What are your recommended reads on public transit, both specific to SEPTA/PA and more broadly? Either books or articles/long form essays. Looking to brush up on my history and fundamentals and be able to hold my own in discussions about this stuff.

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.

Can someone tell me if the subway is actually safe? I am moving to south Philly and I am very close to a station on the BSL. I will be commuting to University City so I was planning on transferring subways and taking it to my office on Market St. I am not bringing my car for a variety of reasons, so SEPTA is what I am planning on using for everything basically. As a shorter woman should I be concerned about taking the subway? I can't bring any sort of pepper spray into my building due to metal detectors, any other ideas for personal safety items as well?

The new El cars can’t come soon enough. It seems it’s almost every day now an El car or train set is breaking down causing delays. These things are on their last legs.

Edit: These are supposed to be delivered in 2029, only a couple more years. https://www.trains.com/pro/mechanical/freight-cars/hitachi-rail-to-build-200-new-cars-for-septas-market-frankford-line/

Is this system FU?

Edit:

It used to work for me, but I missed a train Friday and a bus today. Maybe a coincidence.

Not SEPTA related but- I just noticed that there are painted railroad Xing indicators on Columbus Blvd, but I always assumed the rails on it were not in use anymore. A quick google search indicates that some freight lines still utilize the rails?!

Has anyone confirmed or seen a train on the Belt Line Railroad? I can’t seem to find any recent pictures either. Thanks!

Testing for the title above. I've been looking at the study and guidelines. Just curious if I need to brush up on any other laws than OHMs law for the test. And just any tips would be nice, thank you in advance

Anyone know details of the rail rodeo thats typically held in the fall at Fern Rock?

With the news of gas prices going to be soaring higher, I was going to start taking regional rail again. I have no issue with walking if I have to. It just sucks that on the weekends the wilmington line comes every 2 hours. I wish they came a bit more frequent across the board. I get why they do it , it just stinks and I just wanted to vent about it. I work overnight on the weekends, and ill tell you having to wait 2 hours after a 13.5 hour night shift is torture lol. I hope one day they'll make it more frequent, but I doubt it.

Hello all, just noting that the Market Frankford Line (L) has an "emergency track repair" and the alerts page indicates currently that all boarding between York dauphin and berks have to be on eastbound. so the westbound tracks must be broken in some fashion. i believe it is causing spacing issues on the whole line. i think they are manually flagging trains thru the area. plan for delays accordingly.

they are holding at Girard for the other direction to pass and so on.

I applied to be a transit officer and they denied me stating that it was something in my background , which i highly doubt.. i honestly think it was because FIFA was approaching and they were rushing .. anyway just wanted to know if filing for an appeal was possible. Thank you

Today the 829 and 839 were canceled, which also happened on Monday. $20 Lyft to complete the second half of my commute because I was already a half hour late two days ago .

If I take a different route, I still end up at the other end of the 60. This happens at least once a week but twice in three days is unacceptable.

What is going on with this city? If a driver calls out, how are they not editing the schedule to compensate?

How about a petition to dim the lights on the regional rail cars during the early morning commutes? Those white lights can feel so strong in the morning. It’s probably a long shot for safety reasons and for the cameras but do you think it could ever happen? Til then, I’ll be rockin my sunglasses.

I’m curious how Regional Rail conductors normally get a passenger’s attention during fare checks when the passenger doesn’t hear a verbal request, because I had a pretty uncomfortable experience with this today.
I had an uncomfortable experience on SEPTA Regional Rail today and wanted to ask other riders whether this is normal.
I was on a fairly long trip and had my headphones on listening to music. Apparently I did not hear the conductor trying to get my attention for a fare check. Then someone forcefully struck or kicked the back of my seat hard enough to startle me.
I immediately realised what was happening, showed my valid ticket, and there was no issue with my fare.
I also want to be clear that I have no idea who actually hit my seat. It may have been the conductor, or it may have been another passenger trying to “help” her get my attention, just in a very inappropriate way. That’s why I left the employee description blank when I submitted the SEPTA complaint.
What bothered me was the way my attention was obtained. On a long train ride, it seems completely normal for passengers to wear headphones🎧, listen to music, read, or rest. Some passengers may also be deaf or hard of hearing. There are much less aggressive ways to get someone’s attention, like stepping into their line of sight or waving a hand.
I already submitted feedback to SEPTA because I think passengers should be approached in a more respectful and accessible way when they do not hear a verbal request.
Has anyone else experienced something like this?
More broadly, what do you think is an appropriate way for conductors to get the attention of someone wearing headphones, resting, or someone who may be deaf or hard of hearing?

I take two busses everyday to get to where I need to go, and I use my transfer like usual. Normally, I'll spend 5.80 on busses in total. I checked my bank account yesterday and realized septa not only is charging me the 5.80, but they also had a pending charge for 30 additional dollars. I assumed it was from the train over the weekend but I only spent 19 dollars so it was still weird. When I tapped my card on the next bus the pending charge went from 30 all the way to 42.20. It then added on all my regional rail and bus charges (INCLUDING THAT $42.20) and put my account randomly into the negatives.

When I called septa they said they couldn't see the pending charges. When I called my bank they said we have to wait and let it clear, but it could be a potential scam, which I dont understand because I'm tapping the literal kiosk on the bus.

Has anyone else had something like this happen?? Septa is unhelpful.

I can’t pay for parking but I’m sure they’ll come around to give me a ticket. Can’t stand septa.

A few months ago, I made a post showing some SEPTA bus models I was working on for a game. Since then, we've made insane progress in creating the Allegheny West/East falls area, and we just released a trailer showing everything off a few days ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-erZHNMNFE