News Archives - Page: 1

On top of the eleven (11) New Flyer Xcelsior which were already delivered. CATA is slated to received 17 more Xcelsior during the course of the summer months. This units will replaced the remaining Orion Vs left and some New Flyers. In hindsight, it has been reported that the few Orion Vs which are still service, will be retired within the next couple of weeks. The New Flyer Xcelsior, also designated as the XN40 are the first CNG powered Xcelsiors to ever be purchased and delivered. Once all said and done, their fleet numbers will be #1-#28. The powertain which these buses will have is a Cummins Westport ISL-G 280 with a Voith 4 speed transmission.

Photo taken by SEPTA3371CSX1

http://www.dartfirststate.com/dtc.ejs?command=PublicDTCPressReleaseDisplay&id=4297

Apparently DART is plans to reroute ALL buses away from Rodney Square, starting June 17th, 2012. They all won't serve the same new stops, so it seems like pedestrians may have some serious walking transfers to make.

Among other changes, the 32 Wilmington Trolley will no longer serve the Riverfront; this will be replaced by extended route 12 service. On the flip side, the 32 will return to the Amtrak Station with increased frequencies. The 31 Newark Trolley will be discontinued due to historically low ridership.

Changes are also in store for Sussex County routes for May. One notable change is that the 305 will no longer serve Rodney Square, but start at the Amtrak Station instead. More details here: http://www.dartfirststate.com/dtc.ejs?command=PublicDTCPressReleaseDisplay&id=4284

Today was the first day CATA's brand new 2012 New Flyer Xcelsior 40 foot CNG (XN40) buses were placed into service.  There are 11 total in this order.  These are the first new buses for the central PA transit agency since 2002.  

The Philadelphia Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society will be sponsoring a farewell trip for the Silverliner IIs and IIIs on Sunday, May 6, 2012.  The itinerary shows that the trip will cover portions of the Chestnut Hill West, Cynwyd, Fox Chase, and Norristown Lines.  They hope to have a 3 car train: one ex-Pennsylvania RR Budd, one ex-Reading RR Budd, and a St. Louis car in the middle if they are still available at the time.

Tickets cost $50 each. Please visit the Philadelphia Chapter NRHS website for more details and the order form: http://www.trainweb.org/phillynrhs/

Mark in the PTV forums reported seeing 6001 on the 452, 6002 on the 413, and 6006 on the 419.  This may mean that some (if not all) of the remaining RTSs in the Camden area will be leaving the area, either being sent up North or to be retired.

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission released a plan late last month on how SEPTA can improve Fern Rock Transportation Center.  Fern Rock was rebuilt to handle thousands of Regional Rail passengers transfering to the Broad Street Line when service to Center City was suspended due to Railworks Construction.  However, these days there's a lot of excess space, making transfers between buses, trains, and the subway quite a hike.

Some suggestions include separating car and bus traffic (with a bus only driveway), better connecting the station to surrounding neighborhoods (as there is no access to the neighborhood on the east side of the station), improving parking and drop off areas, and more!  Plan Philly has more details about the project, and Jayayess1190 started a thread about it in the forums.

Starting today, the ALP-45DP dual mode locomotives will start service on four trains in Northern Jersey: 1006 (Lake Hopatcong to Hoboken via Montclair State University), 808 (Lake Hopatcong to Hoboken via Summit), 1009 (Hoboken to Lake Hopatcong via MSU EXPRESS Newark Broad Street to MSU), and 855 (Hoboken to Mount Olive via Summit EXPRESS Newark Broad Street to Summit.

Many thanks to redarrow5591 for this information.  Hopefully the engines will do well in revenue service. Check out the "ALP-45DP in test run" thread for more details!

Finally SEPTA has awarded a contract for its New Payment Technology (NPT) system, which will upgrade SEPTA's fare collection system to allow payment of fares with SmartCards and tap-and-go credit/debit cards.  ACS Transportation Solutions Group is the lucky winner.

SEPTA anticipates rolling the system out in 3 years, in 3 phases.  It will start off by upgrading the buses and trolleys, then the Subway-Elevated Lines, and finally the Regional Rail system.  For more details about NPT, check out SEPTA's NPT website: http://www.septa.org/fares/npt/news-events-3.html

On Sunday, October 30th, SEPTA will be discontinuing most of the aspects of the Route 47 Service Enhancement program that started last spring.  Unfortunately, they weren't able to receive the enhanced travel times that they desired and customers were still getting passed up.  They will keep the following things, though:

• SEPTA Loader during PM Rush at 8th and Market, allowing Center Door boarding.
• Far side stop (on the other side of the intersection) at 8th and Walnut
• Adjusting trash collection schedules to avoid 8th and 7th Streets during rush hour.

The regular September 4th schedule will still be in effect until February, though.

For SEPTA's Press Release: http://www.septa.org/service/bus/47pilot/index.html

SEPTA has posted proposed changes to the C that would make the Nedro Division Route 4 and the Ogontz Division Route 16.  In addition making permanant some minor routing changes to routes 12, 99, 110, 150, the 400 series routes, and making Route 78 permanant are also on the agenda for hearing scheduled for November 29th, 2011.  More info at http://septa.org/notice/asp/hearings.html. 

PATCO is visiting several stations this week to get feedback from passengers on what the interior of the rehabilitated PATCO cars should look like.  PATCO staff will be stopping by the following stations during the PM rush hour:

Woodcrest- Monday, 10/17, 4pm-6pm
Haddonfield- Tuesday, 10/18, 4pm-6pm
Broadway West- Wednesday, 10/19, 4pm-6pm
Ashland- Thursday, 10/20, 4-pm- 6pm

PATCO is also soliciting feedback on the new interiors via a survey on its site.  Visit www.ridepatco.org for a link to the online survey and choose your favorite interior!

This morning, NHSL trains had to single track between West Overbrook - I mean, "Township Line Road" - and Radnor because an N5 hit a car that was parked on the tracks, resulting in at 25 passengers being injured.  At 4:25 this morning, Brian Manning of Haverford, while intoxicated, accidentally turned into the substation access road near Beechwood-Brookling Station with his Toyota off of Karakung Drive and got stuck on the tracks. While calling his wife and AAA, the first Norristown-bound train of the day slammed into the car.  Fortunately, the driver was not in the car and therefore wasn't injured.

It's not yet clear which railcar was affected.

For more details and photos:

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=8390062

The merger between these two agencies is complete with the appointment of the new board of directors, so now rabbittransit covers both York and Adams Counties.  The new organization will officially be called York Adams Transportation Authority, but the rabbittransit branding will remain in place.  Also, Gettysburg's Freedom Transit will retain its name as well.

Since November of 2009, the agencies worked together to create one unified regional system.  Rabbittransit was already contracted to operate Gettysburg's "Freedom Transit" System as well as its paratransit service.  Additionally, the new rt 15N Rabbit Express connects Gettysburg commuters with our state capital of Harrisburg.

Hopefully other areas of the state will work together to create "regional systems" (we're looking at you, Wilkes Barre and Scranton!).  Click the link for more details: http://www.rabbittransit.org/pressreleases/2011/pr_merger.html

With the opening of Penn Park, the University of Pennsylvania has expanded its "Penn Transit" shuttle service to operate during the daytimes (previously, the buses only ran in the evenings).  The buses will run on a "Campus Loop" serving all of the current stops in addition to the Levy Tennis Pavilion every 20 minutes.

For more details, check out this Press Release from the University of Pennsylvania: http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/2011-09-22/latest-news/penn-transit-adds-daytime-service-campus-loop-bus

As you already know, SEPTA has suffered a lot with this very rainy August, even after Hurricane Irene passed through.  With the latest rainstorm, a portion of the SEPTA Main Line was "washed out", shutting down service North of Fern Rock.  There was a mud slide by Trevose Station.  A portion of the tracks on the Norristown High Speed Line, on the high ROW where it crosses over Conestoga Road near Rosemont (excuse me, "Robert's Road) Station, is quite warped.

What a headache for the 6th largest transit agency in the nation!

SEPTA has a great photo gallery of the work being undertaken to bring the system back to normal.  At this time, there is a slow zone south of Jenkintown until the ballast under the track can support normal travel speeds again, and the NHSL (P&W) is single tracking between Bryn Mawr and Radnor Stations, with crowded trains and nice delays.

For the photo gallery: http://www.septa.org/service/weather-damage.html