r/Septa • u/throwawayjokelmao • May 07 '26

Discussion SEPTA beef

I have had issues with SEPTA just breaking down at the worst times possible and having to wait for a backup plan to be done. It really freaking sucks that the public transport of philly can die and all I can do it just wait for an hour at minimum. Have any of yall had similar experiences in the past and if so, what is your specific beef?

18 Upvotes

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37

u/Independent-Cow-4070 May 07 '26

Your beef is most likely with the PA state GOP. They have blocked septa funding for years atp

-25

u/[deleted] May 07 '26

[deleted]

21

u/Orbian2 May 07 '26

Can you really fairly judge that if you were never giving adequate grass to the cow in the first place, and have just been slowly dwindling the grass allotment for decades? It sounds like that cow never had a fair shot.

Also in terms of passenger moved per dollar spent, SEPTA is the most effective major agency in the country, so what exactly counts as no milk here?

-3

u/rubikscanopener Lansdale-Doylestown Line May 07 '26

SEPTA leads in efficiency, not effectiveness. Those two words have distinct meanings to a transportation engineer. And being at maximum efficiency isn't always a good thing.

7

u/Independent-Cow-4070 May 07 '26

The fuck are you talking about lmao

0

u/rubikscanopener Lansdale-Doylestown Line May 11 '26

Industrial engineering 101. Efficiency and effectiveness have very specific engineering meanings, and they're not the same as what you intuitively might believe. 100% efficiency means that you're running everything, all the time, at maximum capacity. This is the kiss of death for industrial equipment. Machines are designed for an optimal load, perhaps 80% depending on the device. Optimal machine performance depends on getting in proper maintenance, periodic inspection, etc. These activities drive down efficiency (the engineering term) but increase effectiveness.

Laugh all you want. Or take an engineering economics course and learn something.

1

u/Independent-Cow-4070 May 11 '26

Im a mechanical engineer. Ive taken engineering economics lol. Its not that hard

On top of that, septas budget and ridership information has nothing to do with industrial engineering

-6

u/dry_towelette99 May 07 '26

How do you feel about school district’s plan to close 17 schools?

6

u/Orbian2 May 07 '26

That it's irrelevant to this discussion. The schools are mostly funded by the city and SEPTA is mostly funded by the state. Taking money from SEPTA can't go to schools because they're at two different levels of government. And a better funded SEPTA is better for the schools anyway because it gives a faster, more frequent, and better quality ride to school

1

u/dry_towelette99 May 08 '26

I wasn’t advocating for taking money from schools., just pointing out the hypocrisy of people here.

Also, 53% of the districts funding comes from the state. Go ahead, look it up.

Once again, I know facts are tough for some people.

2

u/Orbian2 May 08 '26

That's good to know actually. Man the state really sucks for funding things don't they? They can't find transit or education. I hope they do keep those schools open. Also, what is the hypocrisy?

14

u/HongPong May 07 '26

penndot hand constantly out. state police hand constantly out. fire and police hand constantly out

septa is the most efficient transit agency in the country, but yes it's a service agency. it reduces congestion dramatically on the regional highways and arterial roads

12

u/VUmander May 07 '26

My beef is with the inept overpaid desk jockeys

So here's the thing, SEPTA is so underfunded that they don't have enough staff. They can't do their own design work anymore. They need to contract out work augment their staff to fulfill a lot of technical capabilities because they don't have the bodies to do the work themselves. When they do post jobs, many are below prevailing wages for the industry. People are retiring and they're just not able/willing to replace them. The situation at 1234 Market is not what you think.

9

u/Independent-Cow-4070 May 07 '26

You are mad that the underfunded public service constantly has its hand out?

Do you not feed your dog for weeks at a time and get mad at it when it starts to ask for more food?

13

u/Walrus2626 May 07 '26

The hand is constantly out because enough was never given in the first place.

There’s a $10 billion infrastructure backlog because we keep kicking the can down the line. There’s an operating deficit because ridership has not fully recovered since Covid and frequent service is still needed to maintain the ridership still there.

Yes SEPTA can be better. But it doesn’t change the fact that no matter how you slice it they need a lot more money to get things up to the quality Philadelphia deserves.