Author: van2025ko

With the opening of Penn Park, the University of Pennsylvania has expanded its “Penn Transit” shuttle service to operate during the daytimes (previously, the buses only ran in the evenings).  The buses will run on a “Campus Loop” serving all of the current stops in addition to the Levy Tennis Pavilion every 20 minutes.

For more details, check out this Press Release from the University of Pennsylvania: http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/2011-09-22/latest-news/penn-transit-adds-daytime-service-campus-loop-bus

As you already know, SEPTA has suffered a lot with this very rainy August, even after Hurricane Irene passed through.  With the latest rainstorm, a portion of the SEPTA Main Line was “washed out”, shutting down service North of Fern Rock.  There was a mud slide by Trevose Station.  A portion of the tracks on the Norristown High Speed Line, on the high ROW where it crosses over Conestoga Road near Rosemont (excuse me, “Robert’s Road) Station, is quite warped.

What a headache for the 6th largest transit agency in the nation!

SEPTA has a great photo gallery of the work being undertaken to bring the system back to normal.  At this time, there is a slow zone south of Jenkintown until the ballast under the track can support normal travel speeds again, and the NHSL (P&W) is single tracking between Bryn Mawr and Radnor Stations, with crowded trains and nice delays.

For the photo gallery: http://www.septa.org/service/weather-damage.html

As part of a pilot program, SEPTA and the City of Philadelphia are setting up a program where three city bus routes and one trolley route will be fitted with traffic prioritization technology.  This will enable the vehicle to “hold the light” until it makes it through the intersection, hopefully speeding up the travel time significantly.

The routes selected are the 6, 13, 52, and 60.  The Federal Highway Administration has contributed $3.3 million to the program.  SEPTA hopes to put this program into action in the next two years.

For more details, check out this article from Flying Kit Media: http://www.flyingkitemedia.com/devnews/stober0913.aspx

Yesterday afternoon at around 2 PM, NABI 5386, heading towards Olney Terminal on the 55, caught on fire.  Fortunately, none of the 26 riders on board the bus were injured; everyone was able to make it off the bus safely.

The bus was towed back to Midvale, but while the fire system worked correctly, it is in bad shape.  Since it’s due to be replaced in a year or so, it would likely be cannibalized for parts and scrapped.

More details here: http://articles.philly.com/2011-09-13/news/30149814_1_septa-bus-engine-fires-passengers

Hurricane Irene raised the level a lot of rivers and streams in the area, flooding areas like Conshohocken.  It also caused Assunpink Creek, which is right next to the tracks at Trenton Transit Center, to flood the tracks almost to platform level.

Unfortunately, SEPTA never moved its Push-Pull train, which is usually parked at the station during the weekends, as well as at least 4 Silverliner IV trains when the creek flooded well over its flood stage.

The Times of Trenton grabbed this picture of the trains still parked in the water:

NJ.com has more pictures of the flooded station: http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2011/08/trenton_transit_center_floods.html.  To this day, train service has not returned to Trenton, although NJT is running between New York and New Brunswick and the Trenton Line is running to Levittown Station from Philadelphia.

For the first time in history, SEPTA is shutting down all services due to a hurricane.  All service will be suspended at 12:30 AM Sunday, August 28th, 2011.  Anything out on the street after midnight will finish its run and that will be it.  No nightliners will pull out.  Regional Rail lines that operate over Amtrak trackage will cease operations at 5 PM tonight when Amtrak shuts down.  Trains on these lines at 5 PM will continue to their destination and that will be it.  SEPTA will evaluate each line for service restoration after 12 noon on Sunday.  

DART First State has suspended all operations until at least Monday morning.  

NJ Transit Rail service ceased operating at 12 noon today.  Trains in service will continue to their destination.  NJ Transit Bus, Light Rail, and Paratransit will cease operations at 6 PM today.  

This past Saturday, August 20th, 2011, Centre Area Transportation Authority (CATA) had a new schedule go into effect.  With this new schedule came several changes.  Among them are changes to the Red Link, consolidation of the Z into the G, merging of the H and P into the HP, and discontinuation of the AP.  For more info see http://catabus.com/ServiceSchedules/CATABUS/fall11changes.html.

Red Rose Transit in Lancaster County has a schedule change on August 29th.  New schedules can be viewed here – http://www.redrosetransit.com/transit-schedules-and-fares.html.

Capitol Area Transit of Harrisburg has new schedules for select routse coming out August 29th as well.  Those routes can be viewed here. http://www.cattransit.com/2011/08/labor-day-service-upcoming-schedule-changes/ 

Starting this Monday, August 29th, 2011, Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority (LANTA) will implement a new route structure.  Gone will be the current system of letters and numbers along with seperate evening service.  A new system using three digit numbered routes will go into effect.  The new route structure also includes several changes to the existing routes other than a redesignation.  

The new route structure will be as follows.

• 100 series – core routes operating Monday through Saturday with evening and Sunday service.
• 200 series – routes operating during the day six days a week.
• 300 series – routes that operate Monday through Friday.
• 400 series – Allentown School District routes (school trippers)
• 500 series – FLEX routes
• 600 series – Loops, circulators, crosstown routes, etc. 

For information on what routes will become what, see http://www.lantabus.com/conversionguide.html.  

SEPTA has provided preview schedules of the new Regional Rail and Red Arrow (Victory division) schedules. This will include changes to bus routes 112, 115, and new route 126.  Additionally, there will be some great changes to the Lansdale/Doylestown Line thanks to a new siding that will open at this time.  Colmar station will now be served every 30 minutes during weekdays, and travel from Doylestown to Center City will be 6% faster than it is today.

Frontier schedules will change on October 31st, the City Transit schedules will change on September 4th.

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) has launched a study looking at the feasibility of opening a new SEPTA station by the Chester Waterfront, near the new PPL park.  This station would replace Highland Ave Station, which is only expected to last another 3 to 5 years and would cost $26 million to rebuild.  The new station, if SEPTA agrees to build it, would cost the same amount of money to build.

More information here: http://www.metro.us/philadelphia/local/article/940214–chester-could-get-new-septa-station-along-waterfront