Philadelphia Transportation Thread

[EastSideHBG]

Feds propose an Amtrak stop at the Philly Airport and greatly speeding up regional service
Updated: DECEMBER 16, 2016 — 12:46 PM EST
http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...illy-rail.html


How Philadelphians Get to Work
Philadelphia is a densely populated city with an extensive transit network, yet about 6 in 10 workers who live in Philadelphia use a car to commute to their jobs. About 18 percent of workers commute by bus, the second-most popular transportation mode. Those patterns differ greatly from workers living in the suburbs, who overwhelmingly drive to work (87 percent), and rarely use a bus (2 percent).
http://www.philly.com/philly/infogra...405465445.html

[TechTalkGuy]

Well the truth is that Philly needs more subway lines to better serve the city.
People don't want to be on the street waiting for a bus when the subway can avoid detours due to construction or city events like a parade.

You really don't see the type of subway expansion like you see in NYC whatsoever.

This is why many commuters will drive more.
In Center City, not everyone finds a station along Market Street or Broad Street convenient to their destination.

In Manhattan for example, if you wanted to go further west on 42nd street from Times Square, you'd have to wait for the M42 bus, but that's only one block until it turns north, which you wind up walking for several blocks to your destination; but the MTA expanded the 7 line recently.

Back to Philly, where the Broad Ridge Spur does not go far enough.
How about a Market-Franklin Spur to serve the Ben Franklin Parkway with subway service from the Market-Frankford line?

How about a Girard Ave subway line?
I understand that the Subway-Surface (green) line serves a dual purpose, but that's just a cheap low-cost method that could have been better served with dedicated subway lines serving West Philly much better.

Northeast Philly is another area severely underserved.
The Roosevelt Boulevard, Bustleton Ave, Grant Ave, etc. could easily host their own subway lines, serving the city residents much better.

I applaud the MTA's Manhattan investment on the new 2nd Ave subway, a line I hope to ride someday.

If you enjoy visiting big cities, you know that it's much more enjoyable to park in a garage and enjoy mass transit (that's always been my preferred method).

Thoughts?

[Delthayre]

Originally Posted by TechTalkGuy

Back to Philly, where the Broad Ridge Spur does not go far enough.
How about a Market-Franklin Spur to serve the Ben Franklin Parkway with subway service from the Market-Frankford line?

There is a sort of historical precedent for this concept, but it involves the Broad Street line.

In the early twentieth century William S. Twining, whom I believe succeeded A. Merritt Taylor as Director of City Transit, proposed a spur from the Broad Street Subway at Ridge Avenue to 8th Street, down 8th Street to Locust Street, along Locust Street to 16th Street, up 16th Street until it met the Parkway, then along the Parkway until 28th Street and lastly an elevated line along 28th Street until Henry Avenue, then via Henry Avenue and Ridge Avenue through Roxborough. (I recall having once read that the Henry Avenue Bridge in Wissahickon Park has some provisions for never-built elevated tracks) I vaguely understand that the Broad-Ridge Spur was at one time connected to the Locust Street Subway. This through-routing plan was Director Twining's alternative to Director Taylor's proposal for a center city loop.

What I sort-of-know comes from this 1916 report submitted by Director Twining. (I believe that it's been referenced before in this thread)

If you want Market-Frankford Subway-Elevated spurs, Director Twining proposed something like that in a 1920 report in the form of a spur principally along Front Street and Erie Avenue to Broad Street. (The report also indicates that Philadelphia issued what amounts, adjusted for inflation, well more than a billion dollars in bonds to ostensibly finance several lines or extensions of lines that were never built, most conspicuously a Darby Line principally along Woodland Avenue that would access Center City first by the Market Street Subway, then its own Chestnut Street Subway )

I wish that there were a complete history of Philadelphia's unrealized transit ambitions, disheartening as that would innately be.

For now, the apparent best hope for any new rail transit in Philadelphia is extending the Broad Street Line to the Navy Yard (something that was in A. Merritt Taylor's original proposals). I believe that there's a report on the extension that's overdue.

[TechTalkGuy]

Very interesting!
I see you understand my point in urban capital investment.
It's more than a convenience, it's a significant part of urban planning.

A Center City Loop does sound very compelling.

As for the proposed Front Street, Erie Ave spur does sound good.
What about Allegheny Ave?

There are so many opportunities here for serving the city much better than it currently does.
But you got to admit that Girard Ave really does need a subway line (probably elevated).

[volguus zildrohar]

Delthayre, thanks for posting those links.

There are several places where the 1913 Taylor plan maps can be found online. Here's one version:



To address some of your points, yes there were provisions built into the Henry Avenue Bridge for the never built line from The Parkway and 29th Street and yes the Locust Street and Ridge Avenue subways were once linked - in fact a severed track connection does still exist.

In addition to money, the one thing preventing further expansion of our rail system is population. It's much easier to come by federal money for projects where none currently exist such as many Sunbelt cities with booming populations or a place like New York. Additionally Philadelphia got its windfall a decade ago with the renovation of the Market Street El and we're dealing with a transit authority that is loath to build new infrastructure to maintain when so much extant infrastructure needs serious repair and modernization.

[TechTalkGuy]

SEPTA took over the PTC (Philadelphia Transit Company (I believe)).
Perhaps it's time for a new transit authority.

The MTA in NYC is the model of perfection.
I'd like to see that happen.

[volguus zildrohar]

Originally Posted by TechTalkGuy

SEPTA took over the PTC (Philadelphia Transit Company (I believe)).
Perhaps it's time for a new transit authority.

The MTA in NYC is the model of perfection.
I'd like to see that happen.

??????

Other than its $34 billion in debt, maybe.

MTA and RTA (Chicago) are the two large examples of regional transit authorities with taxation powers, something that SEPTA does not have. The various transit modes in those respective cities are effectively subsidiaries of the larger transit authority whereas SEPTA oversees and operates everything under one inefficient umbrella.

This is not to put one system up at the expense of another but MTA is as wholly dysfunctional as SEPTA or virtually any other big city transit agency. The fact that they operate in New York City gives them no special dispensation.

[TechTalkGuy]

I see some very exciting projects going on in NYC.
Imagine if SEPTA can get that type of funding from developers?
Just imagine how much growth the transit authority can build.

[volguus zildrohar]

Originally Posted by TechTalkGuy

I see some very exciting projects going on in NYC.
Imagine if SEPTA can get that type of funding from developers?
Just imagine how much growth the transit authority can build.

From developers?

[TechTalkGuy]

Originally Posted by volguus zildrohar

From developers?

Various projects; yes.

[volguus zildrohar]

Originally Posted by TechTalkGuy

Various projects; yes.

But what does that mean - SEPTA getting funding from developers?

SEPTA does not receive money from real estate developers for...anything.

[TechTalkGuy]

Originally Posted by volguus zildrohar

But what does that mean - SEPTA getting funding from developers?

SEPTA does not receive money from real estate developers for...anything.

Exactly right.
But some developers in NYC are funding various transit projects.
Now, I don't know if the developer for the Comcast Innovation and Technology Center is funding subway concourse expansion or extra stations like what we see at Grand Central with One Vanderbilt, but that's a good way the city gets involved with helping fund the transit improvements.

[FtGreeneNY]

Developers are possibly going to help pay for one possible project, the BQX light rail running from Brooklyn to Queens. As for other transit developments in New York City, all that's allegedly going to happen is the January 1 opening of a 3 mile portion of the Second Avenue Line, which is running about 80 years late and much-truncated.

[summersm343]

SEPTA expands rollout of Key

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelp...ut-of-key.html

[summersm343]

SEPTA Key card expansion: A helpful guide

http://philly.curbed.com/2017/2/9/14...de-information

[summersm343]

Better bus service likely for Roosevelt Blvd.

They’ll have a new look, a new route, and fancy new stops, and if all goes well, SEPTA’s express buses on Roosevelt Boulevard should be up and running by the fall.

The Boulevard Direct Bus is just a proposal now, but is high on SEPTA’s priority list for 2017, officials said. It would stop at only six locations along the 10-mile route between Frankford Transportation Center and the Neshaminy Mall. It should provide travel 30 percent faster than the 45 minutes it takes the Route 14 bus to traverse the same route, SEPTA officials said. Ridership estimates for the express route weren’t available Wednesday, but the Route 14 bus moves about 12,000 riders each day along 60 stops.

If it happens, every 10 minutes during rush hours, and every 15 minutes the rest of the day, riders should see 60-foot-long buses able to hold about 85 people each, said Steve D’Antonio, SEPTA’s manager of city service planning. The six stops between the two termini, Cottman Avenue, Rhawn Street, Welsh Road, Grant Avenue, Red Lion Road, and Neshaminy Interplex, are all getting new bus shelters that will also service the Route 14 bus, which will continue operating as a local. Riders on the express would be able to switch to a Route 14 bus without paying a transfer charge, officials said. The express route stops were picked because, D’Antonio said, 47 percent of the people using the Route 14 bus board or disembark on one of those stops. SEPTA has budgeted $2 million for the work, but it will likely cost less, he said.

The city is conducting a three-year study on Roosevelt Boulevard that led to the Boulevard Direct Bus plan, Carroll said. This may be an intermediary step, though, he said. Other options are being evaluated, including the possibility of lanes reserved exclusively for buses.

http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...velt-Blvd.html

[summersm343]

SEPTA proposes new buses for University City, Roosevelt Blvd.





Read more here:
http://planphilly.com/articles/2017/...roosevelt-blvd

[skyscraper]

Originally Posted by summersm343

Better bus service likely for Roosevelt Blvd.



http://www.philly.com/philly/busines...velt-Blvd.html

the latest in the series of studies to end all studies for the boulevard.

[volguus zildrohar]

Route 49 would do me a lot of good. The lack of a single seat transit route between UC/30th Street and the general upper Parkway area for all these years is kind of a glaring omission in the SEPTA system.

The Boulevard BRT (which this is a pared down version of) is all that we're ever going to get...save for probably another study, skyscraper.

[volguus zildrohar]

The Brand New Subway site is a fun way to waste your time and it works anywhere that's been Google mapped.

Wouldn't this be a nice dream?