Quote:
Originally Posted by Delthayre
SEPTA's Regional Rail Master Plan project has released three conceptual scenarios for the network. Although any actual realized plan will probably end up as a distorted kludge of the three concepts, they are interesting exercises and this is some of the most exciting, promising thinking the SEPTA has demonstrated in a significant length of time.
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As someone who grew up in Bucks County by the West Trenton line, here's my thoughts:
Option 1:
My favorite out of the three. This goes a long way towards making Regional Rail a viable mode of transport for non 9-5 Center City commuters. People now can expect somewhat reasonable service all day every day across the whole network which in itself will drive demand. Couple this with fare intergration and now we're beginning to get somewhere.
Option 2:
So, this ironically enough is my second choice. My fear is that while this is a game changer for those routes that see the boosted service, it basically splits the regional rail into a "core" network and an "outer" network. This is worrisome because in the early 1980s when SEPTA still ran diesel routes the thinking was the diesel routes were "peripheral" to the core electrified network making eventual abandonment easier to justify. At the very least, the 15-minute zone needs to extend to Wilmington, Lansdale, Trenton and Malvern, with Fox Chase, West Trenton and the Chestnut Hill West still holding onto 30 minute frequencies.
Option 3:
This is a hard no for a couple reasons:
One, if you live at a local stop, you're basically either waiting on an once-an-hour train to transfer to an express train *or* you simply drive to the nearest express station. This is going to tank ridership at a lot of stations, as well as make said local stations ineligable for any future TOD possibilites.
Second, Does Amtrak have the capacity or willingness to go along with such a concept? Keep in mind that an Amtrak seat taken up by someone only going from Cornwells Heights to 30th Street is one that cannot be sold to someone going from New York to Baltimore.
Third, one of the stated goals of this endeavor is to bring about a more equitable transit structure as well as establish regional rail as a backbone of the network. With the majority of your trains on certain lines like the Thorndale, West Trenton, Trenton and Doylestown Lines skipping most of the stations enroute how does this help transit-dependant individuals w/o vehicles who need to get to those stops? This plan seems to be more of a doubling down on the concept of the RR network being a "Get people to CC and back out again" mode than one that works for suburb to suburb or intermediate travel.