r/Septa

Hi! I’m a female healthcare worker that just moved to the city, currently living near center city / city hall. I’m starting a job over at Jefferson Einstein and I was wondering how taking the subway (B3 line to Olney) would be during the early mornings (5-7am) and evenings (6-8pm). Specifically regarding how safe / sketchy it is.

Again new to the city and some of my friends have raised an eyebrow or two when suggesting taking public transit up north so just wanted to see the viability of this vs driving. Thank you!

Have you noticed any positive impacts? More visitors, busier local businesses, fun fan events, or a better atmosphere? I'd love to hear what you've experienced.

What's your opinion?

Hey y'all, I know SEPTA can be infuriating, and even so unreliable at times. (i know from experience 😭) However, there's still so much that I find interesting about SEPTA's system, one of which is the bus network.

SOOO, Over the next few months, I will be working to create a high quality 1:1 recreation of certain regions of Philly, with SEPTA bus routes as the primary focus of the game. I plan to release this game on ROBLOX around november/december.

Here are some WIP pics

https://preview.redd.it/ig9p0aptfbbh1.jpg?width=1433&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8f09d58977ce4ad5d313c12dfcb26ad591517e54

https://preview.redd.it/e50y01eufbbh1.png?width=3840&format=png&auto=webp&s=6842cc7ef320d441fd900013be1c43daf536e066

This is something I'm really passionate about, and have been wanting to make for so long now. I'd love to know what y'all would like to see us add in the game

EDIT: Also just wanted to mention, i have a discord server where I talk more about the project and share development photos. the link is discord.gg/trains

Yesterday after early dismissal my wife left her phone on the train, and we were able to confirm that her phone was still moving on the train. Once we realized what happened, we contacted the SEPTA phone line, it was answered promptly and then we were transferred properly to the right department.

Both customer service reps were professional and kind. When we were speaking to the right representative she noted she would open up a report for us and at the worst we could pick it up at the lost and found at Suburban station, but that we should hold on for a sec. She did figure out that the train the phone was on was returning to center city and that the train would be at our stop at 2:03 if we wanted to try and intercept it on the return trip. We met the train at 2:03 and the conductor had the phone waiting for us.

A similar thing happened to my wife’s colleague with her keys about two weeks ago and she retrieved her keys from the lost and found at Suburban the same day.

SEPTA certainly has a massive amount of things that need improvement, but they certainly came through with flying colors with these issues.

Edit: In chatting with my wife a bit after posting this, we realized that this was probably the most positive phone based customer service experience we’ve had in a long time.

Edit 2: People with the downvotes, please explain.

There are 3 stations: North Philly on the NEC/SEPTA Regional Rail, North Broad on SEPTA Regional Rail (with its beautiful station building), and North Broad on the BSL (with its 4 underused tracks).

They are all drastically underused, but the Broad Street subway is waaaaayyyy under used. It has 4 tracks at this station and can handle another 5,000 or more new residents here easily. And lots of people will be getting on SEPTA RR at North Philly or North Broad for job destinations like U-City and other places in the region, or take Amtrak to New Jersey and New York City. Plenty will walk to jobs or school at Temple Medical too.

Reimagine the area as a transit district (think Arlington, Virginia) with two visual sightlines between the 3 stations, one along Broad Street and another along the Manayunk-Norristown line. It would be a new "place" for Philly.

Create critical mass of people. Upzone for skyscrapers, and have wedding cake-style zoning as you get farther from the corridor and stations. Following the Manayunk-Norristown line from northwest of the North Philly station to southeast of the North Broad station, a distance of less than a mile, there is so much vacant land, poorly used parking lots and low-value commercial/industrial buildings that could be put to better use.

But don't screw it up with car parking. Eliminate car parking in all new buildings or cap parking at 1 space for every 10 apartments at most. Unbundle that parking from the apartment and make it very very expensive to park a car. Best case is to have an auction for residents for the parking spaces every year.

Instead, have all the buildings create large bike rooms adjacent to their lobbies so easy to enter and exit the buildings on a bike, making cycling a top travel mode alongside transit.

Turn North Broad Street from a 7 lane highway into a safe and comfortable street for people outside of cars. Exclusive bus lanes, Protected Bike Lanes and one lane for motorists. Place Indigo bikeshare hubs throughout, with really good on-street bike parking. Put mandatory Uber rideshare dropoff stations on nearby side streets, like at the airport. Ticket for Uber dropoffs elsewhere. (NYC was going to do this for taxis decades ago and backed off -- big mistake.)

Layout the streets so it is easy to walk from the 3 stations, and a person walking or cycling can 'see' all 3 stations clearly the length of the corridor. Consider decking a pedestrianized street over the Norristown-Manayunk line. Make that new street a series of pedestrian plazas with programmed events, outdoor cafes, etc. so it is as popular as the one in Fishtown.

Require storefront (not Big Box) street-level retail on all sides of buildings with low capped square feet of store sizes (so you get a lot of different stores). Make an exception for a grocery store, but still don't have car parking. (NYC grocery stores, even Trader Joe's, don't have any car parking and they do great.) Only have street parking, because you want everyone to either live there or to arrive by transit.

Don't let the apartment buildings become bunkers. So no roof gardens or upstairs lounges allowed. People should recreate on the ground outside. Add well-designed and well-maintained, secure pocket parks. Lots of outdoor cafes. Create a BID like the Center City district with revenue from the building owners.

Voila, you've got a vibrant, walkable, fun neighborhood. The City of Philadelphia gets lots of tax revenue. SEPTA, and Amtrak too, mint guaranteed fare-payers for its trains and buses.

https://wwww.septa.org/wp-content/uploads/page/communication/SEPTA_Map_RegionalRail_v1-1.pdf There's a QR code/number to call on the map itself; you can also go to https://wwww.septa.org/maps/ & click on the 'Share your Feedback' button.

SEPTA's finally released a RR map incorporating SEPTA Metro. IMO it looks pretty good, especially since it now shares a cohesive visual style with the Metro map. The main line north of Temple is unpleasant to look at but I'm not sure how to improve that without sacrificing individual line's stopping patterns, which I think is reasonable to include. I find it odd that Radnor, Overbrook, & Media are now shown as walking connections (~10 minutes each), but Angora & 49th-Baltimore aren't despite the trolleys stopping <5 minutes away.

Has anyone else noticed there are less updates on the Twitter account when service is impacted? As a regional rail rider it used to always have updates when trains were going to be significantly delayed. Now every time I check there’s nothing. The app also has been less reliable in updating estimated times. I mean today it’s showing as if the train that hasn’t come yet already left, when I know it didn’t because I was at the platform before that time and it did not come through.

I got tickets for the All Star Game, been to Citizens Bank Park a couple times but I’m not super well-versed with it, nor Philadelphia public transit in general. What would be the best way to get there from Fishtown? Any safety concerns with the public transportation system? I’ve only been to Philly a handful of times so I’m not very familiar. Thank you for any and all help!

Hey guys!

I am an experienced history photographer and explorer who mostly focuses on exploring NYC (whether it be the subway, tunnels in general, or above-ground transit areas), and I have started researching the transit system in Philadelphia. I was amazed to see that there is so much history to look at over there. It got me really interested.

From what I see, there are multiple abandoned stations (some unfinished and/or never opened) in areas of the SEPTA, like Spring Station on the SEPTA Broad-Ridge Spur, Arch Street Station, parts of the Fairmount Station and parts of the Old Race-Vine Station, which is where I want to start.

Since Philadelphia is a new city for me (in terms of exploring), I am not sure where to start. Unlike NYC, where maps of NYC are more easily accessible, I was unsuccessful with Philadelphia and its transit system. Does anyone have any tips on how to start navigating the Philadelphia rail? I'm just looking for where to start!

Thank you! :D

p.s. I am a photographer wishing to document US transit history (and hopefully later expand to international and other pieces of history). I want to make transit history more accessible to everyone and have people be more informed on what could've been, but was either left to be abandoned or never finished at all.

Also, most importantly, I DO NOT CONDONE ANY MALICIOUS ACTIVITIES OR DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY. I solely do photography. What I do is first I research, then I take my pictures, compile them, and write about my findings and post them on my blog, and hopefully this niche side of history can be seen and appreciated by others!

Thank you for listening :)

I take the BSL into FTC every sunday/tuesday and for the last 4 weeks without fail, I’ve been stuck right outside the transit center for anywhere between 10-25 minutes. I’ve been having to leave a half hour early to account for it (on top of an already 1.5 hr transit time) and I still barely make it to work on time. Anyone know what’s going on? Any tips on getting from center to city to Fox chase maybe without going through Fern rock?

Every time I go to Girard its just replacement buses and I've been wanting to use the actual trolley for a while now. What are my best chances of catching it?

https://wwww.septa.org/wp-content/uploads/post/communication/WIL_WEB_7_26.pdf

Late-night SEPTA service extended from Marcus Hook PA to Claymont, Wilmington DE, reversing the (horrible) decision to shorten the line in Fall of last year. Effective July 5th.

Huzzah.

I passed my interview and received my conditional offer from Septa. I plan on delaying my start date so I can finish my classes in the fall. During the debrief they stated that the application can close after 2 months if there is no activity but can be reopened. Is the reopening process simple? I still have to get my cdl so I'm giving myself time to do so and then move forward with the process. It's also my understanding the physical/drug test is only valid for 30 days.

Also, are there any depots that are undersaturated or have a surplus of employees that will be retiring this year? I am primarily interested in the trolley depots.

Hi I’m looking for schedules for Thursday July 2nd for septa from Trenton to Philly 30th street. However, when I look up the schedule on the app, it says no upcoming trips on the date. Are there no trips on that day? Thanks.

Hey I’m looking for some old Pottstown station locations, the stations where I don’t know where they were location specifically were:

Leesport

Mohrsville

Hamburg

Thank u!!!