I agree with Jeff on the ride sharing. They have been taking a bite out of SEPTA's bus division and even the regional rail after the 2016 "we can cheap out on subcontractors" episode which legalized Uber in the first place. That being said, the main issue is Uber is operating at near loss levels with stupid cheap rides, I think its only 2.50 for a ride around center city, on par if not cheaper than the bus. Once either gas prices or Uber's costs go up, SEPTA will see another explosion in ridership like in 2009.
Using the buses as feeders would be a brilliant idea, if SEPTA could get rid of the stupid transfer fee. Hopefully the SEPTA key will facilitate that, but 1234 market street is more concerned every last dime. It would be the best of both worlds, the volume capacity of regional rail combined with the last mile problem of Rail Road stations. I could take the bus instead of having to park at the Regional Rail stations using my Trail pass. I will concede there are several problems with that, namely the transfer. The less people's butt's move, the better like with the P&W extension into KOP that needed to be built 40 years ago.
However as someone who did not start using SEPTA until recently, I have to say I never thought of SEPTA as a reliable source of transportation. My experience with SEPTA has been an unreliable transit system that crap's the bed when it needs to work best, such as the 2008 world series, popeageddian, or most recently the super bowl. I understand the problem with a service crunch, but It seemed like SEPTA RR curled up into the fetal position instead of stepping up. On the other hand, SEPTA is efficient at getting your butt into and outta center city at rush hour on weekdays by Subway, Rail Road, or Trolley. The BSL and MFL are the most reliable, followed by the route 100 and regional rail in my experience, I cannot speak to the buses as I have not used them enough to comment.
The last point about the Subways rings true. If we had any the the other lines like in A. Merritt Taylor's plan shown here:
viewtopic.php?t=29392" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, it would be a major catalyst to this cities growth outside of center city. Actually having a half decent subway system that isin't just along the main corridors would be magical, the MFL and BSL are already the workhorses for SEPTA comprising of nearly 300,000 trips a day, more then 10 times the most heavily used regional rail line of Paoli Thorndale. Maybe not even subways, build elevated lines, something! First they could use the Cynwyd line as a test, see if increased service coupled with aggressive advertising would increase service and work from there, the tracks, the ROW, the trains, the signals, the political will is there in Cynwyd.