Photo Credits – SEPTA via Unsplash
On a broader scale, Philadelphia is trailing behind when it comes to its transportation; cities like Toronto and San Francisco have some of the most modern transportation vehicles and technology that exists. Philadelphia city leaders and residents want that modern transportation as well, and SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority serving Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties) is putting in the effort to make that happen.
The first project is Regional Rail. Guest contributor James Brasuell of transitcenter.org details that “SEPTA presented three potential scenarios for Reimagining Regional Rail in spring 2022 — one that focused on coverage, one that focused on frequency in the central city and one that promises faster, express service on some of the system.”
“Every single option is an improvement over our current system,” says Will Tung, but scenario two, “Metro Frequency,” is 5th Square’s — a political action group that directs its energy towards challenges of transit — preference. The Metro Frequency scenario would run trains every 15 minutes on the highest-demand lines in the Regional Rail system, integrate fares with SEPTA’s other modes and improve station platforms. Scenario one would also integrate fares between SEPTA’s various modes.
Reimagining Regional Rail expects to announce a preferred network from the three scenarios in the third phase of the process later this year.’’ It’s important to make Regional Rail a focus; it’s one of the only ways to connect the city of Philadelphia to its bordering suburbs.
Next up are the buses. There has been a push by many organizations in the city to make these transit buses more reliable and safe. The buses also need better routes. SEPTA acknowledges this and wants to make this happen without increasing the normal transit fare. SEPTA doesn’t have a complete plan yet and is focusing more on outreach, but the company is going to announce a plan soon. But with bold ambitions like these, they come with some challenges.
Brasuell writes, “The biggest obstacle for Reimagining Regional Rail and Bus Revolution thus far has been community engagement. The Bus Revolution officially kicked off in February 2021, when the city was still grappling with the effects of COVID-19.” The Bus Revolution, an organization started in 2020, works to enhance and improve upon SEPTA transportation.
It has been a priority for SEPTA to take into account the effect that such a large project would have upon the citizens who will eventually make use of it. In order to do this, roughly 20,000 survey responses and the planning of various pop-up events to further community discussion were developed. Ultimately, “Transit Forward Philadelphia is pushing for more, particularly for SEPTA to communicate the changes and potential trade-offs inherent to a cost-neutral redesign,” according to transitcenter.org.
One project I’m excited about is Trolley Modernization, and in a report back in May 2022, SEPTA detailed what the project would entail. ‘’Trolley Modernization is SEPTA’s program to transform the nation’s largest trolley network into an accessible, fast, and easy-to-use system. It is a core component of SEPTA Forward, the Authority’s Strategic Plan, to create a “lifestyle transit network.”
This would be a transit system that can be easily used for any type of trip, not just traditional 9-to-5 commutes to work. The current trolley vehicles have served riders since the 1980s. The new trolleys will be fully accessible to people with disabilities, and they will also have higher capacity to move more passengers. The new fleet will have low floors, ramps, wider pathways, audio and visual messaging systems to communicate upcoming stops and service changes and designated open space for people with wheelchairs, walkers and strollers. SEPTA is building on-street stations to serve the new trolleys, and is also rebuilding underground stations to be fully accessible.
“The Authority is also making significant operational and infrastructure improvements and extending some trolley lines to key locations to make connections to other SEPTA services easier. SEPTA is working on new and improved maintenance facilities to serve the new fleet,” stated an article published by SEPTA in July 2022. The article shares how plans for this extensive renovation of city transportation is based upon a newly released financial plan for 2023, which entails an astounding billion dollar budget. “In addition to Trolley Modernization, this Capital Program advances several other SEPTA Forward initiatives, such as Bus Revolution, King of Prussia Rail, station accessibility and rail fleet replacements.”
Now, this project and others might take awhile to be fully operational because of everything they have to do, however it’s exciting to know what’s to come.
Isaiah Ireland is a second-year Media & Culture major. II978280@wcupa.edu