bound Amtrak train yesterday afternoon. Reports indicate that the victim eluded Malvern police following a car break in which took place in downtown Malvern. Service on the R5 Paoli line to Malvern, Exton, Whitford, Downingtown, and Thorndale was suspended while the accident scene was cleared.

A serious accident on the US 30 Bypass near PA 100 in Exton caused major delays for service on Route 133 yesterday. All traffic was diverted off of the 30 Bypass onto Old Route 30, which caused the 133 to operate about 15-20 minutes behind schedule.

July 12, 2001

Another day, another subway-surface diversion. Yesterday's diversion was due to debris from the overhead catenary support structure which fell onto the track area in the area of 33 St. Unlike Tuesday's diversion, a supervisor was present at 40-Filbert to coordinate service. Also, three Callowhill buses (3413, 3429, and 5025) were on stand-by to take passengers to connecting service following the diversion. I have a feeling the tunnel will have to be closed for a lengthy period of time in the near future to facilitate repairs.

As part of the fiasco that was 4th of July bus service, SEPTA was scheduled to have at least 30 buses standing by at a staging area along the Walnut St Bridge, with the intention to have several buses escorted to staging areas in the area of 20 to 22 Sts. Philadelphia Police officials at the site, however, had a change of plans, which forced several buses to return their depots, while others were stuck in traffic. That doesn't exactly absolve SEPTA from their responsibilities to provide added subway-surface and El service for special events.

Add the H/XH to Midvale based lines which have now seen the ElDorados. In addition, there was a report that both an ElDorado and an artic were spotted in service on the 23 along Germantown Avenue.

July 10, 2001 - PM Update

The New Flyer order has been delayed yet again. This time, the first batch of 100 D40LF low floor buses are slated to arrive around December. At which time, Callowhill and Southern will be the first get the new buses. Red Arrow will get at least 10, which will be used on the 104 and 113, and might also be used on the 109, depending on how well the bus clears that steep grade at Long Ln near Marshall Rd.

Speaking of New Flyers, the Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority (LANTA) in Allentown is also expected to recieve new D35LF and D40LF coaches from New Flyer later this year. The LANTA order has also been delayed (LANTA will get their buses before SEPTA). This is mentioned since for the APTA Roadeo in September, LANTA will send 6 of their 98xx series D35LF buses to Philadelphia (APTA has a 35-ft and 40-ft competition), however the buses which were to be used were supposed to be part of the new bus delivery.

Some ElDorados may be moved from Red Arrow to a depot to be determined. At present, 26 ElDorados are assigned to Red Arrow, which are now used on the 103, 107, 111, 114, 115, 116, 118, and 305. However, the 26 buses allocated are more than required to fill those lines. Some ElDorados have shown up on the 104 Newtown Square short turn trips, 105 short turns, the 112, and the 113 Darby short turns, and even the 123. Accordingly, all 13xx Neos assigned to Red Arrow are now off the roster.

The 122 between UPS Tinicum and Chester Terminal is scheduled to be discontinued after the September pick due to low ridership and the expiration of the federal "Welfare to Work" funding.

As part of the September pick, pulse point service will be instituted on some of the Red Arrow buses at 69 St Terminal after 8:00pm. Routes 104, 108, 109, 110, and 113 will now depart at the same time in order to facilitate connections between buses. The pulse point times will not affect the P&W or Media/Sharon Hill trolleys. However, some P&W and 101 trips might depart at the same times as the buses due to the way they are scheduled, however that won't be the case for the 102, since Media and Sharon Hill trips have alternating departure times.

The 5:45pm 104 West Chester Express to Eagle Rd (29 Block) has been encountering major delays departing 69 St Terminal. For two consecutive days, the 5:45pm 104 trip has left 15-20 minutes late. Apparently, this is not an isolated incident for that trip, as some passengers have complained that the driver has been arriving late for that trip on a regular basis. Now, unless that run is tied in with the 123 (I seriously doubt it, however), there's no reason that this trip should be running 15-20 minutes late every day.

The reason for the bus shortage at Midvale is apparently due to the number of buses being used on the R5 Bus Bridge between Jenkintown and Ambler. The bulk of the runs are assigned to Midvale. At least 22 buses are being used for weekday bus bridge service between Jenkintown and Ambler as well as a supplemental bus bridge between Lansdale and Doylestown. The Lansdale-Doylestown bus bridge is being operated in order to serve riders travelling north of Lansdale who may have missed their trains due to the temporary schedule for the R5 Lansdale line. Bear in mind that the normal headways between Lansdale and Doylestown is every hour during weekdays, so the extra service will end once the Ft Washington bridge is repaired.

Some R5 Bus Bridge weekday trips are being covered by Comly, in addition to Allegheny and Midvale. The Comly buses are primarily being used for the Lansdale-Doylestown shuttles.

The R5 Bus Bridge service is also affecting the retirement of some of the older buses in the SEPTA fleet. As it stands now, the next batch of retirements may not take place until either August or December due to the delayed New Flyer order.

The 10 Bus Bridge is actually being operated by Elmwood drivers, however they report to Callowhill to get their buses, since there is no refueling station for buses at Elmwood.

During the recent picks, more trips on the 5 were assigned to Southern since the Frankford Depot is being reconstructed as part of the new Frankford Terminal reconstruction.

An accident involving to Subway-Surface trolleys at around 4:45pm near the 37 St Station forced diversion service during the PM rush hour. However, there were no supervisors to be found at 40 & Market Sts, where a crowd of passengers waited anywhere from 5-10 minutes before the first diverted trolley arrived. After about 15 minutes of one trolley after another pulling up to 40-Market, tunnel service resumed. However, no supervisor was sent to 40-Market to let passengers know. A lot of the remaining passengers eventually boarded a 30 bus bound for 30 St Station (which also stops at the 40 St Portal). Now, this may seem like a minor issue to Transit Operations, but would it really hurt to send at least one supervisor down to kind of direct things?

July 10, 2001 - AM Update

As I am updating these pages, I noticed Red Arrow 5299 operating down High St in West Chester. This apparently is related to the proposed extension of the 104 bus to West Chester University.

Due to the enormous volume of SEPTA images at my present server, I am considering separating the Frankford Terminal web site from the rest of my Northeast Bus & Rail Gallery web site. Nothing is set in stone just yet, however, I have noticed that I am running out of disk space at my 50megs.com server. The plan is to move this site to another server with the same amount of space. This will allow more images to be added (both SEPTA and non-SEPTA), and will separate my SEPTA pages from my other pages. More details will follow soon.

July 8, 2001

The bus shortage at Midvale is not only causing the ElDorado fleet to be assigned to routes where they don't belong (ie. the 2, 32, and 57), but some older and non-accessible buses are being used on wheelchair routes as well. Some 86xx and 30xx buses have been spotted on the 2, 32, 61, and C. The 30xx buses have mainly been spotted on the 32 and 61, while a couple of 86xx buses were spotted on the C, something which hasn't happened in recent years.

The ElDorado order appears to be complete. I spotted 4579 operating on the 77 yesterday afternoon along Township Line Rd in Abington Twp. Of course, the other bus being used during the PM hours was 3303, despite the fact that ElDorados were on the line during the rest of the day. In fairness, though, I think some of the drivers at Midvale have yet to be trained on the ElDorados, and Midvale is the largest bus depot in the system.

July 6, 2001

In the July 6 editions of the Philadelphia Daily News, Chris Brennan reports that former Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Robert Asher will be appointed to the SEPTA Board from Montgomery County. I believe he will be replacing former MontCo Commissioner Mario Mele, who challenged the GOP-backed Michael Marino - former DA and present chairman of the MontCo Commissioners - and hasn't exactly been in the good graces of the powers that be in Norristown since then.
Asher's appointment wouldn't be a big deal, except he is a convicted felon. In 1986, Asher and Pennsylvania Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer were convicted in federal court of mail fraud, perjury, and conspiracy to commit bribery. The Daily News reports that Asher's appointment is causing controversy as the Pennsylvania Constitution bars those convicted of bribery, perjury, or other serious offenses from holding public office. Whether or not serving on the SEPTA Board falls under the constitutional ban remains to be seen. And people wonder why confidence in SEPTA is shrinking?
In Brennan's article, Bruce Ledewitz, a law professor at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, searched legal opinions back to the 19th century to see if a spot on SEPTA's board equals an "office of trust," finding no legal precedents. Here's a quote from Ledewitz that really cracks me up. "A very good argument can be made that it is an office of trust or profit." When it comes to SEPTA, profit seems to fit perfectly, but I don't know about the trust part.

July 5, 2001

Just a few short days after SEPTA's fares increased, the message to riders of the system was clear: "Welcome America ... To Our Nightmare Transit System." Judging by last night's irresponsible transit planning (which after following the goings on at SEPTA, is almost a daily occurance), getting around on SEPTA's rail transit system could be described as anywhere from a "comedy of errors" to an "outright embarassment." Despite overflow crowds at the 22 & 30 St subway-surface stations, sub-surf trolleys were few and far between. And when they did show up, they were "bunched" - one right after the other. Market-Frankford El service wasn't much better. Despite the promises that El and Broad Street train service would operate later, only a couple of trains trickled into 69 St terminal after midnight. In other words, it's business as usual at SEPTA.
I guess it would have been too much to ask, I mean SEPTA is only $32 million in the red (or so the SEPTA "apologists/spokesmen" such as Richard Maloney and Jim Whitaker would have you believe), but would it really have hurt SEPTA to have increased train frequencies to a consistant 5-7 minutes between 7:00pm and 1:00am, when the bulk of riders are either arriving or leaving the Art Museum area? Also, it wouldn't have hurt for SEPTA to put more sub-surf trolleys on the streets. (Maybe the TWU would bellyache for a few minutes, until they realize that many of the motormen would get overtime pay.) Additionally, it would have been nice if a couple of extra trips on the Red Arrow routes (specifically, 101, 102, 104, 108, 109) would depart between 12:30am and 1:30am to accomodate the extra ridership instead of just having the drivers wait an extra 5-10 minutes (which is what happened last night). About the only thing done right on the SEPTA system was Regional Rail (which seems to be the only division that can do anything right, though that might be stretching it just a wee bit).
Of course, next year it would be nice if SEPTA applied these suggestions. It is after all, common sense. But, of course, don't expect this to actually occur, because after all ... this is SEPTA. The terms "SEPTA" and "common sense" are rarely - if ever - used in the same sentence.

Not transit related, but I have to rant. For those of you who missed the embarassment that was Philadelphia's 4th of July celebration, wouldn't it be nice if the suits planning "Welcome America" would make the celebrations more "Philadelphia-oriented" instead of bringing in the "limo liberals" to turn Philadelphia into "Hollywood East." How ironic was it that none of the performers who read the Declaration of Independence have any family ties to the Philadelphia area (with the exception of the cop-killer coddling Whoppi Goldberg)?
Winona Ryder and Benicio Del Toro? Oh, puh-lease. When did they become talented enough to even be on the same stage - much less be in the same program - as Mel Gibson or Kevin Spacey? (I guess David "I can't act, but my daddy's on TV, so that's why I'm an actor" Borneaz was too busy pretending to be an actor to return home to Philadelphia.)
If the Hollywood "carpetbaggers" want to celebrate the birth of our country, let them go to Washington, DC, where they would feel right at home. Next year, I think I might go to Wildwood or somewhere down the Jersey Shore so at least I can enjoy a real "community" celebration instead of some "fake" Hollywood celebration that the bozos at "Welcome America" would rather stage.