Girard (MFL)

Jul 12, 2019 | Miles on SEPTA | 9 Comments

It seems like every other ISEPTAPHILLY post pertains to some event or SEPTA Perk happening near Girard Station. That makes sense – this neighborhood, Fishtown, represents ground zero for Philadelphia’s rapid gentrification, making it a real “hot” place to be, for better or for worse. Let’s see if its rapid transit station matches the hype.

Hopefully a trolley shows up and not a bus…

But we begin our journey not in the rafters of the El, but on the street to wait for the 15 trolley. This is one of its “center island carstops,” which only make things more inconvenient for passengers: not only do cars still drive in the middle anyway, negating any speed improvements, but now people have to cross the street, too! And while a streetside stop could conceivably have room for a shelter, these center island ones almost never have the space. Yup, it’s just two bare platforms for the 15 at Girard, without even a bench. The 5 bus stops here, too.

That payphone probably doesn’t work, huh?

It’s pretty dingy around the station entrance. I mean, you combine the overbearing nature of the El with station architecture that doesn’t look like it’s in the best shape, and it ends up feeling kinda dingy and disgusting. The station has both street and SEPTA-provided bike racks in its vicinity, although (of course) SEPTA’s website proclaims the station to have none.

Despite the fact that there are two staircases from the platform to the street, only one of them actually goes to an entrance, and that’s the one on the inbound side. The other side does get a sign saying “No Entrance; Enter Across Street”, but you could still climb up the stairs if you wanted. You would get blocked by exit-only turnstiles on the outbound platform, though. There must not have been enough room to put them down at street level.

The station has only one elevator that runs down to the street, and it doubles as the elevator from the mezzanine to the footbridge. Also, the button light doesn’t work. I waited here for a while before just taking the stairs, assuming the elevator was broken down (since the button wasn’t lit up), but I guess it must’ve been taking care of a trip up on the footbridge; I saw it running later. This arrangement does lead to a really annoying journey for those who are disabled who are either going outbound from here or arriving on an outbound train: they have to take the inbound elevator to the mezzanine, pay their fare, take the same elevator to the footbridge, cross it, and take the outbound elevator back down. While I can sort of overlook it at the low-ridership 63rd, I’m a lot less forgiving when it’s a huge station like Girard that sees a good amount of outbound traffic anyway.

The mezzanine here is small and cramped, in no small part due to the fact that we’re elevated and space is at a premium. Still, for a station that probably sees a lot of one-time riders (such as those heading to nearby concerts and bars), two fare machines for the whole thing is tiny, and I’m sure there’d be room for at least one more. One thing you could do to make more space is eliminate the second cashier booth: I’m sure it’s barely used, if ever. That would make room for more faregates or another machine. As for the main cashier booth, SEPTA claims on the website it’s only open from 6 AM to 4 PM, Monday through Friday. Well…it was occupied when I was here on a Saturday, so something’s up!

Girard’s platform is standard fare for the El, which makes it a reasonably nice place to wait. It has a number of benches, wastebaskets, and recycling bins, although more seating would be welcome – it’s not uncommon to see people using railings as makeshift seats. The entire platform is sheltered, so you don’t have to worry about getting exposed to the elements, although just missing a train can be brutal in the cold winter.

The station has two footbridges, and they’re practically identical; the only difference is that one of them has elevators. But I find it odd that it even has two bridges to begin with. One of them is right near the entrance, while the other (inaccessible) one is shafted further down the platform. Which one do you think most people will use? Unless you’re arriving on an outbound train and you’re in the last, I dunno, one and a half cars, the second footbridge is basically there for decoration. More paths are better than none, but I would rather see fare machines on the outbound side than a second bridge to it.

Although full disclosure, this photo was taken from that second footbridge…

Station: Girard (MFL)

Ridership: Third-busiest on the Frankford section of the El! In other words, 5,154 riders per day, which is…less than most of the stations in West Philly. Yeah, the Frankford side of things tends to get less ridership at each individual station. But the point is that Girard gets a lot of people, and a good amount of off-peak travel too.

Pros: I’m always partial to elevated stations, and waiting on the platform above the road is always pleasant. The station is the centerpiece of a booming area, and luckily many of the new restaurants and bars have sprouted up within walking distance. A decent amount of bike parking lets riders come from places further afield.

Cons: The elevator situation makes getting here a royal pain for those who can’t use stairs, and that general layout is frustrating, especially for a station that gets demand from both directions. The mezzanine is a victim of the lack of space above the road, although even then, it’s not being used to its utmost potential. The trolley station down on the street is just horrible and if I was only reviewing that, it would hands-down get a 1.

Nearby and Noteworthy: So much! I don’t even like Fishtown as much as the zeitgeist says I should, but there’s no denying that you could go to a different establishment here every day for a month (or longer!) and get a totally different experience. My family always goes to Joe’s Steaks whenever we’re here, since they make cheesesteaks that don’t make you feel like you’ve thrown your body off a cliff afterward (plus they’re really good). The Fillmore offers both a nightclub and a concert hall in the same building, while it’s places like Barcade that make me wish I was of drinking age (why does the comeback of the arcade have to take place almost exclusively in bars??).

Final Verdict: 4/10
Alas, the gateway to what some call Philly’s hottest neighborhood is, well, kind of a bad station. I love that it’s elevated, and I look at that aspect of it fondly, but then you remember how intrusive that is down at street level. I’m glad that the station is accessible, but from broken elevator buttons to a really long journey for outbound passengers, it’s borderline unusable in a lot of cases. And that trolley station. Ugh, I hate that thing. Why build all this inconvenient infrastructure if you’re not going to have dedicated lanes?

Latest SEPTA News: Service Updates

Canton Center

Jul 10, 2019 | Miles on the MBTA | 1 Comment

The Stoughton Line has terrible stations, apparently. Stoughton was awful, and Canton Center isn’t much better.

A small platform with almost nothing but a single shelter and a few benches underneath. A parking lot with 215 spaces, as well as a few bike racks. A crumbling mini-high platform, with nothing but a wastebasket on top, that occupies so much of the platform that wheelchairs have to go through the parking lot in order to access the ramp. And that’s Canton Center.

Having “STOP”ed at the crossing, the train is ready to proceed.

Station: Canton Center

Ridership: Just 469 inbound passengers per weekday, which makes it the least-used station on the Stoughton Line…since Stoughton is the only other station. But besides TF Green Airport and Wickford Junction (which get too little service to have high ridership) and Hyde Park (which is too close to the city for many to justify paying the Zone 1 fare), this is also the least-used station on the Providence Line!

Pros: Parking’s 4 bucks on weekdays and 2 on weekends. So, the standard amount. Bike racks, those are nice. It’s accessible, always a plus. There’s a shelter with benches under it that’s pretty close to the mini-high. And the station has a flag-down bus connection to the MBTA 716.

Cons: There’s basically nothing to it! The mini-high has nothing but a wastebasket on it, wreaking havoc for the people who board here during off-peak times. All…25 of them. Yeah, you know what, that makes sense that this station is only used by morning commuters who don’t want to pack onto overcrowded Providence trains. Because Canton Junction is just 0.7 miles away, and that gets far more frequent service and, believe it or not, far higher ridership too! But hey, at least trains don’t block the crossing when they’re stopped here. Oh wait, that’s because the station has the ridiculous arrangement where they have to inch forward, STOP to let the gates come down, and then proceed. I don’t know which level-crossing-near-station arrangement is worse!

Nearby and Noteworthy: Canton Center is basically just one street, but it seems pleasant enough – a few restaurants and cafes, but nothing much else that makes it worth coming here. In the opposite direction, though, is the Museum of American Bird Art, which comes complete with lovely hiking trails around it. It’s a ten-minute walk from the station (or 17 minutes from Canton Junction…).

Final Verdict: 2/10
Yeah, you know what, I did phone this one in. Not like the station’s trying very hard! I feel a deep sense of malice towards this stop, not because of its awful mini-high or its stupid level crossing situation, but because it’s so close to Canton Junction. I get that a decent amount of people commute from here, but I can’t stop the voice in my head from screaming “Just go to Canton Junction! It gets better service! Then we can close this stupid stop down!” Oh well…even besides that, the station’s still awful. Once the Stoughton Line gets extended to the South Coast, stopping here will feel like even more of a waste of time.

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

Race-Vine (BSL)

Jul 8, 2019 | Miles on SEPTA | 2 Comments

For family weekend, my parents stayed at a hotel from which Race-Vine was the closest station. It was still faster for me to just take the El and walk, but hey – new station review. Let’s do it.

None of Race-Vine’s entrances at Race Street amount to much more than “thing sticking out of the ground.” The intersection has three entrances on its north side: two staircases and an elevator. The stairs to the east were enhanced by a mysterious puddle demarcated by some dirty traffic cones, while the ones to the west were decorated with chipping paint and rotting concrete.

Based on what I had seen on the staircases, I was worried about the elevator, but it was actually decently clean inside! I found it interesting that they made it all glass, since all you can see on the way down is the paint chipping off the elevator shaft, but I’ll take it over no view at all. This is the only elevator at the station, unfortunately, so anyone coming from Vine has to make their way down here.

There’s a direct bus connection here to the 4 and 16, which both run on Broad Street, as well as the southbound 27 from the Plymouth Meeting Mall; the northbound stop gets a shelter. The Vine Street entrance doesn’t get any bus stops, since the buses stop north of the Vine Street Expressway instead. Many of NJT’s Philadelphia routes stop near here, too, with a sign (and only a sign) a block south at Broad and Cherry. Weirdly, on Google Maps, all of these stops are combined into one, and it’s called “Broad St at Cherry St”! That’s very confusing. And very wrong. And just very bad.

Okay, it’s a SEPTA Broad Street Line station in Center City. Will the mezzanine be a normal size, with effective resources to handle large amounts of people? Or will it be way too big, with too much empty space and just two fare machines, despite the fact that this is the Broad Street Line’s primary station for the Pennsylvania Convention Center and thus probably gets a huge surge of one-time riders during conventions who need to use the machines? Uh-oh…I think it’s the latter…

Beyond the faregates, it’s…more empty space! And of course the sign pointing to the southbound still says “AT&T,” but the really sad thing is that that’s not even the worst signage mistake at this station. The elevators are down little ramps for some reason, but again, they were both pretty clean. Although signage to the convention center is decent outside of fare control, it’s practically nonexistent inside of it. So if you’re going to a convention and you just got out of a train, you’re out of luck if you’ve never been here before and don’t know to take the Race Street exit.

Okay, the Vine Street entrances have a lot more class than the Race Street ones. There are two of them, both south of the intersection (since the north side is occupied by the monstrosity known as the Vine Street Expressway), and they are a lot more obvious to passing pedestrians. The staircases coming down from them are cleaner, too. Race-Vine technically “has” bike racks in the form of roadside ones along Broad, but they’re not just for the station and feel more like general-use city racks.

The Vine mezzanine from beyond the faregates.

The not-in-fare-control part of the Vine mezzanine is a lot smaller than the Race one, which is both a blessing and a curse. It feels a lot less overwhelming to be in there, but SEPTA also skimped out on amenities, providing just a single fare machine. Plus, on the Saturday morning I was here, there was no cashier manning the booth (maybe there never is), which I guess means that many of the faregates have to be locked up so no one can jump them. Instead, you have to use giant turnstiles with Key readers in front. Once you’re past those, the room is much bigger, and it has nothing in it aside from staircases down to the platforms.

Okay, credit where credit is due, this platform was cleaner than most other SEPTA platforms. The tracks had less trash on them, there was less paint chipping on the walls and ceilings, and there were fewer places that looked like they could collapse at any moment. It wasn’t pleasant by any means, but it was better than most. The station has island platforms for both local and express trains, and there are benches and wastebaskets laid out along the whole thing. Oh, and that signage error I mentioned? There’s a sign that says “Local to Fernrock” as one word. Oof.

SEPTA…getting your own terminal wrong like this is not a good look. This is worse than usual.

Station: Race-Vine (BSL)

Ridership: It’s actually quite low: a little under 3,000 riders per weekday. It’s the fifth least-used station on the Broad Street Line, not including stops on the Broad-Ridge Spur. Why could this be? Well, City Hall is only two blocks south – if you’re going to transfer to the El, you might as well just walk. Plus, to the north is the Vine Street Expressway, effectively a giant void that cuts off much of the neighborhood to the north. Maybe it gets more riders during conventions, but on a daily basis, ridership is light.

Pros: An accessible Broad Street Line station? Yeah, I’ll take it! I also admire the general cleanliness of the station compared to others, both with the elevators and with the platforms (for the most part).

Cons: Okay, so we had everything that was already bad about it, which ranged from small things like sign errors and weird Google Maps bus stop mishaps, to big things like inefficient mezzanines and grimy staircases at the Race Street entrance…but when you also throw in the fact that very few people (less than seven per train. Seven!) use it, it makes it that much worse. Why do express trains stop here again?

Nearby and Noteworthy: It’s the closest stop on the main Broad Street Line to Chinatown, so if you’re coming from South Philadelphia, this is the place to get off. In the other direction, it’s the closest Broad Street Line stop to the Parkway Museums. As for right around the station, you’ve got a few hospitals, the convention center, and (okay, actual cool one) the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. But honestly, for a Center City station, there’s not a ton around here…

Final Verdict: 3/10
I feel inclined to throw it a bone for being accessible. That’s not the case for way too many Broad Street Line stations, so…I’ll give it that. But aside from the issues with the station itself, it’s not good if I’m questioning the existence of something I’m reviewing. It’s 0.2 miles from City Hall, the busiest station on the network, and that plus some other factors really hurts its ridership. At the very least, express trains should skip it; they stop way too frequently in Center City to begin with.

Latest SEPTA News: Service Updates

Stoughton

Jul 6, 2019 | Miles on the MBTA | 7 Comments

The poor Stoughton Line has been having a rough couple of weeks. No one has given it much thought in the wake of the crippling Red Line derailment, but it seems like there are delayed trains on the weekday-only line on a daily basis. Riders have even started a Facebook page to keep track of late trains, which they say the MBTA underestimates. Now, I don’t ride the Stoughton Line, so I can’t speak on that…but I can speak on the fact that the line’s final stop is not good.

Start with the positives, though: Stoughton has a really impressive building. Constructed out of granite in 1888, this structure is gorgeous, right down to the “Stoughton” sign over the entrance that sadly can’t be seen very well in the dark photo above. This is also the only train station in Massachusetts with a clock tower (CORRECTION: Forest Hills has one too), although the clock doesn’t actually work. The problem with the building? It’s not open, and it hasn’t been for years. Hopefully the town can do something with it now that they’ve bought it.

Stoughton is one of the rare Commuter Rail stations that’s located in a downtown, but also has a ton of parking. The station has 361 spaces spread out between multiple lots spanning a few blocks downtown. Parking costs $4 per day on weekdays and $2 on weekends. There are also bike racks (and a few benches) underneath the awning of the building.

The station’s low-level platform is between Wyman and Canton Streets. It’s fine; most of it is sheltered, and underneath it are newspaper boxes, maps and schedules, and a digital sign. What’s missing, though, are benches. And this isn’t even one of those terminals where the trains hang out at the station for a while and you can just board – no, the trains go beyond it, so passengers do have to wait here. Not having even a single bench on the platform is unacceptable.

So…Stoughton’s platform is bisected by Wyman Street. And the mini-high is on the second half of the platform. Okay, okay, okay: on the one hand, I get it. The station’s right in a downtown, and you need space for a mini-high, and you gotta expand the platform somehow. Sure. But…that doesn’t change the fact that whenever a train is stopped here, it spills out over the road, simultaneously blocking traffic on it and on the next block, since that crossing goes down too! And because of that, trains have to continue beyond the station to a tiny siding to lay over! The crossing on Wyman Street doesn’t even have gates, I guess because the train blocks the way by default? But that could lead to nasty situations when it’s approaching the station and someone thinks they can beat it…

This second platform is a lot shorter than the other one, and aside from a sign and a wastebasket, all it has is the mini-high. Once again, though, there are serious problems: sure, it has a bench, but the shelter is tiny and not at all effective at keeping rain off the platform. Even worse, it’s hard to call the platform accessible when the entrance to it from the street is blocked by the pole for the level crossing light. People can walk around it, but it’ll be a tough time getting a wheelchair past that.

There’s barely a train in here, but this was the best I had.

Station: Stoughton

Ridership: It’s below average as far as the Providence(/Stoughton) Line goes, but 917 riders per weekday is still great for Commuter Rail standards. Plus, the station gets fewer trains than the rest of the Providence Line, so that’s more riders per trip. And for what it’s worth, Stoughton is by far the busier station between it and Canton Center, the other stop on the branch.

Pros: That building, man. I really hope Stoughton goes through with its redevelopment, because that thing deserves to have something great in it. Besides that, I guess the amount of parking is decent, but if Stoughton ever revitalizes its downtown, those lots are taking up valuable space. The BAT 14 bus runs past here on its way to Brockton from Canton.

Cons: Although I had a multitude of problems with Stoughton, none better encapsulate the awfulness of this station than the platform arrangement. The station bisects a road…whose level crossing gets no gates…and also blocks wheelchairs from accessing the mini-high easily…and trains end up jamming two major downtown streets when they’re stopped here. Phase 2 of South Coast Rail would supposedly move the station south, solving the level crossing problem, and YES, that can’t happen soon enough!

Nearby and Noteworthy: I sorta hinted at the fact that Stoughton’s downtown is kinda dead, and…yeah, it is. There are a few restaurants that don’t look especially notable, so I’ll say the Stoughton Historical Society museum instead – maybe it can make what seems like a boring town a little more interesting. Be aware that it has very limited hours, though.

Final Verdict: 2/10
Harsh? Maybe. Deserved? Probably. Even the things I like about Stoughton have caveats: the building is abandoned at the moment, while the parking lots take up a ton of downtown land. And the things I don’t like? That platform arrangement alone is enough to make this station one of the worst on the Commuter Rail!

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

R (Henry-Midvale and Wissahickon Transportation Center to Frankford Transportation Center)

Jul 5, 2019 | Miles on SEPTA | 5 Comments

“R” you “R”eady for a “R”ollicking “R”omp down “R”oosevelt “R”oad? I su”R”e am! Ahoy, mateys: “Rrrrrrrrrrrrrr”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi, everyone from the Inquirer article. I swear I’m not always like this. Just…most of the time. Welcome!

There were lots of people boarding at Frankford; it was hard to get a photo!

The R is a diagonal-crosstown-type thing that runs southwest from Frankford Transportation Center. On weekdays, it has two branches: one to Wissahickon Transportation Center, and one to Henry-Midvale via the Bakers Centre shopping plaza. On weekends, though, all trips run to Wissahickon, while every other departure goes via Bakers Centre and Henry-Midvale, then on to Wissahickon via a weekend-only routing. Of course I made sure to take the R on a Saturday, then!

We left the terminal on Pratt Street, a fairly normal-sized two-lane road lined with rowhouses with porches. There were a few businesses, some churches, and a park along here, too. It just felt like a real neighborhood, you know? Anyway, then we turned onto Roosevelt Boulevard, completely shattering any concept of neighborhood, urban planning, and sanity.

And yet somehow, this three-median 12-lane monstrosity had semi-detached and even some single-family houses along it! Of course, it wouldn’t be Roosevelt Boulevard without awful suburban shopping centers, and the Northeast Tower Center filled that void nicely. Good luck getting there if you’re coming from a bus on the other side of the boulevard.

An unfortunate place to have a small business. Half of your coverage area is blocked by the giant road!

As it turned out, that section with single-family houses was very brief, and we got into a more regular pattern of rowhouses after the Northeast Tower Center. A few auto shops appeared just before we went over Tacony Creek, but the road was mostly residential after that. The north side of the road became occupied by the multi-block wasteland of the Logan Triangle (really interesting story there), then the boulevard ran straight through the northwestern side of Hunting Park.

It was at this point that Roosevelt Boulevard became Roosevelt Expressway, and here, we finally left it (thank goodness) to travel on Hunting Park Ave instead. The street was still called Roosevelt Boulevard until we intersected with Hunting Park just after Broad (where we served Hunting Park’s Broad Street Line station, of course). Once it crossed a rogue rail line, the road had a ton of different buildings along it, from a big apartment tower to a high school to a clinic to the ubiquitous rowhouses.

Wow, I’d love to know the story behind this little hut-turned-car dealership!

The street went under the SEPTA main line; some of the stuff on the other side included a police/fire station and a huge abandoned factory. Once we crossed beneath the Chestnut Hill West Line, we reached the intersection where the two branches of the R split off: some trips stay on Hunting Park to Allegheny, while others, including ours, turn onto Fox Street. This took us over a rail line, after which we turned directly into the Bakers Centre.

ShopRite got a bunch of middle schoolers to paint this mural representing the new availability of healthy foods in what was previously a food desert. I love it!

We turned onto Roberts Ave, then Henry Ave, running around a really awkwardly-designed apartment development in the middle of the large block. Crossing the Roosevelt Expressway, the road had the elevated Queen Lane Reservoir on one side, then we were in a leafy residential neighborhood. Henry-Midvale is where weekday trips end, but here, we turned onto Midvale, joining the K’s route for the weekend-only section.

Oof, what happened here? Oh well, the photo looks interesting.

This road was gorgeous, lined with ornate rowhouses and decorated with huge looming trees as it coasted downhill. After a beautiful library in a church-like building, we passed some suburban businesses with a lot less character before going under the Norristown Line at East Falls Station. There was lots of retail where we turned onto Ridge Ave, joining up with the other branch of the R. We didn’t have much further to go, though – Ridge entered the woods, with only a few stray buildings showing up here and there. Once we crossed over Wissahickon Creek, we had made it to the eponymous transportation center.

Route: R (Henry-Midvale and Wissahickon Transportation Center to Frankford Transportation Center)

Ridership: The R ranks 23rd on the SEPTA system, getting 9,575 riders per weekday. That evens out to 42 passengers per trip, which is actually much less than what I saw on a Saturday afternoon: 65 passengers in total.

Pros: This route falls into SEPTA’s 15-15-5 designation, meaning that it has a great schedule on weekdays. Headways on the trunk (with the branches getting half the service) are every 7-10 minutes at rush hour and every 15 minutes midday (aside from one 16 minute gap from 9:40 to 9:56 – for shame). There’s also Owl service all night every 30 minutes. The trunk of the R is a nice straight shot down Roosevelt Boulevard and Hunting Park Ave, and the treatment of the branches on weekdays is pretty effective. It’s not too long for SEPTA standards, which probably helps it get a surprisingly decent on-time performance of 79% (could be better, but definitely not bad considering Roosevelt Boulevard’s traffic and the refusal to convert just two of those twelve lanes into bus lanes).

Cons: Although service is every 15 minutes for about 3 midday hours on Saturday, the R is mostly every 20 minutes on weekends. It takes forever to pick up to that, too, running less frequently (every 25-30 minutes) until 9 AM on Saturdays and 10:30 on Sundays; plus, on Sundays, it starts going every half hour again at 6 PM. Not to mention the whole business with the weekend-only routing, which I guess is to ensure that Wissahickon gets decent service (it ends up being better than on weekdays!), but it wreaks havoc with the schedule. Not only does it give passengers an extra variant to keep track of, but it also forces buses to stagger their departures slightly from Wissahickon, since it takes longer to go via Henry-Midvale. So yeah, TL;DR: the weekend schedule leaves a lot to be desired. The route is also less productive at rush hour than it is middays, and the load profile confirms that aside from a few outliers, rush hour trips don’t generally get more crowded than midday ones.

Nearby and Noteworthy: Roosevelt Boulevard sucks the life out of everything along it, but there are a number of good-looking Hispanic restaurants a few blocks away from the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad road. East Falls also has a nice downtown, although it’s probably better-reached by the 61 or the Norristown Line.

Final Verdict: 6/10
The R cuts a big, important swath through North Philadelphia along some of its most major roads, running frequent weekday service down a mostly direct routing. Yes, weekend service has its problems, but I can’t dock too many points – every 20 minutes is still better than a lot of other routes, especially on Sundays. The best thing that could be done for the R is creating bus lanes on Roosevelt Boulevard; second-best thing would be a new limited-stop Direct line like further north, but stop consolidation on the R plus bus lanes would probably give an equivalent if not better speed boost.

Latest SEPTA News: Service Updates

West Trenton

Jul 1, 2019 | Miles on SEPTA | 3 Comments

Okay, with a name like “West Trenton,” you would think that the station would be…slightly less middle-of-nowhere. I mean, when the surrounding attractions include farmland and a country club, it’s pretty easy to say that there’s a degree of…middle-of-nowhere-ness to this place. And that’s just strange to me, since the station is supposedly in New Jersey’s capital – even SEPTA’s website says so. But it’s actually a clever mislead: “West Trenton” is a small neighborhood in Ewing Township! This station isn’t in Trenton at all!

Continuing with West Trenton’s deceit, we begin with the outbound platform, which isn’t even a platform anymore. If the fence blocking access to the track doesn’t clue passengers in, the multitude of signs (in different fonts and colors!) saying various permutations of “Don’t use this platform” hopefully do. It’s a shame, though, because the building is quite pretty. It now houses a private business, but nothing fun like a cafe or a candy shop – just a government and public affairs firm. Yawn.

The inbound and outbound platforms are linked by a decrepit old tunnel. The inbound platform is super wide and entirely low-level, but there is shelter along almost the entire thing. Benches, wastebaskets, ads, schedules, and newspaper boxes are among the amenities here. There’s even a “Royal Flush” outhouse! But again, it’s all low-level, so no wheelchair accessibility. A rusting, overgrown staircase leads down to Sullivan Way, not that there’s much down there.

The building was open when I was here in the evening rush, so I think it’s safe to assume that it’s open all day on weekdays, if not every day. Honestly, there’s not much reason not to have it open – you can’t actually buy tickets in there, so no staff is required. But it is a really nice little waiting room: enjoy the temperature-controlled environment as you relax on your wooden bench with your phone happily charging in one of the outlets on the wall!

The parking lot here is truly a sight to behold. I don’t think anyone’s even thought about paving this thing in twenty years, let alone actually done it; the whole thing is practically a free-for-all with no space markings, so people just park wherever they can fit. Still, there’s a positive to the insanity: the whole lot (“142” spaces officially, but who knows) is free! Hey, I’ll take it. Funnily enough, the “Kaufman Zita Group” firm’s parking lot on the outbound platform is in pristine condition.

Oh, and special attention has to be given to West Trenton’s utterly terrible bus stop. Yes, believe it or not, this station has a bus connection…to a peak-only variant of the NJT 608. Now, I get it, not many people are boarding the bus here. And for what it’s worth, the outbound stop isn’t terrible. But the inbound one? I mean, you’ve either gotta check yourself for ticks afterward from the rampant grass, or you’ve gotta check yourself into the hospital ’cause you were run over on the sidewalkless street! I was thankful when my (late) bus finally arrived to get me out of here.

Station: West Trenton

Ridership: Surprise, surprise, this station in a sprawled-out, low-population area that’s within the inflated “New Jersey” fare zone gets middling ridership. West Trenton has about 291 boardings per day and 353 leavings per day – if the boardings was the one with the strangely higher number, I could make a joke about how people want to get out of New Jersey, but alas, the leavings get the edge over boardings. And no, I have no idea why that is.

Pros: The thing that struck me most about West Trenton was its building being open seemingly all the time. That’s so awesome, and even though it doesn’t have the bits and bobs that other SEPTA buildings get, it’s still a nice indoor place to wait for the train. Also, the free parking does offset the high New Jersey fare a little bit.

Cons: The parking situation is hilariously insane, while the bus stop is hilariously awful. Less funny is the lack of wheelchair accessibility; yes, I know this isn’t an important station by any means, but it is an isolated one that’s a long-ish drive from its neighbor because of the Delaware River. Hey, that’s another thing: isolation. There’s just not a lot around here.

Nearby and Noteworthy: Aside from a few office parks and the New Jersey School for the Deaf, you haven’t got much in the station’s immediate surroundings. If you’re willing to walk for about 12 minutes, you’ll find West Trenton’s very auto-oriented “downtown” – it has a few restaurants and that’s about it (although some of them look great).

Final Verdict: 5/10
I gotta give it props for the building, but it’s downhill from there. Aside from the parking lot and the low platform, what really drags West Trenton down for me is that it just feels rather insignificant as a terminus, given its location and low ridership. And what I find really interesting is that the Trenton-Mercer Airport is about a mile and a half down the tracks! This airport is surprisingly legit, with a ton of service from Frontier Airlines (because of course they’d be the airline to fly out of a place like this). They carry 729,000 passengers a year out of here already, and it could theoretically be more with a shuttle bus to this station, or even a new extension. Yes, it’s a pipe dream with a low return (for now, at least), but a station at the 5th fastest growing airport in the US would also be closer to more houses, more offices, and the College of New Jersey. Even better last-mile connections here besides the awful 608 could improve ridership and create reverse commutes to suburban jobs. But as it stands, we’re stuck with a pretty lame little terminus.

Latest SEPTA News: Service Updates

Sharon

Jun 30, 2019 | Miles on the MBTA | 2 Comments

I always get amazed at how busy these Providence Line stations get. As a small town sandwiched by much bigger ones that also get Commuter Rail service, it feels like Sharon has no right to get the amount of ridership that it does. And yet here we are: the power of the Providence Line.

There was a point when Sharon was the busiest station on the system that wasn’t accessible, and you can imagine I would’ve talked harshly about that. Luckily, the station finally got mini-high platforms in 2014, and they both have benches! I also like the subtle curves of the shelter’s roof, adding just a bit of character to what would otherwise be a generic modern platform. Really slight complaint, though: wastebaskets up here would be great.

If only the rest of the platform was better. There’s something to be said about the rustic charm of wood, but when that wood has paint peeling off of it, and the shelter made out of that wood has a window that’s so worn-out that it can’t be seen through anymore, it loses some of that charm. The outbound side is the one with that decrepit shelter (not including the awning along both platforms), and it doesn’t even get benches underneath it; the inbound side, meanwhile, gets two benches: one is barely even underneath the shelter, and the other is facing away from the tracks!

Sharon’s building is only open during the morning rush, but it looks awesome. A cafe inside sells refreshments and pastries, while long wooden benches offer places to sit. Water fountains and bathrooms are also inside. There’s even a nice mural of various elements of the town on one wall (plus a world map on the other) that I couldn’t capture in a photo, but here’s one.

Two staircases and a longgggg ramp lead up to Depot Street, which crosses over the station, while two roads head to parking lots on both sides of the tracks. The lots contain 542 spaces in total, and they’re managed by the Town of Sharon. The good thing about that: there are machines to pay for parking, and even though they’re credit/debit only, they’re still nice to have. The bad thing about that: the parking fee is $4, with no weekend discount and no monthly pass. At least there are a ton of bike spaces here, though!

Station: Sharon

Ridership: Like I said at the beginning of the post, Sharon gets a ton of ridership given its location. According to the 2018 CTPS counts, the station gets 1,276 inbound riders per day, making it the fifth-busiest station on the Providence Line. The station only gets 20 inbound trains per day, so that’s an average of over 63 boardings per train here! Also, remember that the parking lot only has 542 spaces – that means that well over half of the station’s riders are either biking, walking, or getting dropped off.

Pros: The mini-highs are great. Also, the inside of the building looks like a fantastic place to wait in the morning rush. I’m glad that even though the station has a ton of parking, it also provides many bike racks (hopefully enough – I have no idea how full they get) to encourage an alternate form of first-mile travel. Plus, despite having the huge parking lot, the station is only a seven-minute walk from Sharon’s town center and the relatively dense residential neighborhoods around it.

Cons: I’m almost certain that the lot fills up, and probably early. If only we had more data about where people could possibly be coming from (seriously, it’s hard to tell – are they all really coming from within Sharon?) to figure out alternatives of getting here. The low-level platforms are dismal, and honestly, I wish they had just gone for full high-level when they built the mini-highs in 2014. The Providence Line is ripe for frequent EMU service with high-platformed stations, and opting to do mini-highs everywhere (including with the Mansfield rebuild going on right now, ugh) will just prolong that pipe dream even further.

Nearby and Noteworthy: Sharon’s downtown is a single intersection with only one corner occupied by businesses that are actually interesting: an Indian restaurant and a cafe. Oh, and the library!

Final Verdict: 6/10
Ahhh, the station itself isn’t terrible. I’m just a bit salty that the Providence Line doesn’t have all full high-level platforms by now, and that the T has no intention of making that a reality in the near future. Sure, the mini-highs here are better than usual, but the low-level portions are really not great. And while the building is nice, it’s only open during the morning rush. Yeah, Sharon’s fine…but that’s all it is.

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
All hands on deck: the T’s fare increase starts tomorrow.

39 (Richmond-Cumberland to 33rd-Dauphin)

Jun 25, 2019 | Miles on SEPTA | 0 Comments

A crosstown route across North Philadelphia from Strawberry Mansion to Olde Richmond? Alright, the 39 sounds pretty good to me! Wait…why does the route have a four-block jog in the eastbound direction only? Ohhhh noooooooo…

We headed straight down Dauphin from the loop at 33rd, entering a mostly residential neighborhood. There were large gaps of vacant land between the rowhouses, which themselves were in varying conditions. We also went by Strawberry Mansion High School and a suburban shopping plaza at the intersection with 29th Street.

Well, better to use a patch of nothing for parking than for…nothing!

The road went underneath the Northeast Corridor, and the scenery on the other side was pretty similar. 21st Street heading north was almost completely abandoned, but other buildings along Dauphin were in fantastic shape. The street was still mostly residential aside from the occasional corner store.

Some makeshift bus shelters next to a makeshift furniture store! Wow, never mind the parked cars, let’s get more of this! This is so cool!

Eventually we hit the behemoth of a road known as Broad Street, which was lined with a ton of different businesses. Like with every crosstown route, there was a big exchange of riders here, with people transferring from the bus to the Broad Street Line at Susquehanna-Dauphin Station. East of Broad, the rowhouses continued, with a brief interlude for a suburban-style housing development exclusively on 13th Street.

A big ol’ pole blocking the view down Broad.

Soon after crossing under the Reading Main Line, there was a block of industry between 8th and 9th Streets, while later on, we plowed through a monstrous six-way intersection with 7th Street and Germantown Ave. 5th Street was the moment I was really looking forward to: here, we made a left, beginning the bizarre eastbound-only four-block jog. It was mostly still rowhouses along here, and this certainly didn’t seem special enough to justify serving it.

We made it up to Lehigh Ave, which has another crosstown from 33rd-Dauphin, the 54. Turning onto this wide road, it definitely was a commercial corridor, but again, nothing seemed substantial enough to justify the deviation. As it turns out, the bus is forced to do this jog because Dauphin Street doesn’t exist for a block due to a park being in the way. Shoot, that’s annoying.

A cool-looking music shop on Lehigh Ave, with some equally-cool fake palm trees outside.

We used the also-wide American Street to get back down to Dauphin. This was a mix of industry (much of it abandoned) and huge amounts of vacant land; it continued for a bit when we turned onto Dauphin again, but it very quickly turned back to dense rowhouses and corner stores. That lasted until Front Street, which had a ton of businesses underneath the El – almost everyone remaining got off here for York-Dauphin Station.

We turned onto Jasper Street past the El, which was a street in transition: tracts of no man’s land were being developed on, and even an old factory had been converted to apartments. Taking a right onto Cumberland Street, it was a similar story, with a few remaining abandoned lots, but a lot of new rowhouses between the older ones. We passed Kensington High School, then we intersected with the 5 at Frankford Ave.

The interestingly-cobblestoned Trenton Ave.

A pretty sure sign that we were now in the Kingdom of the Hipsters was when we passed a “taproom” on Memphis Street. Most of that stuff was on other roads, though – Cumberland remained mostly residential. That was until we went by a garden center (taking up a whole block!) and then the hellscape of suburban shopping plazas along Aramingo Ave. Because of construction on I-95, we didn’t run all the way down to Richmond Street like the route is supposed to, instead turning onto Thompson Street. I got off at Huntingdon.

Must be another detour…it’s supposed to turn onto Huntingdon.

Route: 39 (Richmond-Cumberland to 33rd-Dauphin)

Ridership: The ridership sounds low – it’s an average of 2,478 riders per weekday. Giving the route the benefit of the doubt, it is pretty short, making the 22-ish riders per trip seem a little more palatable. I still can’t help comparing it to something like the 79, though, which gets more people on a shorter crosstown journey. Then again, that route isn’t infrequent and it actually makes logical sense, but we’ll get to that…

Pros: It serves as an east-west element in the Philadelphia bus grid where one is needed. The route is short, and so it ends up with a decent 83% on-time rate.

Cons: I usually can at least give a SEPTA route credit for the weekday schedule, but even that is pretty bad for an urban crosstown. The 39 is only every 20 minutes during the day, and even though that becomes every 15 minutes at rush hour, the route’s productivity is virtually the same – according to the load profile, no trips ever go above seated capacity. On weekends, it’s every half hour, making it even more useless as an element in a bus grid. The route itself, meanwhile, is super twisty, although admittedly for good reason: the eastbound deviation can’t be helped (as annoying as it is), while the westbound has to dart down to Susquehanna Ave to serve the Broad Street Line station. Finally, like every SEPTA route, the 39 has stops every block, although a decent amount of them are skipped thanks to the lower ridership.

Nearby and Noteworthy: I know I mentioned it already, but Centro Musical on Lehigh Ave looks like an awesome music shop with a ton of character. Sure, you could go via the 54 and save some time, but, uhhh…well, you’d be using the 39’s deviation to go somewhere, I suppose. Also, I’m sure I’ll bring this up again when I review Susquehanna-Dauphin Station, but the Philadelphia Doll Museum looks awesome. It’s the only museum in the United States dedicated to collecting black dolls, and I hope to check it out someday. Preferably via the Broad Street Line rather than this subpar route (see below).

Final Verdict: 4/10
I feel bad that the route’s relative indirectness isn’t its fault, but I still gotta mark it down for it. Compared to a straight and simple route like the 54 a few blocks north (which gets triple the riders), the wiggly and relatively infrequent 39 looks really bad. I think that’s reflected in the route’s ridership, and it’s also reflected in my score.

Latest SEPTA News: Service Updates

Logan Airport Shuttle: 44 (Serves subway station and LOC)

Jun 24, 2019 | Miles on the MBTA | 5 Comments

Hang on, what’s this about there being a 44? It’s not on Massport’s website! My friend found it on the Transit app a few days ago, and it’s an odd specimen. According to the app, it runs between Airport Station and the Logan Office Center (also served by the 66), then it uses Harborside Drive to loop around back to the station. It only runs on weekends, from 5 AM to 7 PM, and 11 PM (9:30 PM on Sundays) to 1 AM.

Given Massport’s track record with its GTFS data and thus the Transit app (it’s awful – as an example, it shows that the 66 skips the station while the 88 serves it, which is totally wrong), I was skeptical that this bus even existed. But nope, I got to Airport Station at around 12:30 AM and it was up on the countdown clock! The time stayed at 14 minutes for a while, then it started ticking down at hyper speed. And then, there it was…

“You going to the harbor?” the driver asked. The harbor? Like, where the ferries leave from? I guess that would be fine, although Transit said nothing about the route going there. “Sure!” I replied. I headed to the back of the completely empty bus, and we pulled away onto Transportation Way.

The road curved alongside the airport’s twisting highway system, passing the Rental Car Center and some parking lots. It became Harborside Drive as we ran between two structures: Terminal A’s second building, and the Logan Office Center, which had a bus shelter. This is the route’s only stop according to Transit, but we just sailed past it (no one was waiting).

One of the cargo buildings on Harborside Drive.

As we approached the ferry terminal, I got ready to get off. But…no, we ran past that, too. Harborside Drive curved eastward and gained a huge grassy median. There was a big wall on one side separating the road from a runway, while the other side was lined with airline cargo buildings. The road ended and we just looped around the median, arriving at a fancy bus shelter outside the Delta building. The driver opened the doors. I guess this was the harbor.

Logan Airport Shuttle Route: Logan Airport Shuttle: 44 (Serves subway station and LOC)

Ridership: Well…looked like no one! I would’ve thought the peak direction would’ve been towards the harbor late at night, maybe for people working odd hours. Apparently not, because my bus was empty, but there wasn’t anyone waiting to take it back towards the station, either.

Pros: The 44’s biggest asset is its speed – since it doesn’t have to serve the terminals, you get to go straight down to the harbor area.

Cons: This one reallyyyyy doesn’t seem like it needs to exist. Like, if its goal is to run when the 66 doesn’t (which seems like the goal), why doesn’t it run on weekdays, when the 66 runs almost the exact same span of service? Why does the harbor area only get a direct link to Airport Station during the 44’s very specific running times? Why does the 44 start earlier on Sundays while the 66 has the same span, meaning that for an hour and a half, the harbor area gets double the service? This route just seems haphazardly inserted into the network to accommodate very few (if any) riders.

Nearby and Noteworthy: Just a buncha cargo buildings.

Final Verdict: 1/10
As far as I can tell, this route has no reason to exist. Maybe it gets way more riders on every other trip, but mine got absolutely no one, and even if the others are busy, there are still a lot of things about it that make no sense. Heck, Massport doesn’t even list it on its website! Shouldn’t that say something?

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

3 (33rd-Cecil B. Moore to Frankford Transportation Center)

Jun 19, 2019 | Miles on SEPTA | 2 Comments

It was of the utmost importance that I rode the 3 on a Saturday or Sunday midday. You see, most of the time, it does indeed end at a SEPTA loop at 33rd-Cecil B. Moore, but on weekend middays…yes, weekend middays, it gets extended to the Smith Memorial Playground in Fairmount Park. My parents were in town for Family Weekend, so my dad and I decided to do a father-son excursion to the park. Only children aged 10 and younger are allowed inside? Psh, I can pretend to be 10…

All right, it even says it on the destination sign!!

It’s a long trek to childlike wonder and fun, though – first we have to start at Frankford and suffer through the 3’s longgggg first half. You see, it travels directly underneath the El from Frankford all the way down to Berks, stopping every. Single. Block. And all the while you can hear the trains up above speeding by at a million miles an hour. Ugh…this section isn’t gonna ride itself, I suppose…

The gloomy shadow of the El isn’t always captured in these pictures, alas.

Alright, straight onto Frankford Ave we went, passing lots of businesses (some open, some permanently closed) with apartments on top of them, as well as the Jefferson Frankford Hospital. Cruising through the busy intersection around Margaret-Orthodo…er, Arrott Transportation Center, the street remained lined with retail, although many of the colorful signs led only to shuttered doors. Still, Saint Mark’s Church was an absolutely beautiful building, and its parking lot was home to a fantastic mural.

…but I was on the wrong side of the bus, so here’s a pizza joint.

We went under Church Station, merged onto Kensington Ave, and went by a few auto shops as we crossed Frankford Creek. The other side of the creek was suburban, with a lot of fast food restaurants surrounded by parking lots; I’ve always found it fascinating that this neighborhood just happens to have an elevated rapid transit station (Erie-Torresdale) right smack in the middle of it. It got industrial for a while, continuing after we went under the Northeast Corridor up until Tioga Station.

There was a park at Tioga, and from there, Kensington Ave once again became a major commercial corridor – a highlight was a huge factory converted to a furniture showcase. The next El station was at Allegheny, an infamous intersection known for having a basically decriminalized drug trade. There were so many people just hanging around here (including a massive crowd on the right side of the bus), and the intersection’s reputation meant that I couldn’t help theorizing what they might’ve been doing.

We continued to Somerset Station, passing more retail (much of which was shuttered), a park with a charming library in the middle, and a few auto shops. The road went under an abandoned train line, and there were more businesses, a hospital, and a school on the other side. Huntingdon was the next El stop, and the one after, York-Dauphin, came with a slight left turn onto Front Street.

Shoot, wish I could’ve captured more of that mural on the left – it looks amazing!

It’s about at the turn onto Front where you start to see signs of gentrification – the buildings were in better shape, and there were new apartment constructions (of questionable architectural taste). We didn’t quite make it into true hipsterville, though, as we took a left onto Berks Street next to the station of the same name. Man, it sure was nice to escape the shadow of the El!

Berks had a wide variety of uses occupying its lots, from apartments (both old and new) to industrial buildings (some abandoned, some repurposed) to just empty tracts of land. We were supposed to turn onto 6th Street next to a supermarket to get down to Cecil B. Moore Ave, but…uh-oh, an emergency vehicle was blocking the one-way, one-lane road. This was unexpected.

The driver acted quickly, reversing out of the turn back onto Berks. Someone in the back of the bus was looking out the window behind us helping him out. “Keep going, keep going, keep going…hold up hold up hold up!” Through their incredible impromptu coordination, we reversed our way back onto Germantown Ave, using that to get onto Cecil B. Moore instead.

An abandoned, graffiti-covered building in front, but a brand new apartment down the street.

There were a few blocks of heavy industry, then a few blocks of one of North Philly’s weird suburban housing developments, then we went under the Regional Rail tracks and entered Temple University. Well-kept college buildings lined Cecil B. Moore, and a huge crowd was waiting for us when we arrived at Broad Street and its corresponding subway station. The driver opened the back doors to let people off, but people caught wind and started swarming in without paying. Oh well.

We passed several blocks of student-oriented businesses west of Broad, but it got more residential the further we went. Still, probably because of the university’s proximity, modern apartments were dotted in between more classic Philly rowhouses. The few abandoned lots that were left are probably going to be built on very soon. There were a few more suburban residential developments to the north.

We had definitely escaped Temple’s influence by the time we got to the commercial intersection with Ridge Ave, where the retail ranged from dollar stores to check-cashing places to laundromats (and a bunch of vacant stores, too). A decent chunk of lots west of there were vacant, with a few abandoned rowhouses among the lived-in ones. The businesses along here served local needs, with many convenience stores and day cares.

Crossing the Northeast Corridor (again!), it was just a few more stops until we reached 33rd. “Last stop,” a passenger said to us as he got out. But my dad and I knew better: it was time to go to the playground! The bus turned onto 33rd for a block, then we swung a right onto Reservoir Drive, entering Fairmount Park. It was pretty bizarre speeding through the woods after having slowly trundled through the city for 45 minutes. The bus used a triangular road pattern to loop around, and we (as well as someone else who definitely exceeded the park’s age limit) got off the bus outside the playground’s driveway. The route map says it’s supposed to deviate right to the front gate, but that didn’t happen…

This bus is definitely out of its element here in the park!

Route: 3 (33rd-Cecil B. Moore to Frankford Transportation Center)

Ridership: The 3 barely makes SEPTA’s top 25 for ridership (at slot 25!), getting 8,557 riders per weekday. That averages out to about 50 people per trip, and since the route takes about 50 minutes end-to-end, it’s about a rider a minute! Not bad!

Pros: The crosstown portion of the 3 is really strong. Cecil B. Moore Ave is a really major street, and the heavy local ridership the route gets along here exemplifies that. It helps that this route actually has a decent schedule! Weekday service is fantastic, running at least every 15 minutes from 6 AM to 9 PM (although SEPTA didn’t give it a 15-15-5 timetable cover…weird), with a bus every 8-12 minutes at rush hour and every half hour at night until 2:30 AM. But weekend service isn’t bad either – for most of the day (mid-morning to evening) it’s a solid every 20 minutes, and it’s every half hour at the other times of the day. The Smith Memorial Playground variant doesn’t seem to get a ton of people and it does complicate the route, but it doesn’t actually affect the number of buses needed to run it, so I guess I can’t really complain.

Cons: The route gets about 10 boardings per service hour fewer at rush hour than it does middays, so it’s possible that peak service could be less frequent, with the resources redistributed to increase Saturday headways to every 15 minutes. Other than that, I really want to complain about the section underneath the El, but it does actually get decent ridership – not as good as the rest of the route, but buses on that section average about 15-20 riders on board at any one time. But…how many of them would still be on board if transfers were free? And the only non-wheelchair accessible El stop on the route is Arrott, which is being upgraded as we speak. Once that’s done, there’s no legal reason the service has to be run underneath the El, although backlash would be strong if SEPTA tried to remove the service. Hmm…

Nearby and Noteworthy: Well, even though I can’t visit it, the Smith Memorial Playground does look like a wonderful happyland for kids. For those of the non-child variety, Keystone Mini-Golf and Arcade looks like a ton of fun – you could take the 3 to Berks and 2nd, or just ride the El to Berks Station (which is most likely a lot faster).

Final Verdict: 7/10
The 3 is a surprisingly decent route, and I did not expect to say that going in. I mean, half of it is just duplication of the El! But that does still seem like the place where the most improvement could be made here. I couldn’t help comparing the 3 to the 5, which basically duplicates the El from Berks to 2nd…but it runs down the otherwise-unserved Frankford Ave north of that to Frankford Transportation Center. The 5 only runs every 22 minutes on weekdays and every half hour on weekends – maybe this less frequent service could run underneath the El instead, while the 3 could bring frequent service to Frankford Ave, a street that doesn’t currently have it? Something like this:

Now instead of two frequent routes overlapping each other (i.e. the 3 and the El on Kensington), you get two frequent corridors in Northeast Philly. The thing is, though, this plan would only make sense if transfers were free – passengers would still want to get between the two routes, and those coming from Frankford Ave would now have to transfer to the El at Berks to get into Center City (although it would be a faster trip, and it would take riders to far more places than the 5 does). The route along Kensington Ave would only really be useful for local service (barring transfers), but that’s how a lot of people use the 3 on that section already. Ultimately, free transfers are the most important thing to implement here; this route swap could be an interesting and beneficial byproduct of that, though.

Latest SEPTA News: Service Updates

GATRA: Foxborough MBTA Commuter Service

Jun 18, 2019 | Miles on the MBTA | 2 Comments

Okay, this one’s a bit weird. Basically, the town of Foxborough has this free commuter lot for residents. It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere, though, so they needed a bus company to provide a shuttle from there to Mansfield Station. Hi, GATRA!

Look at the paper! It says “Foxboro Lot”! That’s enough branding, right?

Nathan and I hopped aboard the Dial-a-Ride vehicle (because of course that’s what it uses), and we headed around onto North Main Street, which traversed an underpass beneath the Commuter Rail tracks. It became County Street, and there were a few houses alongside it, but then there was a stretch of pure woods. And then, we pulled into the parking lot. THE END!

The bus leaving the parking lot, with the graffitied shelter in the background.

GATRA Route: Foxborough MBTA Commuter Service

Ridership: We were on the last trip of the day, and there were four other people on board. It’s a shame we couldn’t get on an earlier one to see how full the parking lot was!

Pros: I mean, it’s free, it connects with trains on each of its runs, and it takes about three minutes to get to its destination (although longer at the moment because of construction, according to GATRA). Not bad! Plus, the lot used to be “contaminated with hazardous chemicals by the former owner” and the town cleaned it up, so good job, Foxborough!

Cons: The lot is unfortunately only for Foxborough residents, and because of that, it might not be as well-used as it could be (although maybe that’s changed with the still-ongoing station construction?). To get access to the lot, residents need to go to Town Hall to apply for a pass, and that’s only open from 8:30 to 4:00 on weekdays (open later on Tuesdays and closed earlier on Fridays). It’s also kinda sad that this unofficial Facebook page has more information than GATRA does, which links to a permit application from 2012.

Nearby and Noteworthy: A parking lot. Like, that’s it.

Final Verdict: 7/10
Yeah, I mean, it’s a parking shuttle! It just kinda does its rounds at rush hour, shuttling people from this little lot to the Commuter Rail station. It’s nothing spectacular, but there’s not a ton to complain about either (my problems are really more with the lot rather than the bus itself).

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

33rd Street (Trolleys)

Jun 16, 2019 | Miles on SEPTA | 4 Comments

Uh-oh…better make this quick, I’m in enemy territory! This is 33rd Street Station.

A block east from the El’s 34th Street Station, 33rd Street is placed just before the trolley tracks join Market Street. The two entrances are diagonally across a park, with one side on Market and the other at 33rd and Ludlow. Architecturally, they look great, with simple designs that also draw people in – indeed, they’re better than the entrances at 34th a block away. But does anyone else think they went a bit hard on the branding (see above)?

Like 36th Street, my thoughts on the mezzanine basically boil down to “Where are the faregates?!?” And unlike with 36th Street, 33rd Street’s mezzanine doesn’t even get a nice mural. It’s just a big open room that somehow has hidden enough signage that it manages to be confusing to use. And while the two entrances on either side of it mean that two sets of faregates would have to be installed, it’s still a relatively easy setup, unlike the way they had to wrangle them into 19th and 22nd.

There’s not a ton to say about the actual design of the platforms. They’re really standard trolley fare, with a drab look, benches and wastebaskets, and the ubiquitous mystery liquid on the tracks. There is one thing that makes 33rd Street’s platforms stand out from the others, though: because it’s right next to the El (you can hear the trains roaring past), there is actually cell service down here!

A trolley screeching around the curve. Quick, flag it down!

Station: 33rd Street (Trolleys)

Ridership: SEPTA doesn’t give ridership information on the trolley stops, but this stop seems to get healthy ridership, especially from that place it serves. It should be noted that the El is just a block away, but the trolleys aren’t that much slower, so it’s really just a matter of where you happen to be coming from.

Pros: Cell service! Uh, other than that, though, not a lot…

Cons: I can’t even say it’s easy to navigate, because the signage in the mezzanine is so bad! It’s just two tiny signs hanging down from the ceiling that aren’t easy to spot. When I use this station, I often do a double-take when I realize I have no idea where I’m going. Maybe regular users don’t experience this, but still, it shouldn’t be this hard to figure out which staircase goes where. Other than that, it’s all the other classic SEPTA trolley problems: no faregates, having to flag trains down, a grungy atmosphere, and no wheelchair accessibility.

Nearby and Noteworthy: Sure, I could point out that school it’s close to, but why not give some love to Wahoo’s, the official after-game restaurant for the Penn Quakers? WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Final Verdict: 3/10
I would say it gets an extra point for the cell service, but the fact that it somehow manages to be hard to navigate takes the point right off again. Heck, there’s not even signage for the exits – I always have to figure out which way the trolley was going, then decide which staircase is the one I want based on my orientation. We can’t have signs saying “Market Street” and “Ludlow Street”? Yeah, no, a 3 seems just right. Also, Drexel: no hard feelings, right? Teehee.

Latest SEPTA News: Service Updates

Guide to the RTAs’ Summer 2019 Service Changes

Jun 14, 2019 | Miles on the MBTA | 4 Comments

Might as well complete the trifecta here! There’s a decent amount going on this summer in RTA land, so let’s see how the changes stack up. This time we’ll be including all fifteen RTAs in Massachusetts, plus RIPTA.

BAT
BAT hyped itself up for getting three service improvement grants from Massachusetts; at time of writing, just one of them has actually been implemented, and that’s additional service on the 12 (the Ashmont route). Weirdly, though, even that is off – the press release says they’re adding two additional round trips, when as far as I can tell, far more has been added, mostly in the form of rush hour express trips (although my only point of reference is a timetable from back in March). In any case, I’m all for increased service on this overburdened route, although it should be noted that weekend service, especially Sundays, is still really bad.

What about the other two improvements? New trips to Brockton are supposed to be added to both the 14 from Stoughton and the BSU 28 from Bridgewater. Neither of those have happened yet, but we can only hope they’ll remember to implement them…

BRTA
Gotta give props to BRTA, they did something cool: the BRTA has added night service on its main north-south routes, the 1 and the 21. It’s just two extra trips, but it brings service as late as 11 PM (sort of, even if that trip is basically just returning to the garage), which is impressive for such a rural area!

CATA
As usual, nothing is changing long-term for CATA, although they are adding their usual summer services (the Rockport Loop is already running, while the Ipswich-Essex Explorer and Stage Fort Park Trolley begin this Saturday, June 15th).

CCRTA
CCRTA will be starting its summer schedule on June 22nd, with all of the associated seasonal routes and frequency increases.

FRTA
The most interesting thing they’re doing is adding a pilot program where seniors can ride free every Tuesday. That’s nice!

GATRA
No crazy new routes through the middle of nowhere this time! GATRA’s biggest change is just adding a new deviation to a retirement home on the FAB (Franklin Area Bus). Let’s just check the online schedule to see what it is. Huh…it’s not here? And the PDF is the same, too! What’s the service alert say? “Please check with the FAB driver for the new schedule.” Ah. Expert public relations from GATRA, as usual.

LRTA
This is a huge one: the LRTA is adding Sunday service to ten routes for a 9-month pilot program starting June 16th! Here’s the master schedule: the span is pretty limited (9:30 AM to 5:30 PM max), but the headways are standard, with most of the routes running every hour on a pulse. The three exceptions are the 18 (Downtown Shuttle), which will run every half hour; the 13 (Billerica via Edson), which will run every 90 minutes; and the new combined 15/16 (Westford via Chelmsford Street), which will also run every 90 minutes. Go out there and ride this service if you live in the area, because since they call it a pilot, it’s almost certainly a “use it or lose it” situation. A vibrant city like Lowell deserves bus service seven days a week!

MART
Nothing from MART this time. I eagerly await some random new commuter shuttle at some point!

MVRTA
Nothing permanent, but the 83 to Salisbury and Hampton Beaches resumes service July 1st.

MWRTA
The MWRTA recently (about a month ago) updated schedules for the 1, 6, 9, and 14; I remember trying to figure out what was changing when they first came out, but I guess I didn’t expound enough effort on that because I couldn’t find anything. They’re all just as bad as ever! Also about a month ago, they updated the schedules for some of their commuter routes that I keep trying to pretend don’t exist but I can’t put off forever. These were schedules I was not at all familiar with, but I can’t imagine they changed much other than the running times. Their college shuttles entered into a reduced summer schedule, too.

But there is one interesting change: a new commuter shuttle, the Route 20 Shuttle, has been added. It actually looks awesome, running from Marlborough down Route 20 to Riverside. It makes three round trips in the morning and two in the evening, and if advertised well, it could be a really valuable connection for Boston commuters from Marlborough. I do find it odd that the last evening trip is at 5:30, though – it does return to Riverside at 6:30, but that trip expresses to the yard. You would think that given Riverside’s distance from Boston, there would be one last trip for those who get out of work in Boston at 5 or 5:30.

NRTA
The newly year-round Nantucket bus system enters its summer schedule between June 15th and June 22nd, depending on the route.

PVTA
PVTA is doing the same fare-free senior Tuesdays thing that FRTA is doing! Yay! But okay, there are some actual route changes, too. They’re happening (or happened) at different times, so I’ll put the date in there too.

G1 (6/23): Just a weekday running time update to keep buses on schedule.

G2/G2E (Last April): Ugh, the G2’s service was reduced to half hourly. What was the tradeoff? A new express version of the G2. I guess. Look, it is slightly (literally three to eight minutes) faster to Memorial Industrial Park on the express, but is it really worth the lost frequency on the corresponding local route that probably serves far more people?

B7 (6/23): “Departure times in the late evening adjusted to better accommodate transfers at Union Station.” I guess that just means adjusting the 10:20 trip to now leave at 10:25.

B7S (6/23): Ummm…I don’t get this? It’s a new route…running every half hour on weekdays only…that entirely duplicates the B7 until the end, when it goes to a senior center…but that senior center is already served by the X92. Like, the B7 is already every 15 minutes on weekdays. Even if that wasn’t good enough, why would this unnecessary, duplicative, probably bunchy-with-the-regular-B7 variant be the solution? Just use the bus to improve B7 frequency!

P20 (6/23): The last trip of the night will be five minutes faster.

P20E (6/23): After its stint of being Saturdays only, the P20E makes its triumphant return on weekdays! It has a weird inconsistent schedule, with frequencies ranging from ten minutes to two hours, but I suppose it’s overall more frequent than what the weekday schedule used to be. Back then, it was just every-two-hour R29 trips coming from the garage in Springfield; this new schedule is a combination of those trips and new standalone ones. I dunno, it’s weird, but the P20E is a lot faster than its local counterpart…hopefully people can figure out this schedule enough to find the route useful.

R24 (6/23): The route will travel via Hampshire Street instead of Sergeant Street in Holyoke, eliminating a pointless jog. Sounds good to me – now we just gotta deal with every other pointless jog on the R24!

R44 (this fall): Oh snap, who called it way back in 2017? That’s right: THIS guy! But shameless gloating aside, it is nice to see the PVTA turning the R44 into the bidirectional loop that it’s secretly meant to be. The problem is the schedule – the route would run every seventy minutes with the proposed change! And you can tell that this thing is padded to death – I’m almost certain they could get away with every hour without changing anything. For just one example, one direction takes seven minutes to get between Florence Heights and the Hampshire House of “Corretions” [sic]. The other direction? Sixteen minutes. Sorry, through passengers: you’ll just have to sit there and wait. Also…apparently this will only affect weekday service while weekend service stays the same? Yeah, that won’t confuse people!

LOOP (last April): The rare example of the PVTA unpadding a route! The LOOP was way too short to justify running it every hour, so they amended the schedule to have it run every 40 minutes instead. Yeah, I know, I wish it could be every half hour too…

UMass Routes (last May): Everything at UMass Transit is now running on its summer schedules. The 30 and 31 have an added trip in the evening, though.

RIPTA
RIPTA’s summer service changes come into effect June 22nd. Let’s look at each of them.

QX: The Quonset Express is getting extended to Pawtucket to improve access to the area. I don’t know if this is a sign that the route isn’t getting enough ridership or what, but hopefully the extension can attract new users! The route will also gain a stop in the Quonset area at NORAD.

1: The 1 is supposedly getting updated running times to keep buses on time, but…yeah, no, this new schedule is exactly the same.

13: I love how whenever RIPTA updates its running times for better on-time performance, they give the bus less time because there was too much padding! The 13 is one such example – trips will be scheduled about 3-5 minutes shorter.

29: And the 29 is another example! Trips will be about 5-10 minutes shorter.

61x: Huh, this is an interesting development. This route will gain one new trip in each direction, travelling against the peak. These trips are meant to connect to jobs along Metacom Ave; they’ll start at Exchange Terrace without serving the Downcity Loop, then run express (without the 61x’s weird East Side local section) to Seekonk, MA in order to get to TPI Composites in Warren, RI, and finally they’ll rejoin the regular route to Tiverton. Yeah, it’s a little weird, but with good advertising, I think it could bring in ridership. I do wish the new schedule differentiated between AM and PM trips, though, because it’s confusing the way they shaded everything with the same color.

66: The 8:24 AM inbound trip on Sundays will now depart at 8:13 to better connect to the Commuter Rail, a great change to help out Boston-bound passengers from southern Rhode Island. Now, apparently the route will also now serve stops on Post Road near TF Green Airport. I was originally going to get worked up about this (another deviation!!), but…it doesn’t seem to make a difference. Everything about the two schedules and maps is identical. So…I guess it’s fine, then?

67: The 67 will begin its more frequent summer service.

71: Another effort to keep buses from running early; the service will run about 2-3 minutes quicker.

95x: A new outbound trip in the morning and a new round trip in the afternoon have been added to serve students heading to CCRI in Westerly. Now, aside from the obligatory quip about how summer isn’t the best time to make this change, I think this is a great idea. Not only does it help out commuting students without cars, but it adds service to the most isolated large town in Rhode Island.

Beach Bus and Newport Ferry Shuttle: These seasonal services are starting up again!

SRTA
Back in March, the FR 5 and the NB 8 got new night service on weekdays. I hope that’s going well! As far as upcoming services go, the NB 1 will get a Saturday-only routing from June 29th to August 24th that loops around the peninsula it runs down to serve a beach. I…honestly don’t like this. Having separate routings on weekdays and Saturdays will be confusing, running in a loop that skips out on the major thoroughfare of the peninsula feels like it’s hurting the route’s many regular users for the sake of a few beachgoers, and the beach is literally a four-minute walk from the main road. Like…come on now.

VTA
Martha’s Vineyard’s transit system has already begun ramping up service for the shoulder season, but it goes into the full-force summer schedule starting June 22nd.

WRTA
The WRTA has a series of schedule changes for June 22nd. In classic WRTA fashion, we won’t be able to view the schedules themselves until they become effective, so we’ll see how much we can glean from the descriptions given…

1: “Route will now serve the Worcester Senior Center on all inbound and outbound trips.” I mean…it already does? Maybe this means it’ll deviate in now. It’s a senior center, after all, so I can see why they’d want to make it deviate.

2/6: The 2’s long-standing outbound-only by-request-only Mower Street deviation will be no more. Honestly…fine with me. Also, on Sundays, it’ll form a weird hybrid route with the 6 that serves Worcester State University but only goes as far as Tatnuck Square. Maybe it’s a “best of both worlds” situation, and it’ll be nice for at least part of the 6 corridor to finally get Sunday service, but I just worry the hybrid service might be confusing. Hopefully they make it clear what’s going on – I think MBTA examples like the paper timetables for the 62/76 and 72/75 are good examples of how do do something like this right.

5: I guess the 5 is getting a new layover point? It’ll now end a few blocks south of its current terminus at Mass Audubon’s Broad Meadow Center, a wildlife sanctuary. It’s probably just the closest place where the bus can lay over in an off-street location. Also, the route will start an hour later, at 7 AM.

7: The 7 will stop directly serving the Family Health Center on Sundays. This makes sense, as the Family Health Center is closed on Sundays.

8/40: A new route! The 40 will be eliminated and its bus will be used on the new route 8, which is honestly a much better usage of that vehicle. This is WRTA’s first true foray into crosstown service, running straight up the important Park Ave corridor from Webster Square Plaza to the Greendale Mall. Obviously there’s no timetable for it yet, and they’ve already said it will only be weekdays only, but I really hope this can open up new travel opportunities for riders in Worcester. It’s a great idea.

11: This route has really barebones Sunday service at the moment, so it’s great to see that it’ll be improved. While it currently starts at 12:30 PM, the new Sunday service will begin at 8:30. Fantastic!

14: Because this route’s ridership is heavily based on Quinsigamond Community College, it’ll only run every hour instead of every half hour on weekdays throughout the summer.

16/31: This loop will be getting more Saturday service! There’s no specific info out, but anything’s better than the six daily trips it provides now.

24/24A: Uh…”all timetables updated” is kinda all we get here. Will the service be better? Worse? No idea. Show us a schedule!

25: Rather than its current weekday service to the Auburn Industrial Park, the 25 will instead use Cambridge Street to cut over to Webster Square Plaza. This is a good change – the industrial park is tiny and probably doesn’t generate a lot of ridership, while Webster Square Plaza is becoming a mini-hub on the system with the addition of the 8. Kinda weird that the weekend service will still go to the Auburn Mall, though – it’s awfully different from the weekday!

26: The 26 is apparently gaining Saturday service! It’s already every half hour, so I’m curious what the frequency upgrade will be. I mean, it would be better if they put the extra bus on the 23 to make that every half hour, then marketed the two routes as one every-15-minute trunk route on Lincoln Street, but that’s besides the point…

29: This route will now express through Charlton Center, probably because of low ridership to that deviation, and it’ll use the extra time to extend to Big Bunny Plaza in Southbridge. Southbridge is a bigger destination than Charlton could ever hope to be, so I think serving more of it is a good idea.

Guide to the MBTA’s Summer 2019 Service Changes

Jun 11, 2019 | Miles on the MBTA | 7 Comments

Unlike the SEPTA debacle, the T has been getting better and better at releasing its schedule changes. These ones don’t come into play until June 23rd, and the website has a comprehensive list of everything changing – I’m barely needed here! But I can still make pithy remarks about all of them, right? Let’s do this.

CT3: The CT3’s rush hour short-turns from Andrew to the BU Medical Center are being eliminated. Those trips didn’t get much ridership, and their absence is being used to improve service along the rest of the line. It admittedly doesn’t do much to the morning rush (aside from making the 20-minute frequencies more consistent), but evening rush service improves from every half hour to every 21 minutes (okay, gross headway, but it’s still better). Reverse peak service is also more frequent than it was before, about five minutes better for most of the rush. Not that the CT3 gets at all busy in the reverse peak direction, but it’s still a nice thing to point out.

15: “Saturday schedule changes between 10:00 AM and 6:30 PM.” Does this mean the 15’s abysmal Saturday service is finally getting fixed??? Yes…sort of. Currently, the route operates every 15 minutes in the outbound direction, with every other trip ending at Kane Square; inbound service, however, is essentially every half hour because of really bad coordination. With this new schedule, outbound Saturday service will still be every 15 minutes, while inbound service will now run at (mostly) alternating intervals of 14-16 minutes. So much better. I do have to point out, though, that the Fields Corner trips are scheduled to take seven minutes longer to get from Kane Square to Dudley than the short-turns do, which makes no sense. I should also point out that the service is inconsistent, and gaps can be as small as 11 minutes and as large as 19, with random, inexplicable run time changes being the culprit. And finally, I should point out that this new schedule requires either a one-minute layover at Kane Square (seems risky) or an added bus to the route that just sits there for half an hour. I guess we’ll just have to see: will we get insanely unreliable inbound service, or will we get ridiculously long layovers at Kane Square?

16: A nice quality of life change: half-hourly service will now continue to 11 PM, when it used to end at 10. Anything helps!

21: Well, this is a little bizarre! The 21 will now run every 15 minutes or better all day on weekdays, up from every 20. That makes the 21 one of the most frequent non-key weekday routes on the entire system, which is crazy to me because the weekend service is still terrible! Every 45 minutes on Saturdays? Every hour on Sundays? What’s the deal with that? Still, kudos to the T for that weekday upgrade.

31: Oh yeah, speaking of non-key routes that provide frequent service, the 31 remains a route that is key in everything but name (well, except the every 21 minute Sunday service and infrequent weekend night service, which really make me want to rescind the 10/10 I gave it). This is an interesting schedule change: the 31 will run a consistent 8-10 minute headway all day on weekdays, rather than having a crazy every 5-6 minute rush hour. While on the one hand, the route’s rush hour service never gets significantly busier than midday (barring dropped trips), nearly doubling the headway could lead to very crowded buses. I think I’m tentatively in support of this, especially if the resources gained were used to help out the 21, but let’s just hope things don’t get too busy.

32: Uhhh…yeah, I don’t really get this one. That one Saturday morning 32/33 trip will now be operated as a 33, I guess? Nothing has changed beyond a small adjustment to the running time. If you use this trip, I’m fairly certain you don’t have to worry about anything.

39: In an effort to combat unreliability, weekend service will be slightly less frequent: Saturday service will run about every 12 minutes, down from every 10, while Sunday service will be every 13-14, down from every 11-12.

43: In an effort to combat unreliability, weekend service will be significantly less frequent. While the route currently runs every 20 minutes on Saturdays and every 25 on Sundays, it will soon run every half hour on both days. Particularly for Saturdays, that will make the route next to useless, although in the T’s defense, Saturday ridership by trip is super low. Not that this will help!!

44: The official description says “Saturday schedule changes throughout the day,” but it’s a lot less major than it sounds. A chunk of inbound trips from 6 AM to 9:15 AM will leave about five minutes later, and an extra inbound trip is being added at 7:14 PM. Overall, then, I guess it ends up being a net positive thanks to that extra trip! Woo!

45: Just a few departure time changes here and there, namely Saturday and Sunday evenings.

55: Another case of lost weekend service to help reliability. Saturday service will run every 40 minutes instead of every 35, and Sunday service will be less consistent in the inbound direction.

70/70A: Changes to the 70? Is it good yet? We’re just shifting some weekday trip times? Alright, cool. Wake me up when the route is actually, like, not completely insane.

71/73: Ah, and now we get to the Harvard Busway Renovation. The Harvard Upper Busway will be closed throughout the summer, and it’s affecting almost every route that runs through it (except the 86). For the 71 and 73, inbound buses will terminate at University Road while outbound buses will begin at Story Street. The upside to this, though, is that service will be slightly more frequent because of the shorter trip time! Rush hour will shave off a few minutes from the headway, as will Saturday and night service.

72: For routes that typically board from the Upper Busway, outbound buses will board in the Lower Busway and inbound buses will drop off at Brattle Street @ Palmer Street in Harvard Square. Unlike with the 71/73, this results in a longer trip time, and we end up with some fun headways. The 72, for example, will now run every 32 minutes on Saturdays instead of every 30, and the currently every 40 minute 72/75 will operate every [checks notes] 43-47 minutes. Oof.

74/75: For detour information, see 72 above. These routes aren’t horrendously affected by the detours, actually – they maintain their headways, just with running time changes (inbound trips will take longer).

76: Oh…hi, Alewife route. Just a couple of trips moving by five minutes? Alright.

77: For detour information, see 72 above. Despite being a minute less frequent at some times, the 77 mostly makes it out of this unscathed…with one major exception: my beloved 77A will cease to exist! Yes, because of the detour, trackless trolleys will have to use Huron Ave to get from North Cambridge to the 71/73, meaning no more 77A trips to and from the garage. They had better be reinstated after the detour is complete! I love those things!

78: For detour information, see 72 above. Yikes, we’ve got some rough new headways here: every 37-38 minutes on weekdays, every 70 minutes on Saturdays, and new inconsistent departure times on Sundays.

89: There are lots of time shifts on weekdays and Saturdays, but no frequency is lost (although there are some weird inconsistent departure times now). On Sundays, meanwhile, all trips will terminate at Davis with nothing continuing on to Clarendon Hill. Does the shorter route length mean we’ll get better service than the current every 70 minute schedule? No? Ugh.

93: The 1:08 AM bus from Sullivan will no longer hold for the last train. My guess for why they got rid of this is that some people use its return trip from downtown, and that might’ve been getting late from waiting for the train. Just in case the last train happens to arrive after 1:08, there will be a new 1:40 bus from Sullivan that will probably get nobody (although it does connect to the 2:00 trip from Haymarket – waiting for the last train could’ve also caused the bus to be late for this journey). I guess there are decent reasons to not have the 1:08 trip hold, but the loss of the guaranteed connection won’t help ridership, and the 2:00 trip is on the chopping block anyway.

94: Some weekday headways will be shorter, some weekday headways will be longer, but ultimately, service will be lost. The schedule is kind of a mess so it’s hard to be more specific than that, but ultimately, the route will be running slightly fewer trips than it does now. Also, weirdly, the outbound-only variant that runs via Medford High School will still operate that way, despite the fact that it’s summer and there’s no one to drop off there!

96: For detour information, see 72 above. Wisely, given the Harvard Square detour, one more inbound Davis Square short-turn is added in the morning rush, and peak-direction headways stay pretty intact as a result. Not so for the evening rush, where service will be every 25 minutes instead of every 20. There are some weekend running time changes to accommodate for the detour, too. Annoyingly, the paper schedule for the 96 doesn’t reference the detour at all, which should really be rectified to avoid confusion!

99: A few running time changes and an extra outbound trip in the afternoon. I can never complain about extra trips, even if it is just one!

101: There are a few small trip time changes on weekdays, but nothing crazy. Probably to help reliability (which is abysmal on this route), weekend service will no longer loop through Malden Square, but it should be noted that the running times stay almost exactly the same. Anything to get the route’s on-time rate above 65%, eh?

108: Two early afternoon Sunday outbound trips are moving up by five minutes.

109: “Weekday inbound trip eliminated at 2:30 PM.” Yeah, but…that’s a school trip. Of course it’s being eliminated – it’s summer. Unless…is it being eliminated forever? I doubt it, because it’s a busy trip during the school year. I dunno, this one is just confusing.

110: The first inbound trip at 5 AM will now leave at 4:55.

116/117: The 116/117 currently have an odd weekday schedule where midmorning service is every 15 minutes, while early afternoon service is every 10 minutes. This update will make the route every 12 minutes throughout the midday, which I think is an improvement.

134: I was excited here, because I thought the 134’s butchering from last rating would be fixed. Nope – just a few running time changes. At least the 6:10 AM outbound trip will now go all the way to North Woburn…

225: The Saturday inbound trip at 7:45 AM will now depart at 7:40.

238: A new inbound trip at 9:02 PM is being added – it’s probably coming from a 240. Meanwhile, weekend service gets more inconsistent, although the headways themselves are fairly similar to what they are now most of the time.

240: On weekdays, the 5:41 AM outbound trip will travel to Holbrook/Randolph instead of Avon. Also, the 9:02 PM inbound trip will no longer run – I guess I was right, it’s now a 238! For Saturdays…oh boy, what was once a clean half-hourly schedule will now be every 25-40 minutes. Yeah, it’s as crazy as it sounds. Finally, Sunday has departure time shifts throughout the day, which the T forgot to mention on its list…

326: Haha, remember last rating when the T got rid of a bunch of morning peak 326 trips and I said it would be a disaster? Well, I guess it was, because the T is restoring most of those morning rush trips!

426: As far as clean clockface headways go, another one bites the dust: weekday trips will be much more inconsistent, despite no actual loss of service.

428: Running times will be longer on all trips.

429: A route with hourly service, huh? Nah, I like 64-76 minute service instead. Totally better! Really! Yes, I know the 429 is ridiculously unreliable, but this is just awful, and it’s frustrating how many routes are getting this treatment! Sigh…also, inbound Sunday trips will be three minutes shorter, but that wasn’t on the T’s list either. And Sunday service is just as unreliable as weekday service, so unless all 42% of those “not on time” buses were early, I really don’t see why we’re doing this.

436: The three trips between 6 and 7:30 AM get shifted by 3-10 minutes.

442: This is such a minutely positive change, but I’ll take what I can get at this point: the 7:40 PM inbound trip will now go to Wonderland instead of West Lynn Garage.

450: A few time shifts between the evening rush and about midnight; some are bigger than others, so check the schedule if you travel during these times, particularly at night.

455: Like the 450, we have time shifts between the evening rush and nighttime. These ones are generally less severe than the 450’s.

459: The 459 gets one last hurrah, I guess: despite the fact that it’s being eliminated in the fall, the route ends up with better service this rating! Headways are still inconsistent, but they average at about 60-70 minutes, unlike the current service that’s about every two hours! Hey, it’s nice to end on a positive note.

There was some really good stuff at the beginning of this. The frequency improvements on the 21 were a big highlight, as was the 15 getting at least a little bit more rational on Saturdays. But from there, it just came back to the same thing we see every rating: getting rid of clockface headways. I know reliability is important, and MBTA buses are late all the time, but these schedules are just insane. We need more vehicles or better transit infrastructure or something, because it is so frustrating watching perfectly good schedules degenerate into crazy ones every single time they change. Anyway…come fall, we get Phase 1 of Better Bus, so hopefully I’ll be more positive then!

Guide to SEPTA’s Summer 2019 Transit Service Changes

Jun 9, 2019 | Miles on SEPTA | 2 Comments

Boy oh boy oh boy, did SEPTA botch this one up. They waited until two days before these changes are scheduled to occur to put the update on the website, and there are a ton of missing links and false information and typos and oh geez, we have a lot to get through. These come into effect today, June 9th and tomorrow, June 10th, so yes, I am a bit late, but they were the ones that posted these two days before! Then again, I just got home from Scotland, so I couldn’t even start working on this until yesterday.

First of all, here’s the list of the updated schedules, which only links from the website’s banner, which doesn’t appear for people who have adblockers enabled, for some reason. I don’t know why this wouldn’t go into the “News and Events” tab, especially since that’s what they do for every other schedule change, but sure. So, let’s get into it. SEPTA said almost nothing about what’s changing, so I’m just cycling back and forth between the old and new schedules to see what’s different. Also, as a bonus round, I’ll add in whenever I find errors in the schedules, because there are more than there should be. The routes with actual changes will be bolded, while anything that’s just an error won’t be. Also, I won’t mention any instances where variants specifically meant to service schools are dropped, because that’s obvious. Alright, let’s get into this. This was your job, SEPTA!

2: Midday service will go from every 18 minutes to every 20 minutes, which is honestly fine with me – it’s easier to remember. However, given previous years, I believe most of the frequency reductions are only temporary for the summer since ridership is lower. We’ll see…this is one I actually like.

3: Some departure times at rush hour are shifting. Also, our first error: the 3 is supposed to be a 15-15-5 route, but its schedule card didn’t get the fancy cover that the other ones did.

6: Yes, this is super pedantic, but the times on the headway matrix are written like “7AM” with no 0s instead of “7:00AM” like all the other ones. This also isn’t the last time this will happen.

8: This route loses a ton of service because it tends to get swamped with kids going to school. No school, less service: it’ll be every half hour for most of the day, with 20-minute service at rush hour.

11: Rush hour service drops from every 6-7 minutes to every 8.

13: Service in the morning rush will be every 5 minutes, down from every 4. Also, why doesn’t the route map distinguish the fact that the section to Darby runs far less frequently than the rest of the line?

14: Lots of departure time shifts throughout the schedule on all seven days, but nothing groundbreaking. The route is still as complicated as ever, of course.

17: Right, first of all, the route apparently runs every 8 minutes or less between 7:00 AM and…”3:000 AM.” It’s funny enough that they wrote “AM” accidentally, but the extra 0 is like a cherry on top of the cake. The schedule also weirdly says that “Route 17 service between 20th-Johnson and Penn’s Landing operates every 20 minutes or less,” but it’s really every 10 minutes or less.

18: Running time changes and some reductions in frequency during school peak times, because, you know, no school.

20: Er…the morning rush loses service, but the evening rush gains service. Doesn’t seem to make a ton of sense, but I’ve never ridden the route, so maybe it was a good change.

21: Trip time changes throughout the day, but the frequencies are the same. Also, I’m aware that they accidentally published a version of the timetable with the destinations of the 20 on the cover. They’ve since removed it, but I’m sure as heck going to mention it, because it’s hilarious.

23: I was freaking out because I thought Saturday service was dropping to every 20 minutes, but no…they just put the Sunday timetable before the Saturday one in the schedule PDF. Good job.

25: Just a few departure time changes throughout the week.

26: Less service at rush hour and school peak times.

28: Less service during the school peaks.

29: Service reductions across the board, most notably midday service dropping to every 20 minutes from every 16-17. Don’t worry, though, it becomes every 12 minutes at 1 PM, down from every 10, but still…why doesn’t it stay every 20 then? It’s not like there’s school to require extra service.

30: Did they make the 30 less awful? Oh no, they just changed some departure times. Darn.

32: Less service at rush hour and school peak times.

34: Less service at rush hour.

36: There look to be some trip time adjustments during rush hour, but frequency remains about the same. Also, a rogue bracket apparently got into the “Shuttle Bus will serve Woodland Ave approximately every 20 minutes during peak] travel periods.” And we’ve still yet to get a schedule for that service…

42: Lots of trip time changes on the weekdays, but no decreases in frequency. Weekends fare worse: it goes from every 10 to every 12 minutes on Saturdays, and from every 14 to every 16 on Sundays. Not only is the service worse, but it also kills the coordination with the 21 along Walnut and Chestnut. Sure, it more often than not bunches anyway, but it was still fantastic in concept. Also, there are so many weird typos and capitalization errors in the text about “riding around” in Society Hill that listing them here would take forever. Take my word for it. Finally, this route totally qualifies as a 15-15-5 route, but SEPTA just doesn’t want to accept it.

43: Oof, rush hour loses some service, but midday really takes the hit: every half hour instead of every 20 minutes. Is summer ridership really so low that this important crosstown needs to be that infrequent?

45: This one should be a 15-15-5 route, but nope, guess SEPTA doesn’t think so. Ugh.

46: Ah, we’re doing the “7AM” thing again.

47: And again! Rush hour loses some service, too, but nothing too substantial.

52: Rush hour service decreases from every 4 minutes to every 5. They also did an interesting thing where they separated the limited, much longer Gladwyne trips from the main schedule and gave them their own timetable. I was skeptical, but it actually works pretty well. I just wish the Gladwyne routing hadn’t been taken off the map above.

54: Less service during school peak periods.

56: Rush hour service is every 10 minutes, down from every 8, and there are trip time changes throughout the day.

57: The morning rush is mostly the same, but the evening rush is slightly less frequent.

58: There are some service reductions during the rushes. Also, the route to the Neshaminy Mall is shown as being half-hourly, but it’s almost never that frequent!

59: Service throughout the weekday is less frequent, including middays: every 16 minutes instead of 15 (blech).

60: Midday service will be every 15 minutes instead of every 12, while evening rush service will run every 11 minutes rather than every 10.

64: Very slightly less frequent service at rush hour.

66: Less service at rush hour, but also midday, alas, when service will be every 10 minutes instead of every 8.

67: The classic story: rush hour loses service, and there are trip time changes throughout the day.

68: Some trip time changes, but also, the hourly service from midnight to 2 AM to UPS appears to have been eliminated! I don’t know if those trips got people or not, but this seems like something more permanent (not summer-specific).

70: Less rush hour and school peak service. Also, this should be a 15-15-5 route, but it doesn’t get that branding.

77: Trip time changes throughout the week.

79: The schedule looks like it’s mostly the same, but service from 5 AM to 6 AM is much less frequent than it used to be.

80: Some trip time changes.

88: Yes, believe it or not, it’s less rush hour and school peak service! And trip time changes!

89: Trip time changes.

G: Yet another obvious 15-15-5 route that doesn’t get that billing. Also…less service throughout the day (every 15 instead of every 12 middays).

H/XH: Less service at rush hour and school peak times.

K: Trip time changes and less rush hour service.

L: We’re doing the “7AM” thing once again. Just be consistent!

R: Less service at rush hour and school peak times. Also, yes, it’s the “7AM” thing again.

91: The Saturday-only prison route’s outbound trips will all depart five minutes earlier from Norristown.

93: Trip time changes.

94: Trip time changes.

96: Some really minor time changes on a few trips.

97: One trip, the 6:10 PM out of Norristown, will now leave at 6:15.

98: Lots of trip time changes. Also, the first three trips to Norristown will now begin at Plymouth Meeting Mall rather than Blue Bell.

99: The 6:10 PM out of Norristown will now leave at 6:15.

101/102: The suburban trolleys will run every half hour instead of every 20 minutes on weekdays and lose a bit of rush hour service, both temporary changes for the summer.

104/112: Some trip time changes, some lost rush hour express trips. Also, in perhaps the biggest change on this whole stinking list (which has been so boring to compile), the 112 loses Sunday service, replaced by extra trips on the 104. The two routes are almost identical up until the 112’s terminus, so it’s not a huge deal, it’s just…a thing that happened. I guess.

106: The first westbound trip of the day will be a minute faster.

113: Some trip time changes.

115: Some trip time changes.

119: Some trip time changes.

120: The 120 loses a ton of service because its primary purpose is serving Cheyney University. It’ll only run eight times a day throughout the summer.

123: A dropped trip weekday mornings, but an extra trip Saturday evenings.

124: Some trip time changes on weekends.

125: Some service is lost in the morning rush, as well as on weekends. There are trip time changes, too.

126: Some trip time changes.

127: Trip time changes, and a dropped eastbound trip on weekdays.

And now it’s Sunday and the schedules have come into effect. With no way to compare the old and new schedules anymore, I’m forced to use the Wayback Machine to see the old timetables. This is what happens when you announce the service change two days before it comes into effect and don’t tell your riders any of the changes that are actually occurring! Anyway…let’s soldier on.

128: The 8:05 trip from Neshaminy Mall will now be an 8:00.

131: A few trip time changes and a new 6:11 PM trip from Audubon to Norristown.

132: Uh-oh…the 5:33 AM trip from Montgomery Mall will now leave at 5:34!!!!!

150: The 1:45 PM trip from Parx Casino will now be a 2:00.

201: The most recent Wayback Machine PDF for this route is from August 2018, but the only difference between those two schedules is that the 6:40 AM trip from Fort Washington is now leaving at 6:35.

MFL: Er…the new schedule for the MFL doesn’t seem to be up anywhere. Which is a little strange, since they are making a major change to it: all-stop service will begin at 5 PM instead of 5:30 PM, continuing the slow whittling away of rush hour skip-stop service (good). I’m also aware that the schedule card for this thing has a ton of errors on it, but they haven’t put it online, so I guess I can’t point them out here.

And that’s the long, comprehensive list of changes. Man, this was a pain to put together, especially since the vast majority of these are temporary changes for the summer or just plain insignificant. I just didn’t have a lot to say for most of these, which is why it ended up being a bit of a boring list. Still…hopefully someone out there finds it useful so the four hours it took to put this together wasn’t in vain!

« Older Entries

Next Entries »