Quote:
Originally Posted by Nexis4Jersey
From what has been floated around SEPTA would order 2 types... One smaller Streetcar for the Suburban network and longer articulated Streetcars for the Subway-Surface network. Total cost seems to be at least a billion from what i'm told , it would be the largest Rolling Stock order SEPTA has ever done. They would order enough for the 56 and 23 restorations along with running them on the 15. It all comes down to Money , if they were treated like NJT or MBTA in terms of funding this would have been done by now , but they are the least funded system in the Northeast. Even Maryland funds its Transit more then SEPTA....300-400 million is scraps. SEPTA needs 1.2 to 1.5 Billion to run effectively...
|
For SEPTA, an additional $350 to $400 million a year in direct funding is a huge step forward over the starvation levels of capital funding it has had in recent years. Sure SEPTA could use more funding for capital projects, but now they can tackle the substantial backlog of maintenance, repair, and system modernization. The additional state funding should also help in getting federal funds for transit projects because SEPTA will be able to put up a 25% to 50% match.
What I don't know is whether the additional funding as currently projected will be enough to support system expansion projects in the near term such as restoration of service to Elwyn, Norristown High Speed Line branch to King of Prussia, the subway extension to the Navy Yard that is now being advocated. A skim of the capital budget document shows a huge backlog of system maintenance and replacement needs that will take years and years to get through. SEPTA has been the poor cousin of the Northeast Corridor regional and Metro transit systems and in a survival and contracting mode for so long, that a program of expanding the system will be a new day in the Philly metro region. But that may take a Democratic governor and a shift in the balance of power in the state legislature and in regional politics to fully get to a serious system expansion mode. The good news is that the doomsday plan can now be put away. That's progress.
This has been a good year for state transportation and transit funding in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. VA, MD, MA, VT all passed major tax increases to pay for transportation funding with funding transit projects playing a major role in getting the MD and MA gas tax increases passed. NJ is the holdout state that badly needs to increase its gas tax to pay for transportation projects, but any change there will have to wait until NJ gets a new Governor.