A new city, a whole new transit system! From my home base at the University of Pennsylvania, I’ll be reviewing every bus route and train station on the sprawling SEPTA.
*Full Disclosure: I volunteer on the SEPTA Youth Advisory Council, but all opinions on this blog are my own.
Recent Posts from Miles on SEPTA
Girard (MFL)
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...
Race-Vine (BSL)
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. An entrance on Race. None of Race-Vine's entrances at Race Street amount...
R (Henry-Midvale and Wissahickon Transportation Center to Frankford Transportation Center)
"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...
West Trenton
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...
39 (Richmond-Cumberland to 33rd-Dauphin)
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... "SEPTA off duty"? Come on! We headed...
3 (33rd-Cecil B. Moore to Frankford Transportation Center)
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...
33rd Street (Trolleys)
Uh-oh...better make this quick, I'm in enemy territory! This is 33rd Street Station. One of the two station entrances. 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...
Guide to SEPTA’s Summer 2019 Transit Service Changes
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....
79 (Columbus Commons to 29th-Snyder)
The 79 is a pretty good route to begin with: it's a short, generally frequent, well-used crosstown straight across South Philadelphia on Snyder Ave. Sure, it used trackless trolleys until 2003, and it's a real bummer that it doesn't use them anymore, but 16 years...
25 (Columbus Commons to Frankford Transportation Center)
It's the age-old question that's been asked for centuries: what's the best way of getting to the South Philadelphia malls? Scientists generally agree that it's most efficient to hop on a southbound Broad Street Line train armed with an app to figure out when the first...
Elwyn
Media seems like such a natural place to end a Regional Rail line. It's a sizeable, dense town, after all - the county seat of Delco! And yet...the line goes one stop further to a little station in the middle of nowhere called Elwyn. Elwyn is a weird station. Looking...
Every Stop on the 101/102 Trunk
Long story short: I happen to have reviewed all of the 101/102 stations from Fairfield Ave to Drexel Hill Junction. Might as well marathon them! Fairfield Ave. Fairfield Ave is stupidly close to 69th Street. It is a 0.2 mile, 5-minute walk from Fairfield Ave to 69th...
63rd Street (MFL)
I refuse to review the 15 trolley until (if?) the full line gets restored out to Richmond-Westmoreland. However, I still wanted to ride the whole thing as it currently operates just to say I've done it, and from the western end of the line, there's really nowhere to...
Somerton
SEPTA's pass system has some pretty bizarre rules. One of the strangest is with Zone 1 Trailpasses, which you would expect to only be valid within...you know, Zone 1. Not so - on weekdays outside of rush hour, they're valid for travel to any station within the...
Service Change: Transit in Pittsburgh and Morgantown (yes, THAT Morgantown)
A lot of my friends were surprised when I told them that my family and I were willingly going to Pittsburgh over spring break. I guess that just goes to show how underrated this place is - I personally loved it, since it offers some incredibly diverse neighborhoods...