Philadelphia Transportation Thread - Page 48

Cro Burnham · #**941** Posted **Feb 9, 2015, 4:03 AM**

Check out this map of the South Jersey rail transit back in the day . . . . amazing.

It's hard fathom how much better this country could have been than it actually is had we not systematically destroyed trillions of dollars of value in our cities and transit systems . . . so we could have tract housing, muscle cars, mcdonald's, and strip shopping.

http://www.prslhs.com/PRSL_Map_files/image007.jpg

josef · #**942** Posted **Feb 9, 2015, 3:09 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowbat2

[B]South Broad concourse refurbishment now underway:

Hey, thanks a lot for taking these and posting them! I've been watching this happen and I keep forgetting to take pictures of it. It's great to see them finally starting this work, I'm so curious what the plans for it are.

josef · #**943** Posted **Feb 9, 2015, 3:12 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cro Burnham

Check out this map of the South Jersey rail transit back in the day . . . . amazing.

It's hard fathom how much better this country could have been than it actually is had we not systematically destroyed trillions of dollars of value in our cities and transit systems . . . so we could have tract housing, muscle cars, mcdonald's, and strip shopping.

http://www.prslhs.com/PRSL_Map_files/image007.jpg

Not only that, but think of how much hang-wringing over traffic on the weekends in the summer there is. Some of those lines go right to those towns. It's so easy to think you're in the middle of nowhere when you're driving around the middle of the state (I mean, you are), but then you see things like this and you think hell, they had this all figured out decades ago and then just decided "nah, forget society". It really depresses me, heh.

New2Fishtown · #**944** Posted **Feb 11, 2015, 3:24 PM**

IBX is the corporate sponsor ($8.5M deal) for the bikeshare system.

http://www.rideindego.com/

So the name is a color pun (the bikes are indeed indigo) while also being a mashup of the IBX brand and the idea of being active. Exact launch date not announced to my knowledge. 60 stations this year, 60 more next year. No way to sign up for memberships yet, but you can sign up for updates on the website.

shadowbat2 · #**945** Posted **Feb 19, 2015, 11:40 PM**

Quote:

SEPTA is preparing to launch a $22 million remake of the Margaret-Orthodox elevated station on the Market-Frankford Line and Arrott Transportation Center in Frankford.

A committee of the SEPTA board on Thursday approved a plan to award a $20.9 million construction contract to James J. Anderson Construction Co., of Philadelphia, and a $1.1 million contract to Lima Co., of Philadelphia.

If the full board approves the contracts next week, work is expected to start by June to install three elevators, security cameras, new structural steel, new transformers and communications systems. The work is slated to take up to three years.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...vegQktgrWRL.99

Jonboy1983 · #**946** Posted **Feb 22, 2015, 2:28 AM**

Speaking of SEPTA, supposedly they're going to revamp the platforms at Exton Station, including ADA compliant high-level platforms, a shelter with restrooms and waiting areas, canopies over the platforms just to name a few improvements. There's a public meeting scheduled for March 3rd at 6pm. My father-in-law sent me an email about that. I forget where this is taking place...

shadowbat2 · #**947** Posted **Feb 22, 2015, 2:44 AM**

30th st MFL station as the evening rush has begun:

016 by tehshadowbat, on Flickr

Repair work at 11th Street:

017 by tehshadowbat, on Flickr

Busy Bee · #**948** Posted **Feb 22, 2015, 3:56 AM**

Woof, that's some ugly tile.

kingtut · #**949** Posted **Feb 22, 2015, 4:18 AM**

Perhaps they should use a white shag carpet . It's a subway stop .

josef · #**950** Posted **Feb 22, 2015, 9:28 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowbat2

30th st MFL station as the evening rush has begun:

Huh, we use the 30th Street el stop to get home from Amtrak a lot, and I've never seen that "you are here" diagram thing on the ceiling. Cool!

shadowbat2 · #**951** Posted **Feb 22, 2015, 9:42 PM**

^Yeah that was the first time I noticed it too, it was what prompted me to take that LOL

Busy Bee · #**952** Posted **Feb 23, 2015, 6:56 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by kingtut

Perhaps they should use a white shag carpet . It's a subway stop .

An ugly one.

Parkway · #**953** Posted **Feb 23, 2015, 7:09 PM**

Does anyone know off-hand if there is enough clearance in the BSL tunnel between Spring Garden and Walnut to string catenary?

If there is then the City Branch could use high floor LRVs of some sort and it wouldn't have to do any street running in Center City.

josef · #**954** Posted **Feb 23, 2015, 7:13 PM**

They're just so steely and cold. All that metal. Their designer must be a robot or something.

shadowbat2 · #**955** Posted **Feb 24, 2015, 10:17 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

An ugly one.

Give me some time and I'll show you some REAL ugly ones

shadowbat2 · #**956** Posted **Feb 24, 2015, 10:42 AM**

Came across some renderings of station improvements from Septa's Rebuilding for the Future page. Images are *huge* so I'm using links

ADA access to 40th Street station (Market Frankford Line) with refurbished entrances and elevators. Work beginning in the spring....
new entrance

Secane Station (Regional Rail Media/Elwyn line) New high-level platforms and ADA access. Work set to start this summer....

rendering 1

rendering 2

rendering 3

shadowbat2 · #**957** Posted **Feb 24, 2015, 11:02 AM**

http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/0...und-concourse/

Quote:

Three and a half miles of concourses run under the streets of Center City Philadelphia. One can walk from 8th and Market all the way to the Comcast Center. One can then go from there to 12th and Locust. Walking underground can actually save time in many instances: There are no distractions, as swaths of the concourse are devoid of anyone but people rushing through, maintenance workers, loiterers and the occasional skateboarder and/or pot smoker.

SEPTA wants to change that eventually. Now that it has control of maintenance and capital improvement of the underground concourses, SEPTA has begun improvements and repairs. The two escalators at 15th Street — across from City Hall — will be replaced. SEPTA is also replacing the escalator at the 8th Street Station and renovating the elevator there.

Small structural repairs are taking place in stretches of the underground concourse on South Broad Street, as well as at 8th and Market. Visible repairs are being done in the South Broad concourse currently: The concrete on the floor is being repaired, and one section — where a large chunk of the tile wall had fallen off — is completely closed off for various repairs. SEPTA is also adding about 30 more trash and recycling containers in the concourses.

But that's not all: "Now that SEPTA has control of the concourses, we're going to create a master plan," SEPTA Public Information Manager Manny Smith. "Maybe sometime in the future they will look at new things that can be programmed to happen down there so that it becomes more of a destination spot." Smith says there used to be storefronts in certain areas of the concourse.

Smith cautions SEPTA is in the very beginning stages of completing that capital plan, and says it will meet with stakeholders before moving forward. The current work is in Phase 1 of a four-part plan for the concourses.

The city owns the concourses, which it purchased in 1968 when the Philadelphia Transportation Company was acquired by SEPTA. But it reached a new lease agreement with the city that gave SEPTA control of the concourses.

In the last few years, conditions in the concourses had deteriorated a bit. Swaths of the South Broad concourse leaked during storms. Signage isn't always great. Before Dilworth Park's construction, the area between South Broad and the Clothespin occasionally flooded. SEPTA GM Joseph Casey was a tad snarky as the deal was coming together. “We primarily get blamed for the condition of [the concourses],” he told Plan Philly. “We now have the financial wherewithal to fix them up, which the city does not, nor have they ever, nor do they have plans to fix them up.”

In addition to the major escalator and elevator improvements, SEPTA is focusing on seven different stairwells in the South Broad concourse. It also plans to improve lighting in all areas underground; there's currently a pilot program for LED lighting at the 13th Street El station near the SEPTA building. Signage will be improved.

In addition to eventually creating the capital plan, SEPTA's also spending seven million each year on maintenance underground. The city spent about $1.3 million.

Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/0...IeyLCOsSUZp.99

shadowbat2 · #**958** Posted **Mar 17, 2015, 8:42 AM**

Study: Reopening PATCO 'ghost station' would cost $18.5M

Quote:

The estimated cost to reopen PATCO's long-shuttered Franklin Square subway station in Old City is at least $18.5 million, a new study has found.

That's about 50 percent more than transit officials expected.

The study, requested last year by PATCO's parent, the Delaware River Port Authority, estimates 1,300 riders would use the station each day, but that nearly all would be current riders who now use the Eighth and Market Streets station.

The port authority has been considering reopening the "ghost station" beneath Sixth and Race Streets for years, and the agency included $500,000 in its current capital budget to reexamine the issue.

The new study makes no recommendation about reopening the station, which has been closed since 1979.

The cost estimated by the study is 50 percent higher than the $12 million estimate in the authority's budget. And, the study said, an additional $8 million would be needed to add improvements such as escalators and an entrance on the south side of Race.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...eB68lZQhSu6.99

Jonboy1983 · #**959** Posted **Mar 18, 2015, 2:06 AM**

^^ Somewhat off topic, but was there ever an intent to have a station beneath Rittenhouse Square at all? The tracks go as far as 20th Street, don't they?