News Archives - Page: 7

On Wednesday, November 18th, SEPTA upgraded its website at noon (in fact, during the bimonthly City-County meeting!).  This website has a completely different look and feel, and is much more user friendly.  It still has a few bugs to work out, though.

Check it out at www.septa.org.

As of last night, the TWU 234 members voted to ratify the new contract.  No more labour pains with the 234 for another five years.  UTU 1594 which represents the Victory drivers is still working without a contract.  They will likely agree to a deal similar to what the larger city union ratified last night.

The SEPTA management and the TWU 234 Union Leadership has reached an agreement. As of 4 A.M. this morning, SEPTA has been running buses on their routes. The System is still not running under full capacity, so expect some serious delays in service.

Day 4 of the SEPTA strike has come and past, and the Regional Rail has been a bit calmer as people discovered a new way to work, school, shopping, etc.   Willie Brown came up with a potential solution to end the strike, though: All SEPTA has to do is agree to binding arbitration, and "we'll go back to work tonight".  Before you celebrate, though, it will be a "winner-takes-all" award.  Either SEPTA will get what it wants, or the union gets what it wants...there is no middle ground!

State Rep. Brendan F. Boyle, D-Phila./Montgomery also wants to see binding arbitration take place between SEPTA and the union.  He is introducing a resolution to the State House of Representatives, and legislatures will vote on it early next week.

Meanwhile, Mayor Nutter is steaming.  He's looking into getting a court injunction to get SEPTA workers back to work, using the H1N1 virus as a tool.  Since the city declared a public health emergency last week because of this virus, if it is found that hospital and school visits are down because of the strike, he'll let the judge order the union workers back to work!

Read more about it:

Fox Philly reports on the Union's proposal

Information about the State Rep's proposal

The past three days were not the best three days for SEPTA and it's commuters.

First, SEPTA went on strike at 3:00 AM Tuesday morning

Second, yesterday, a Train that was operating on the R5 Paoli line-inbound has caught on fire causing some major delays in service.

Also, TWU pickers were blocking the 101-102 trolley as well as the blocking buses from leaving Victory.

And today, A Southbound SEPTA R3 train on the SEPTA Main Line struck and killed a SEPTA worker, causing some serious delays on the R3- West Trenton, R5 Doylestown, and R2 Warminster lines!!

In addition: Rider65 reported it on the board, which the UTU, the union which victory has, has voted to strike on November 22 if no contract has been reached

Ugh!! I do not want to know what tomorrow will bring!!

Silverliner II #257 caught on fire on its journey to Philadelphia from Malvern this morning.  The car is toasted, but fortunately everyone was safely evacuated.  School district of Philadelphia buses were brought in to rescue the stranded passengers.

Because of the train flambe, service on the Thorndale and Cynwyd lines were SUSPENDED for a while, but train #515 was the first train to make it through the scene after the fire was put out.

Video here:  http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/news/local_news/Copy_of_Copy_of_110409_Huge_Fire_Hits_SEPTA_R5_Train

As of 3:00 AM this morning SEPTA City transit division and Frontier divisions are on strike. More infomation to follow...

The SEPTA Strike has been adverted for the time to be. As more infomation comes in, we will post it....

This occurs on average of every 6-7 years when the TWU does not get their way.  12:01AM tonight or tomorrow night, The City Transit Division and Frontier Division of SEPTA may go on strike!  This is the result of the TWU workers (City Transit Division, Frontier) working without a contract for the past several months.  Both SEPTA and the union are still miles apart in to reach a agreement. 

We will post more on this later as more information/details will become available.  In the meantime, be sure to plan alternative methods of transportation throughout next week. 

Personally, I feel since the last strike in 2005, many of the citizens are pretty immune to the union's tactics. Since the abrupt rightship increases in 2007-2008, SEPTA has become a more prevalent transportation of choice throughout the years. It's a common belief that SEPTA is profit business. In fact, SEPTA is a a quasi state agency. quasi state means they share the same funding and immunities as the state of Pennsylvania.  Much of the agency's funding is provided by the City and the state. The purchasing of the hybrid Buses are paid by the FTA, Act44, and the Federal Recovery Act of 2009. So in order to meet the Union's Demands, either the funding has to increase or the fares or even both.  I'm sorry to say this, but it looks like another long road ahead for the us citizens!!    It's ashame this has to occur during the World Series weekend!

Enough with my rant; for the latest ganders

http://philadelphiatransitforums.cjb.net/topic/7164014/1/#new

On October 21st, the first of the production units of the Silverliners has arrived in Philadelphia. From there they will go to Rotem in South Philadelphia to receive additional equipment and finally will be delivered to SEPTA. Now is the perfect time to get photos of the Silverliner II and III cars!!

Over the past several weeks, a user on youtube by the name of "ghostengineer" has uploaded several videos fo #701 during testing in South Korea!
Check it out!!

Due to an engineering flaw, pieces of concrete has been crumbling from the Frankford El since 1997.  It was supposed last for 75 years since its completion in the year 2000.  SEPTA has filed a lawsuit with Parsons Brinckerhoff and Sverdrup, which is now part of Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., for the cost to repair the damage.  The cost: $20 million dollars or more!  SEPTA is now working with Wiss Janney Elstner Associates Inc. to find a permanent solution to the problem, as they put up mesh below the structure to keep concrete from falling on the traffic below.

More details in the Philadelphia Inquirer: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20090918_Frankford_El_with_potential_to_crumble_needs_repairs.html

At the Montgomery Mall, Frontier's 4572 caught on fire while starting to head back to the Frontier district.  The rear of the bus was burnt to a crisp!  Stay tuned for details on whether or not 4572 will be brought back to life and to service.

Within the past several weeks, SEPTA has started placing stickers on both the 2008-2009 hybrid fleet of buses as well as the trackless trolley fleet. The older hybrids has rear side stickers placed on it's Air conditioner vents on the back of the bus.

Started back in the Spring of 2009, Midvale, and Allegheny has received it's complete set of new hybrid buses. These New Flyer DE40LF hybrid buses are built just like the 2008 hybrids; the only exception is that they have LED lighting. 

SEPTA has also approved the option to receive 40 more buses. 20 buses out of the 40 were part of the optional order of 20 per year.  The other 20 is part of the Stimulus plan passed in the Winter by President Obama. Once this order is said and done, 8220-8359 will be in service.  It has been reported that 8327 has been spotted in Minnesota getting work done on the bus.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2674/3821253093_714612928c_b.jpg

It's unclear which depots will receive these additional 40 hybrids.