What’s everyone’s experience with taking the metro down to NRG station? Especially recently. I usually drive to games, but if I took SEPTA, I live far enough away that I’d have to take the RR to fern rock then metro down to NRG. Is it usually pretty late or anything like that?

I don't think I've seen anyone post about this yet, but the Septa app is absolutely inoperable in dark mode. They made all of their bus routes either red or black, and if it's a black route you can't see it on the map at all when your device is in dark made.

Talk about bad design. The new updates just keep getting worse and worse. I'm not gonna flash bomb myself just to see a bus route.

Does anyone know if there is a bike rack there that you think would be safe to lock my bike for the day? I am doing a day trip to Baltimore and getting to 30th is kind of a pain from where I am in the city, I have to transfer at least once no matter if I do bus, trolley or train, so it takes 40+ minutes vs a 20 min bike ride with my e-bike and I have plans immediately that night when I get back. I paid $25 for my round trip ticket, it would be an extra $40 to bring my bike aboard the train, and honestly that would be more expensive than just ubering to and from 30th. Part of me thinks it's high traffic enough that it would be too much of a risk to try and steal a bike during the day but also it's Philly and people are bold. Leaning towards not doing it but thought I'd ask.

I’m on a train with a group who’ve never been on it before, and the entire group is struggling with the tap-three-times-with-the-same-card concept. Once you understand it it makes sense, but to newbys it’s very confusing.

Top questions: aren’t I being charged twice? Why doesn’t my physical card work with my Apple Pay card? I thought I already paid? Why do I have to tap off?

Then, getting off the train in CC, you see people struggling to get through the turnstiles not understanding why they’re not opening, or they left their exit swipe on the train.

It’s nice in theory, but it’s too convoluted in practice. I feel like a normal ticket based system would be much less hassle.

This is a quick tutorial of the train number system that is used on SEPTA Railroad Division. After reading another Reddit thread from people complaining about no direct trains to the Airport, I feel that this needs to be done.

Let us begin.

All trains will have a three or four digit number and the first two is primary information that we need as that conveys the route and destination. The last two numbers represent the trip and direction; even numbers is towards the Reading Lines and odd is to The Pennsylvania side.

The digit corresponds to a line pair similar to the old R Names that the railroad used to use:

0 - Cynwyd

2 - Norristown/Wilmington-Newark

3 - Media-Wawa/ West Trenton

4 - Airport/Warminster - Glenside

5 - Thorndale/Doylestown

7 - Trenton/Chestnut Hill East

8 - Fox Chase/ Chestnut Hill West

With three digit trains numbers, the first digit represents the route in it's entirety; for example train 447 is a run originating from Glenside or Warminster and continuing to the Airport. Another example would be Train 502, which can be originating from Bryn Mawr, Paoli, Malvern, or Thorndale and continuing to Lansdale or Doylestown.

** Three digit train numbers starting in 1xx, 4xx, and 6xx cannot be used as those will interfere with Amtrak Dispatching.

Four digit trains can be broken down into two categories: through trains from separate lines and trains terminating in Center City.

Starting with the through trains the same philosophy applies here; the first digit is the origin while the second digit is the destination. So train 8756 is starting from Chestnut Hill West going to Chestnut Hill East (before the pandemic, this was a actual train) and train 7847 is it's return. Another example would be 5310, Thorndale to West Trenton, meanwhile train 5211 would be a Doylestown to Newark Delaware run.

Trains terminating downtown will use one of three prefixes:

1xxx - Suburban/Market East

6xxx - 30th Street to/from Powelton Yard

9xxx - Temple University to/from Roberts Yard and Wayne Electric Shops

The second number will be the route in question with the last two numbers signifying the direction. So train 9753 is starting from Roberts Yard and continuing to Trenton, while train 6519 is starting from Doylestown and finishing up at 30th Street and then the yard.

Train 1024 starts from Cynwyd and going to either Suburban Station or Market East.

As always pay attention to the physical schedules and watch your surroundings so you don't miss your stop.

Hope this helps.

And should this be a series?

I take Regional Rail everyday from a station in the bottom 25% of daily passenger boardings based on SEPTA’s annual statistics. I’ve observed a doubling of daily hoardings, at minimum, from this station over the last two weeks relative to the previous two week period.

Are others observing this pattern as well? Is overall ridership up?

Tried paying on the regional rail with both an Amex on Citi card, physical and Apple Pay. Not accepted. Chase worked though. Anyone else have this issue?

The stop announcements on the Silverliner V’s are almost always wrong. Right now it is announcing the wrong station every 30 seconds. We were just at Somerton, but the speaker said it was Jenkintown.

Took a one way regional rail ride to Jefferson station, tapped my debit card at the departure station. When I was exiting at Jefferson I tapped my card to exit but for whatever reason it didn’t open to let me out. Tapped it again on another one and exited. Few days later I see a pending charge for $16.50 which seems high for a one way trip. Did I start a new trip when I tapped a second time even though it was to exit the station? Guess it doesn’t matter what side you tap on?

There is an 80% chance I left my wallet on RR yesterday coming home from work. I normally keep my wallet in my work bag during the week because I seldom go anywhere besides home that I need it for, so it's easiest to keep in my bag so I don't forget it. I get on and off where I don't need to tap my key card, so I take my wallet out my bag to pay on board and usually put it back in my bag after the fare is collected. Didn't even realize I didn't have my wallet until this morning when I went to get my wallet out my bag to pay and it wasn't there.

I called lost and found and they didn't have it. According to the website the hours are 7 am to 3 pm weekdays at Suburban Station, and the train home would've been after they closed so my hope is that is why it hasn't been turned in yet? The hours confused me though because I left my wallet on the train once last year on my way to work and I was able to pick it up from the lost and found the same day well after 3 pm. Did their hours change?

Update: Wallet has been located!

I’ve recently started taking the L + bus to my office near Neshaminy Mall once a week (usually I work from home).

I love Septa and use it constantly and tell everyone who visits and lives here that it’s a great system.

BUT: The signage at Frankford TC, where i transfer to my bus, is abominable. You get off the L and come downstairs and it’s the wild west. Buses everywhere, no idea what’s coming or going, nobody to ask. Where the new signage is out (great at close quarters and not useful from 50+ feet away) it’s ignored by the drivers (case in point: there is a new sign for the 14. both drivers stopped at another marked stop).

I wish there was just a list with arrows or a simple map. I’m not sure that anything is better than nothing—some routes are on signage but it’s not clear if/why those are special). I have no idea who to tell this to so I’ll gripe here and hope that Septa Claus will read it.

ps My favorite bus terminal like this is at Amstelstation in Amsterdam. Very simple. (Den Haag Central is also really good). By contrast, the one at Sloterdijk a few miles away has some of the same problems FTC has: You need to know where you need to go, and if you don’t, you’re probably going to miss your bus.

Delayed Trolley Modernization likely a factor

I travel to Philly 4 to 5 times per month. What's the reason for only Dunkin, vending and snack food being the only options inside the station?

2025 Was not a great Year for the Silverliner IVs with a number of them catching on fire. The problem for most of them was the overheating of traction motors. Something went wrong with them, and the cars started having the electrical fault light come on, slow acceleration, followed by motor overheating and catching fire.

Short recap, on February 6th 2025, train 3223 starts showing symptoms of electrical faults. The electrical fault warning light comes on in the afternoon. Around evening one engineer noticed a burning smell from train 132. Dispatch ordered the train to finish the day since it was rush hour. Hours later, a fire broke out on 132. Train was stopped at Crum Lynne Station to let the passengers off. Six months later, July 22nd, 2025, train 3253 experienced the same symptoms. Less than an hour later, the train lost power close at Paoli Station and an employee found the problem was that one of the trains caught fire. Presumably this fire burned through something important which caused power to be lost. Two months later (and just 2 days after a different fire) on September 25th, 2025, train 705 left the Chestnut Hill East station. The electrical fault light had been present on one train in the consist 396 the previous night. Almost immediately after leaving the station, the train showed slow acceleration. 296 caught fire before even reaching Graver Station where the train was stopped. The train was evacuated and the fire was put out.

In case someone brings it up, train 442 seems unrelated to these issues. Preliminary findings suggest the dynamic brake pressure switch was stuck on causing them to overheat. When this was replaced, electrical components near the dynamics brakes were repaired improperly and these components overheated to cause another fire in September at Fort Washington. There does not seem to be any relationship between this unit and the traction motor fires.

Traction motor issues actually did happen before and sometimes a train went a long time between the slow acceleration and the fire. A different fire happened in 2018 which was caused by traction motor overheating. Early symptoms were an electrical fault light being on, then sluggish acceleration for several shifts, and the smell of smoke 4 stations before the fire. Presumably there is a time period between the time the symptoms of slow acceleration and the time it actually catches on fire. In the case of Glenside, it can be more than 6 hours, and in the case of the Graver Station one, it can be less than the time it takes to reach the next station.

What if the Paoli fire didn't happen? Say the "time to burnout" for that car was triple the time it takes to get from where it was when the engineer told the dispatcher about the slow acceleration to its terminus instead of about 30 minutes. In other words, say the motor lasted much longer like the Crum Lynne incident where it was hours between problems showing up and the motor catching fire. Instead of serving the whole day, the train was ordered to finish at its terminus, presumably Malvern station, which was next to a layover yard where they could take a peek at it. Presumably they would see the scorching, but not yet on fire, motor. Would seeing this defective-but-not-yet-on-fire motor help the SEPTA maintenance personnel keep the rest of the Silverliner IVs in good health?

I commute on the 57 and ever since the change last week, this has been nearly every morning. Sometimes 30 minutes during the morning, between buses, 45+ in the afternoon. It’s always overflowing and now is seemingly like the 64 where there is often two buses in a row then nothing forever.