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TRACKLESS TROLLEY CHARTER
sponsored by
FRIENDS OF PHILADELPHIA TROLLEYS

Come ride one of the New Flyer Trackless Trolleys on Rts 59, 66, & 75

Date: Sunday, June 1, 2008
Fare: $35.00 p/p
Departure: SEPTA's Frankford Depot
Time: 11.00AM til 3.00PM
No formal lunch stop; snacks and drinks available for purchase on the coach

To reserve a seat, please send a check made out to FPT,Inc. and mail to:

Harry Donahue, 103 Mulberry Court, Morgantown, PA 19543

Book your seats early as there will be no standees. We may consider running a second charter on Sunday, June 29, if the June 1 date sells out.

Need any other info? Contact: [email protected]

After being closed for approximately a year, the new 46th Street Station will open for service on April 14, 2008.  This station is essentially the same as the other stations along the Market Street elevated.

Earlier we mentioned that SEPTA was looking to temporarily increase capacity on the Regional Rail system by leasing or purchasing some used commuter coaches until the Silverliner Vs arrive.  SEPTA has decided to purchase Comet I trailer cars from New Jersey Transit so that all push-pull trains will be seven cars long.

The first official trackless trolley run will be on Monday, April 14th, 2008.  This trip on the 66 will leave the Frankford Transportation Center at 12:40 AM (yes, that's the early morning midnight hour).  SEPTA would like to try the trackless on the hills with passengers.

On Friday, there were "wildcat" runs on the 59 and 66 using trackless #804.  This bus ran in revenue service, inbetween the scheduled buses.  View pictures in the multimedia gallery.

On Thursday, April 3, 2008, NJT's NABI demo, 5201, will be on dispay at the Atlantic City Bus terminal.  The bus will be on display from 10:30 AM to 3:30 PM. 

This NABI is being showcased as a part of the annual TransAction transportation conference, which is taking place on April 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in Atlantic City.  Details in this thread on Subchat: http://www.subchat.com/buschat/read.asp?Id=92072

 

Now, you can buy T-shirts, mugs, pens, and more that showcase DART First State.  See the store for more details: http://shop.delaware.gov/index.php?manufacturers_id=729

Coming very soon are two bus services that will offer very cheap fares between Philadelphia and New York.  Fares that are as low as 1 dollars (or even free at first).

The first one that will come in will be for the Greyhound/Peter Pan Boltbus service.  This service has just started in New York, and will soon stop in Philadelphia on April 10, 2008.  These buses have fares as low as a dollar (although initially the promotional fares have been free), and will feature amenities such as leather seating.  You may be able to ride this bus to DC as well, as it currently runs an NY to DC route.  For more details, visit www.boltbus.com.

The second one is a UK based service called Megabus.  It already operates popular service in the U.S. in the Midwest, and will operate its eastern division out of Elizabeth, NJ on May 30, 2008.  This will run an inexpensive route from 30th Street and 5th and Market, Philadelphia, to Penn Station, New York.  The fares will range from 1 dollar to 14 dollars one way.  For more details, visit http://www.megabus.com/us/.

The first 75 NABIs, which happen to be the suburbans, will be split between Fairview Garage in the north and Camden's Newton Ave Garage, according to a letter from New Jersey Transit Customer Service to a member of the Transitstuff forum .  Later, Hilton Garage in the north will receive the first transit style NABI buses.

At this time, Washington Twp isn't expected to receive NABIs, but things may change once the production models start coming in. 

The casino consortium, which owns NJT's new Atlantic City Express Service (ACES) from New York to Atlantic City, just announced that they will add a stop at Newark Penn Station.  This stop was added in addition to the stop at New York Penn Station, Trenton Station, and, of course, Atlantic City Terminal.

ACES is expected to begin in the 2nd half of this year with 8 multilevel cars with retrofitted interiors.  The cars will have 1st class and coach seating.  They will have leather seating, food and beverage kiosks, and space for luggage.  Just last week, NJT approved the contract with Bombardier to have these 8 cars modified.  The casino consortium will pay nearly 15 million dollars to purchase and modify these cars.  Additionally, the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority paid 4.5 million dollars towards the purchase of P40s from Amtrak, since the trains will need both diesel and electric engines.

ACES is owned by a consortium of 3 casino-hotels: the Borgata, Caesars and Harrah's Resort Atlantic City.  They are contracting NJT for the operation of the line, and it will be operated at no cost to NJT.  At this time, it's unclear how many trains will be running on this new weekend service, and the consortium doesn't have any rider projections.  The price of the tickets is still being determined as well.

You can read more about the ACES update in this article: http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880317007

 

Monday was a traffic nightmare when a support for I-95 cracked, causing ALL traffic in Northeast Philadelphia to be diverted off the highway and onto local Philadelphia streets. This section, between Girard and the Betsy Ross Bridge, is the busiest section of I-95 in Pennsylvania, so streets were clogged everywhere.

With traffic spilling onto local city streets, these routes were affected with significant delays: 1, 3, 5, 14, 20, 25, 39, 43, 50, 54, 60, 66, 73 and 84. Also, the route 15 trolley was operated with buses between Richmond and Cumberland and Richmond and Westmoreland Streets.  Passengers were advised that they can expect delays of 40-50 minutes on these routes, some of which are operating with detours.

In an effort to provide alternatives for those who my opt for the train into town, SEPTA is adding 20 cars to the R7 Trenton and R3 West Trenton peak hour trains.  These trains are basically operating with normal peak hour schedules, with an additional R7 local scheduled from Cornwell Heights Station to Philadelphia.

SEPTA set up a special I-95 Advisory page on their website: http://www.septa.org/travel_advisory/I95alternatives.html