News Archives - Page: 2

This past Saturday, August 20th, 2011, Centre Area Transportation Authority (CATA) had a new schedule go into effect.  With this new schedule came several changes.  Among them are changes to the Red Link, consolidation of the Z into the G, merging of the H and P into the HP, and discontinuation of the AP.  For more info see http://catabus.com/ServiceSchedules/CATABUS/fall11changes.html.

Red Rose Transit in Lancaster County has a schedule change on August 29th.  New schedules can be viewed here - http://www.redrosetransit.com/transit-schedules-and-fares.html.

Capitol Area Transit of Harrisburg has new schedules for select routse coming out August 29th as well.  Those routes can be viewed here. http://www.cattransit.com/2011/08/labor-day-service-upcoming-schedule-changes/ 

Starting this Monday, August 29th, 2011, Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority (LANTA) will implement a new route structure.  Gone will be the current system of letters and numbers along with seperate evening service.  A new system using three digit numbered routes will go into effect.  The new route structure also includes several changes to the existing routes other than a redesignation.  

The new route structure will be as follows.

• 100 series - core routes operating Monday through Saturday with evening and Sunday service.
• 200 series - routes operating during the day six days a week.
• 300 series - routes that operate Monday through Friday.
• 400 series - Allentown School District routes (school trippers)
• 500 series - FLEX routes
• 600 series - Loops, circulators, crosstown routes, etc. 

For information on what routes will become what, see http://www.lantabus.com/conversionguide.html.  

SEPTA has provided preview schedules of the new Regional Rail and Red Arrow (Victory division) schedules. This will include changes to bus routes 112, 115, and new route 126.  Additionally, there will be some great changes to the Lansdale/Doylestown Line thanks to a new siding that will open at this time.  Colmar station will now be served every 30 minutes during weekdays, and travel from Doylestown to Center City will be 6% faster than it is today.

Frontier schedules will change on October 31st, the City Transit schedules will change on September 4th.

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) has launched a study looking at the feasibility of opening a new SEPTA station by the Chester Waterfront, near the new PPL park.  This station would replace Highland Ave Station, which is only expected to last another 3 to 5 years and would cost $26 million to rebuild.  The new station, if SEPTA agrees to build it, would cost the same amount of money to build.

More information here: http://www.metro.us/philadelphia/local/article/940214--chester-could-get-new-septa-station-along-waterfront

Richard J. Hanratty Jr., chief of rail transportation, suddenly retired on Monday.  We do not know why he retired, but rumor has it that he was "encouraged" to retire with a deal that was too good to refuse.  A person from the Paratransit division of SEPTA apparently has replaced him.

Article: http://articles.philly.com/2011-08-10/news/29872435_1_septa-retirement-rail-transportation

Discussion on Railroad.net with information that is not in the news article: http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=85072&start=15

Thank goodness for cameras on buses!

On June 18th, Penny Chapman decided to discipline her child, who was running up and down the bus, by giving him a spanking.  A fellow passenger didn't like that, and even threatened to turn her in for child abuse.  Therefore, Chapman made a phone call, and exited the bus at the next stop.  Her son's uncle and his brother then fired at the bus with an assault rifle and a handgun, thankfully missing everyone on board!

The trial will be held later this month.  For video and more details, please visit Fox: http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/news/local_news/video-shows-dramatic-septa-bus-shooting and Action News: http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/crime&id=8291787

Earlier this year, Schuylkill Transit System (STS), the transit system for the Pottsville area, opened up a new bus terminal. The new terminal is called Union Station and has a rail spur in the parking lot for future train service. The terminal replaces the old one about a block away and not only hosts STS, but also the intercity buses. This is the first time PTV has been to Pottsville since the new terminal opened on June 27th, 2011.

The front of the building from the parking lot.

 

The bus loading and unloading area for Union Station.

For more information on the opening of Pottsville's Union Station, please visit the Schuylkill Transportation System website: http://www.go-sts.com/news.asp

Peter Rogoff, the head of the Federal Transit Administration, visited SEPTA yesterday to see just how much SEPTA needs additional funding to bring its system up to a state of disrepair.  He, along with U.S. Senator Bob Casey, Mayor Nutter, and US Reps Chaka Fattah and Jim Gerlach, witnessed first hand the crumbling Schuylkill River Bridge on the Norristown High Speed Line, the dank and leaking City Hall Station, and more! 

SEPTA estimates that it would need $4.2 billion to bring its system to a state of good repair.  With his experience at SEPTA, Rogoff, complete with rusted pieces from the NHSL bridge, will advocate for the need of more funding for SEPTA and other aging systems like New York City Transit.

Find more details about the visit in this article: http://articles.philly.com/2011-07-11/news/29761426_1_septa-officials-regional-rail-norristown-high-speed-line

For only $1, SEPTA sold 5301 (a bus that was getting a mini rehab at Southern Depot recently) to Haverford Township to use for its emergency services department.  It would be used for a variety of purposes, such as keeping first responders cool and helping to transport a large amount of people in case of an emergency. 

The bus will be stored at the police station, and will even have decals and emergency lights added.  Not a bad post-service life for a NABI.

Article with picture here: http://mainlinemedianews.com/articles/2011/07/05/main_line_times/news/doc4e137c6a4103b082204007.txt

Septa Droid, the Android Application that features SEPTA bus/train/trolley schedules and maps, has now added "Bus Tracker" to its list of features. "Bus Tracker" is based off of SEPTA's Transitview that was recently released to the public.  While the interface is similar, Septa Droid works very smoothly.  However, the "bus numbers" are only the block numbers, so it isn't a tool for busfans looking for specific buses like 5251 and 7101.

Download the updated version of Septa Droid on Android Marketplace.

At Woodland depot, car #118 was spotted with new Amber LED signs, similar to the ones on the SE LRVs that operate on the Subway Surface Lines.  We don't know what the schedule for the sign replacement for the DE LRVs will be...so stay tuned!  Check out the photograph of #118 here, taken by Callowhill8152:

About one year since the release of busviewer, SEPTA has introduce Transitviewer. Transitviewer is the upgraded the version of busviewer and now it includes most of the bus and trolley routes, which SEPTA operates throughout the Delaware valley. The way transitviewer works is, it takes both the location of the vehicle to determined where the bus is located. Then it takes the designation sign to determined which direction the bus or trolley is operating. There are some bugs to transitviewer. For example, sometimes the designation may not be correct, for example a bus going westbound could in fact be going eastbound. Second on buses like 8307, the bus icon is displaced about one mile off where the bus is actually located. I doubt that 8307 is in Delaware river or in someone's pool in Camden, New jersey. Hopefully, SEPTA can address these bugs in a timely fashion and also implement more features of transitviewer such as real bus arrival at a bus stop. CTA in Chicago has been using real time data for over a year so far in bustracker, I am sure it is possible with SEPTA.

 

http://www3.septa.org/transitview/44

Since the arrival of the 2011 order of New Flyers, there has been some massive movement of New Flyer diesels throughout the system. The massive movements includes, but are not limited to, 5471-5491, 5500, 5503, and 5613-5627 has been reassigned back to Southern.  These buses started their useful life operating out of South Philadelphia for the first few years of service.  Since the arrival of the 2005 New Flyers (8000-8119), these buses were displaced to other depots. Now they are back at southern. In exchanged for the 2002 and 2003 New Flyers, Southern sent their entire fleet of NABIS up to Midvale. To make things more interesting, Callowhill has sent most of their fleet up to Midvale as well. Currently, Midvale has 87 NABIS in service.  As it stands now 5268 is the only NABI operating out of Callowhill. 5301 is assigned at Callowhill as well; however, 5301 has been at Southern to receive some repairs. It has been reported that 5301 was sold to another transportation agency.

On the Eldorado front, currently there are only six (6) Eldorados in service out of Frontier. It is expected that these units will be retired by the end of the month. The replacement of these Eldorados, are the 2005 New Flyer D40LFs 8000 series that were moved from Southern depot in South Philadelphia.

While at Midvale, there are 6 to 7 Eldorados which are currently operating in service. These Eldorados are expected to be replaced with 40 foot buses as well. It is mentioned that the route on the 35 will be changed to be able to accommodate 40 foot buses. As result, the new route 35 will once again operate down to Wissahickon Transfer Center to connect with the other routes operating in the area. The route 35 will no longer operate on, Fountain Street, and several others. The changes will be in effect on June 19th, 2011. Read more about it here :

http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/neighborhoods/roxbourough/item/20082-route-35-bus-changes-&Itemid=1.

On the 2011 New Flyer Delivery front, 8507 is the highest 2011 hybrid to be delivered. 8502-8507 are currently at Germantown awaiting for the usual equipement and inspections making it possible for SEPTA to run these buses in revenue service. They are expected to be assigned to the Comly depot.  As the hybrids arrived at Comly, Comly sends another 5400 down to southern. This in return enables Southern to send more of their 8000 series New Flyers up to aid in the retirement of the Eldorado fleet.  Once Comly has received 8509, 8510 up to 8559 are expected to be assigned to Midvale depot. According to some rumors, some more massive bus changes may take place during the month of June or July.  Stay tune for the latest.

Once again, the Silverliner V cars are being delayed due to production issues.  More of the typical problems, such as design flaws, workmanship issues, and labor relations problems, are holding up the cars even longer as the aging Silverliner IIs and IIIs struggle to make their runs.

More info here in this Inquirer article: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20110524_Delivery_of_new_SEPTA_railcars_lagging.html

The AEM-7 locomotive on Amtrak Train # 92 (The Silver Star from Miami to New York) caught fire this evening around 7:15 PM in Wilmington.  The locomotive involved was 911.  From the picture on Channel 6's website (http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news%2Flocal&id=8095963), it appears as though the cab was fully involved.  Smoke was visible coming from the top of the locomotive.  It is believed engine troubles caused the fire.  No injuries were reported.