Now you can use your PATCO FREEDOM Card to save money at your favorite restaurants and stores in Philadelphia and New Jersey.  In a program similar to SEPTA's Pass Perk program, local businesses are partnering with PATCO to offer discounts to those that show their card.  For example, eat at the Italian Bistro on Broad Street and get a discount of 20% when you show your card!  This is also good at smaller restaurants such as Quiznos.  Each business is required to commit to this for at least a year.

For more details, visit the following location on PATCO's website: http://www.ridepatco.org/freedomtosave/index.asp

Early this morning, at about 4:40 AM, SEPTA "mini wire train", Track Car 3161, rear-ended an Airport-bound R1 train 0199 just southwest of 10th and Wagnor Streets. There were 18 passengers aboard the commuter train, and 4 workers on the wire train.  Nine people, 4 from the wire train and 5 from the commuter train, were taken to the nearby Albert Einstein Hospital for treatment.

At this time, SEPTA officials are looking into the cause of the accident, which caused delays of 20 minutes or more on the R1 Airport, R2 Warminster, R3 West Trenton, and R5 Landsdale/Doylestown lines.  So far, it seems to be human error, either on the dispatcher's or the wire train's operator's part.

For more details, see this news article: http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20090127_18_injured_in_SEPTA_R1_crash.html

Discuss the accident in this thread: http://philadelphiatransitforums.cjb.net/topic/7070449/1/#new

DART First State is retrofitting its buses with new GFI Oddessy fareboxes.  What's most interesting about these boxes is that they have Smart Card targets installed.  Perhaps a new Smart Card is in the works in Delaware.

For information on how to use the new boxes, see the following tutorial on DART's website: http://www.dartfirststate.com/information/getting_there/fares/new_fareboxes.shtml

According to PhilBob on PTV, there are signs announcing the discontinuation of route 121 on Market Street.  This express route from Philadelphia to Gladwynne will cease operation on Friday, February 6th.  Get your final pictures and rides now!  On Monday, February 9th, extended 44 and 52 trips will serve Gladwyne in the 121's place.

As Mark reported in the forums, N5 cars 143, 147 149, and 151 now have a new seating arrangement by the main entrance doors (the big two part ones).  Right behind the window, there is a fold up seat facing sideways.  The 2nd row of seats folds up as well, only mounted in the forward facing manner.  To envision this, just think of the wheelchair arrangments for the New Flyer buses.

Fortunately, the seats aren't being replaced.  They will remain their comfy, soft, and brown selves.

Forum thread here: http://philadelphiatransitforums.cjb.net/topic/7072580/1/#new.

There's new schudule changes are set to go into effect on Monday, February 09 2009.  There are a wide varity of changes thoughout the SEPTA system.

After several years of planning, the Route 121 will  be elimated. Albeit,  the Route 44 will cover most of its trips to Gladwyne and the Route 52 serve a smaller partion of these trips. Also added is a 12:00PM trip to Gladwyne which  Some of the 44s will no longer serve 54th and City ave - Pay attention to the designation signs!!

The route 113 will operate to Tristate Mall in Delaware. It will no longer serve Marcus Hook; however, the route 119 has been rerouted to serve Marcus Hook.

To look at the preview schudules:
http://www.septa.org/service/preview_schedules.html

During the Rush hour this morning, the EL was running shuttle buses between 15th Street and Spring Garden. At Noon, service has been restored, yet its single-track service.  The cause was said to be a ceiling in the tunnel to have ceiling collapsed therefore, blocking the tracks!!

http://philadelphiatransitforums.cjb.net/topic/7076027/1/#new

After two months of these units sitting at Germantown, the Suburban depots (Frontier/Victory) has received their full allotment of Hybrids.  These hybrids are also being used on routes where they don't belong. In fact, PTV forum member, joechopchop, has spotted one on the route 304.

Image Right: 8217 on the route 304 Taken by Joechopchop

Yesterday  on route 38, New Flyer #5466 collided into a homes on the 4000 block of Conshohocken Ave in Philadelphia.  The cause of the collision was the driver was chocking on Candy and lost control of the vehicle. There were some injures, nothing severe, and 5466 suffered minor damage.

Recently #666 has returned to revenue service on the Broad Street Line.  However, before it returned to service, the orange exterior paint was removed from the car, leaving it silver.  Sources state that this railcar was so heavily tagged with graffiti that removing the graffiti actually damaged the paint. 

Here's a picture of the car at Fern Rock yard:

Last week, on Monday night, an assistant conductor fell from a moving R7 Trenton train.  She was knocked unconscious by the fall, but once she regained consciousness, she was able to flag down an Amtrak train with her flashlight.  She was out there for 2 hours before being rescued and taken to a nearby hospital.

Needless to say, she's in pretty bad shape.  She was placed into an induced coma, but is now awake, and thankfully does not have any brain damage.

Updates are available in this thread on railroad.net: http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=59211

On route 22, 5735 was in an accident with an SUV in the West Oak Lane area at around 5:15.  12 people on the bus were injured, with 2 people being carried out on stretchers.  Additionally, the rescue team had to cut out the 61 year old driver of the SUV out of his automobile.

The cause of the accident is still unknown.  For more details, click on the following link: http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=6666589

To discuss in the forums, click here: http://philadelphiatransitforums.cjb.net/topic/7078737/1/#new