Author: van2025ko

Due to the deliveries of the 8000 series low floor buses exclusively at Southern which stands at 39 units. The bus management at SEPTA has moved several of the 2003 New Flyers aka the 56xx units to Midvale; therefore, so that the Neoplan bus fleets at Midvale could face retirements. It’s very skeptical how many units have been moved to Midvale, however the ones that were spotted were 5614-5617 operating on Midvale routes. It could be possible that Midvale could receive 5613-5620, this however has yet to be determined.

Pressure from Governor Ed Rendell and other elected officials has yielded a tentative agreement for both UTU 1594 and TWU 234 members. The agreement was announced by Rendell yesterday around 5:30AM. Around that time some transit service began to run. The MFSE and BSL began limited 15 minute local service around 6:45 AM. By the afternoon rush hour all rail service was back on line and all bus routes were up and running however there were many missing trips. One report states that Neoplan 40 footers were not used yesterday because they had so much trouble starting them up. Details of the contract agreement released yesterday state that it is a 4 year contract with 3% raises each year and all employees will pay 1% of their salary towards healthcare. The only reason union members agreed to pay healthcare was because management will also now pay for their healthcare. Had management not agreed to that this strike would be prolonged. Today (Tuesday) all service was running at or near normal levels and the number of missed trips went back to that of an average weekday.

The talks between the unions and SEPTA has ceased until a state mediator will get involved.  As result of the strike over 400,000 people in the area has no choice but to choose other means of transportation such as car pooling; while others took the Rgional Rail lines. Let’s hope this strike will get resolved as soon as possible.
Here is the page off of SEPTA’s website that shows the services running during this  strike.
http://www.septa.org/news/SIP/running.htm

The Transit workers of the City, Frontier, and Victory divisions went on strike as of 12:01 AM this morning. Stranded Riders are flocking to SEPTA’s Regional Rail Lines and Cars while others are getting where they need to go by bike and foot. As of now there are no talks planned between the Unions and SEPTA.

2 of SEPTA’s 1999 Ford/Coach and Car Cutaways have been confirmed to still be service. 2056 and 2057 were reported to be retired a few months back are being used as spares for Route 312 (the Cornwells Heights parking lot shuttle). These buses were once leased out to Phlash and were painted in there Purple Livery, Both vehicles are now in full SEPTA livery.

There are now appx 30 8000 series in service 8027 has been spotted on the Route 17 recently. On a related note, Southern is starting to put the 8000 series on other routes as well. These routes are 2, 17, 64, 37, 108, G, and the route C.

Recently it appears that SEPTA has started a practice which the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (NYCMTA) has going on for five years. That practice is repainting buses for every nine months, however SEPTA does not repaint buses every nine months. Many nabi’s that has received overhauls within the 1-2 year range has been repainted. Some of them come into service with new seat fabric and replaced instructions on the dashboard. As of this week all of the nabi’s that I and my assistants have spotted that has been repainted are, 5036, 5272, 5375, 5077, 5123 and 5167. Of course there are many others and will be passed to you once spotted.

It appears that several buses and trolleys stationed at the Callowhill depot have received red light sensors. These sensors are in a black casing and are located above of the drivers compartment of the bus or trolley.

As of today 24 of the 8000 Series D40LFs are confirmed to be operating out of Southern #s 8001-8024. 2 others #s 8027 and 8030 may also be at Southern, both buses According to Darryl Bulls broke down on I-76 while being delivered from Berridge Shops to the Southern Bus garage. 8027 broke down at the University City exit and 8030 at the Fox St exit.

Today there was a suspicious package found at Market East Station today. Due to this it caused the regional rail lines to be shut down doing the rush hours this morning. Buses that run parallel to the rail lines for example the 44 suffered from enormous crowds of people that usually take the regional rail system to work. During the mid-day all service on the regional rail lines has been restored.