A new city, a whole new transit system! From my home base at the University of Pennsylvania, I’ll be reviewing every bus route and train station on the sprawling SEPTA.
*Full Disclosure: I volunteer on the SEPTA Youth Advisory Council, but all opinions on this blog are my own.
Recent Posts from Miles on SEPTA
Chester Transportation Center
SEPTA Regional Rail stations tend to be in suburban or rural areas, but for our first Regional Rail review, we might as well have never left Philadelphia! And when I say Philadelphia, I mean the parts of it where you probably want to keep your wits about you when you...
123 (King of Prussia to 69th Street Transportation Center)
Getting to the largest mall in the United States from Philly is no small feat, at least until its rail link opens up (in 500 years). Do you brave the Schuylkill Expressway on the 124/125, or do you let the Norristown High Speed Line take you part of the way up? Or, if...
NJT: 507 (Atlantic City – Ocean City)
I don't know if NJT buses will be part of my jurisdiction yet, but this system fascinates me in how dysfunctional it is - I could talk about how awful NJT is for hours. That's why whenever I happen to ride one of their routes from beginning to end, I'll give it a...
Atlantic City Bus Terminal
We've looked at the Rail Terminal, now it's time for the bus terminal! How do they compare? Let's find out. The Atlantic City bus terminal is mostly reserved for NJT's longer-distance routes, but all the local routes still stop outside the terminal. It's a very simple...
Atlantic City
Considering that it only gets twelve trains per day (or, at the moment, zero trains per day), five-track Atlantic City Station is surprisingly legit. According to ol' Wikipedia, it was built in 1989, which makes the size of the station all the more surprising. Service...
Requiem for the Atlantic City Line
"Beginning Wednesday, September 5 and continuing until early 2019, NJ TRANSIT will continue the installation of Positive Train Control (PTC) equipment on our rail fleet throughout the state. To accommodate this critical safety upgrade, all service on the Atlantic City...
40th Street Portal (Trolleys)
Today was the grand opening of the Trolley Portal Gardens, so it's a perfect time to do our review of the 40th Street Portal trolley station! I attended the opening ceremony on behalf of the SEPTA Youth Advisory Council, and it was a great time. Among the speakers...
27 (Broad-Carpenter – Plymouth Meeting Mall)
Ready to ride this express route from Plymouth Meeting Mall to Philadelphia? Ready to experience this super fast express ride into the city? Ready to travel down miles of local roads before running "express" on the infamously trafficked I-76? Yeah, that last one...
90 (Plymouth Meeting Mall to Norristown Transportation Center)
There are two ways of getting from the Norristown Transportation Center to the Plymouth Meeting Mall. One is the 98, which is as reasonably direct as you would expect a suburban bus route to be. The other is the 90. It is a mess. Well, the route starts out normal...
97 (Chestnut Hill – Norristown Transportation Center)
I wasn't exactly sure where I was going to go after getting dropped off from the 23 in Chestnut Hill, but lucky for me, there was a 97 leaving right when I arrived! I didn't think I'd be going to Norristown that day, but the 97 turned out to be a strange suburban...
23 (Center City – Chestnut Hill)
This is it. This is the big one. Center City to Chestnut Hill. Over ten miles of local streets. A myriad of different neighborhoods, buildings, and demographics. Let's do it: the 23. As I mentioned in the last review, I chose Market Street as the transfer point...
45 (Broad-Oregon to Center City)
What better SEPTA bus route to start out with than the infamous 23/45 combo from South Philly all the way up to Chestnut Hill? Once the world's supposed longest streetcar route, it got replaced by motor vehicles in 1992 and became just a really really long bus route....
Oregon (BSL)
Wow, it looks like our first Broad Street Line post is actually taking us to another state! I knew SEPTA went to New Jersey and Delaware, but Oregon is quite a trip! What? It's just in South Philadelphia? Oh, okay...not nearly as exciting, but South Philly is cool,...
37th Street (Trolleys)
For any Bostonians who have ever ridden the Green Line: you have it good. I was like everyone else, thinking that nothing could be worse than the screechy, unorganized, crazy Green Line. Then I rode the SEPTA Subway-Surface Trolleys. Oh, how wrong I was about Boston's...
Millbourne (MFL)
Yes, I fully admit it: I'm getting a fun one out of the way early on. There is no other SEPTA rapid transit station quite like Millbourne, from the fact that it's at ground level and outside of the City of Philadelphia (two qualities shared only by its neighbor, 69th...