SEPTA: Spreading the Love

Rider Jenna writes in with a very recent story pertinent to a current promotion going on involving several entities in the city...

Last night I was watching the news and briefly caught the story about the forthcoming Septa discounts. I thought I heard that the $1 fare thing would start today (2/12)... so this morning at Lombard/South I asked boothman if my fare would be $1. He kindly responded, "You are the third person to ask me that today, it's $2." I said, "But the news said...." He replied, "I don't care what the news said, I don't work for the news, I work for SEPTA." That’s right, he just called Nutter a damn liar.

I thought: Well kind sir, if you work for SEPTA shouldn't you know about the discount? Shouldn't you know that it starts tomorrow? Shouldn't you have told me that info... politely? Uh, yes, yes, and yes.

From the GPTMC site about the Spread the Love promotion:

Public Transportation
SEPTA is celebrating its "Break Your Winter Blues"” promotion by offering "Red Hot Sweetheart Deals" on its regional rail lines from February 12-21, 2010. SEPTA fares are as follows:

Weekend Round-Trip Fare
Add convenience and bargain pricing to the list of reasons to take SEPTA Regional Rail. Purchase a round-trip ticket in advance or on board the train for one low price. (Also good weekday evenings on inbound trains arriving in Center City after 5 p.m.)

• $6.00: Zone 1 or Zone 2 stations
• $8.00: Zone 3 stations
• $9.00: Zone 4 or Zone 5 stations
• $15.00: Zone 6 stations

~ Parking Free at all surface parking lots at SEPTA Regional Rail Stations on Weekends

Also, enjoy a Special Weekend Fare ($1.00 cash each way) on the Market Frankford Line and the Broad Street Line

~ Available February 13-15 and February 20-21

Thanks for the love SEPTA!

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Welcome to Canada?

Rider Paul sent in a few gems which he already posted about on his blog, but he's allowing me to repost them here. What the photos show are a series of ads on the Route 15 Trolley for all things Canadian. Weird. Above is an ad for what seems to be a job placement agency in Ontario called Job Connect. Anyone planning to move to Toronto and need a job? Call 416.531.4631 x0 (extension 0?!) and get the hook up!

And once you're in Canada, you're gonna need a credit card, right?! Well Capital One's New To Canada program guarantees that you'll get a credit card up north so you can "build good credit behaviour" right away!

And this one's not easy to read, so let me spell it out for ya:

SEE IT YOUR WAY:
Get a new perspective on Toronto.
There's always something to do
and see in our FREE city event guide.
EVENTS TTC MAPS ROUTES & MORE!

Brought to you by Toronto's public transit agency: TTC.

SEPTA's kinda saying: we suck, mover to a cleaner, nicer, whiter version of Philly which also has mass transit! Go Toronto! Note, this is not an ad campaign to visit Toronto which would be a whole different thing. This is a 'move to Canada' campaign. Weird.

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[Not] Arriving Now

You may have seen a similar announcement as rider Scott saw after the big snowstorm last month, or anytime at all. Trains being delayed. But the announcement was another story...

The announcement that accompanied this marquee?

"The scheduled 2:11 R7 local to Trenton now arriving on track 3."

The train, of course, never came.

Both of the signs seem to be somewhat automated, now? I guess it was an errant button push at some point, but Scott didn't notice a second announcement correcting the first one.

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When It Rains, It Pours... Inside?

A rant from rider Paul about the lovely indoor weather SEPTA's buses seem to have. This is not the first time someone has written in about this issue. Different route.

I have a rant about when It rains on SEPTA.

On Dec 9, 2009, It was raining violently in the morning. I needed to take the 67 to school but the rain was an extreme problem. When my mom dropped me off at Knights & Fairdale, it felt like a monsoon was coming and the bus didn't come for another 15 minutes. I was entirely soaked from pockets to shoes. My shoes had a hole in them and water seeped through them. The 67 was 5 minutes late. The back of the bus was a total nightmare. The back seats were soddened with water, and water was leaking through the ceiling, even in the front! I sat down in a front seat, and it was wet, even though it looked dry. God knows what has been in that water! Water was also dripping from the ceiling, I first realized that when I was using my PDA, 2-5 drops of water fell on it and it almost froze and broke. I had to walk to school, and got even wetter. When I got home, my shoes dried overnight. I used my dad's old shoes the next day.

Surely there's money somewhere in the budget to not have it rain inside the bus eh?

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Welcome New Readers

Thanks to Jeff Gammage and the Inky for including me in this story on SEPTA service. Please share any stories you have with the mass transit system we all ride.

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Hitler on SEPTA

the link

I had heard of this Hitler meme on SEPTA service, but never got around to searching it out. Luckily for me Bethany shot me a link. Here it is. It's not the best Hitler downfall spoof, but it's solid, especially if you're a SEPTA rider.

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Safety at Ardmore Station

I got an email from rider Doug who snapped the above photo at the Ardmore R5 station at 11.30a Sunday morning. As you can see, the steps are completely covered in snow creating a 20+ step ramp down from the platform. In his own words:

Remember that blizzard we got yesterday? Well, as of 11:30 AM this morning, the steps on the North side of Ardmore station were not shoveled.

It's difficult to see, but the snow is packed in on each of the steps, which turned the entire staircase into a ramp. It was very hazardous to travel up or down the staircase.

The best part? Amtrak personnel were at the station around the time. They made sure to take snowblowers to the raised platforms and clean them off. But they couldn't be bothered to shovel off the steps before departing the station. Was it a simple oversight? Or the result of some dain bramaged policy from SEPTA? No idea.

Somebody let me know if the stairs have been cleared by Monday's rush.

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Puzzle Time

A rider sent this photo of a closed SEPTA window at 8th and Market last month...

I did a double take when I saw this scene at the Market-Frankford EL stop at 8th and Market this morning. The handwritten sign that is cut off on the right of the photo says "window closed." It appears that closing down that window has given the SEPTA employee plenty of time to work on the giant jigsaw puzzle (pictured)... amazing. "Jigsaw puzzle time" must be one of the new contract stipulations.

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Speaking Up on The 25

Rider John dropped a note last month about a fellow rider who stood up to an unruly rider when others didn't...

Today I was riding the the #25 bus to Fishtown. For several blocks an obnoxious group of teenagers were being unruly, obviously delighting in their idiocy. Not to be outdone was one young man in his late teens who insisted on shouting "f" you, "f" this, "f' that to the point that several passengers trying to ignore him were finally uncomfortable enough to look around try to see the source of the noise. One woman left her seat, went to the bus driver and asked him to please do something about the cretin who was, by the minute, showing his remarkable lack of any intelligence! The driver simply shrugged his shoulders in a helpless gesture and did nothing to stop the behavior. The noise continued. Finally, a young man--a passenger--probably in his mid twenties, stood up, turned to the obnoxious idiot and very calmly but forcefully said, "Watch your mouth! There are older people on this bus offended by your language and children too. Now be quiet!" He turned and sat down again, but there was no question that he was not the kind of person to be ignored. The cretin mumbled something and shut up. The rest of the ride was peaceful. As I walked out I turned to the young man who had made the simple request and said "thanks!" He deserved much more.

So, are drivers given sedatives before they get behind the wheel? Or is obnoxious behavior so common they no longer recognize it? I wondered what it would be like to ride public transportation in this city with some enforcement of the rules. The only rule I've ever seen enforced is having to pay before you can ride. Fair enough. But what about the more obvious things? It's a $300 fine if you eat, smoke or drink, SEPTA boldly proclaims, then does absolutely nothing about enforcing it. Floors are littered with uneaten food, discarded drinks and paper. In fact, I've seen bus drivers chow down while they drive. Subway trains are as bad or worse. Not only are they mobile dumpsters, people ignore the signs requesting them to NOT pass between trains totally oblivious to the danger there. They blatantly block the doorways and are often beyond obnoxious. But I am no longer calling them "pigs." Having grown up on a farm, I realize that it is a great injustice to swine to liken them to many people I see here taking public transportation!

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Rider Rant: P from NC

A little note from a Philly expatriate currently living in central North Carolina who took a trip home to all that is Philly and she remembered some of the good while experiencing some of the too-soon-forgotten bad...

I moved to rural NC in early 08 and came back home to Philly in September. Guess I got so cozy in the hospitable South, that I forgot my 22 years commuting on SEPTA.

Instead of facing the traffic and driving from Media into Center City, I decide to take the trolley and El. Inside the piss-infested windowless station, I found a crumpled schedule and read how I could get an all day pass for $8. Great, I thought, I need to go to several places and this will help. Stupidly thought, anyway.

It's the middle of the day and I board the nearly empty trolley, smile (as I've been retrained to do down here) and said, "I'd like to purchase a day pass." "Not here," says the driver without so much as turning her neck to glance at me. I wait for more information. None coming. She is totally ignoring me. Sigh. "Well, I'm visiting from out of state and I'm going into town and need a transfer." "No change," she replies with about as much interest in me as an air molecule. Poor tourists...

There's a TOTAL disconnect between SEPTA PR and SEPTA workers. The schedule makes it sound so easy to be a visitor. The drivers treat you like you're just another Philly cockroach in their way. How could I have forgotten this in just under a year? Silly me.

My last 2 years of commuting required passing through colorful 69th St. I think what finalized my decision to leave Philly was the day two seeing-eye dogs were in a vicious fight next to the customer service booths and no one was blinking an eye.

Not all SEPTA memories are bad. There was the time I left my purse behind on Christmas Eve - the driver turned it in and the many SEPTA folks I dealt with that day could not have been kinder. I slid a nice tip to a few of them that day!

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