Newtown diesel line questions

Act I: Budget Crisis

The Philadelphia Inquirer
Author: TOM MASLAND
Date: April 22, 1981
Section: LOCAL
Page: A01


By Tom Masland Inquirer Staff Writer

SEPTA must increase fares, sharply cut service and freeze some wages in order to survive, SEPTA General Manager David L. Gunn said in a 1982 budget proposal released yesterday.

Gunn's budget proposes a fare increase of either 5 or 10 cents in the city, a 5-cent increase in transfer prices, possible elimination of student discounts, and " drastic" service cutbacks and wage freezes on Conrail commuter rail lines.

" The actions proposed in this budget are critical to SEPTA's survival, "Gunn said. Drastic actions are needed to raise $380 million, an increase of $18 million over the 1981 budget, he told the SEPTA board. But, he added, even if the board accepts his plan for fiscal 1982, which begins July 1, SEPTA's financial problems will not be over.

"No provision has been made in the current budget to solve SEPTA's recurring critical problem of the lack of working capital," he said. " As in the past, SEPTA will once again, at the end of fiscal 1981 and at the end of fiscal 1982, experience its ever- recurring crisis of running out of cash, awaiting the delays caused by state and federal bureaucracy in making subsidy funds available."

SEPTA board chairman David Girard-DiCarlo and other board members met yesterday to discuss the recent contract settlement with city transit workers. They could not immediately be reached for comment on the proposed budget. The board is to vote today on the contract, which ended a 19-day strike earlier this month.

Gunn said that a fare increase would be needed to raise $10 million for transit operations. He suggested that, effective July 5, the board raise the basic transit fare a nickel, to 70 cents, raise the cost of transfers a nickel, to 15 cents, and eliminate the 50 percent discounts offered students riding SEPTA to school and back.

If the board chooses to save the student discounts, fares should rise a dime, he said. He also proposed that the cost of monthly passes be raised $2 to $34 and that the cost of weekly passes be increased 50 cents, to $8.75. In proposing the fare increases on SEPTA's buses, trolleys and subways, Gunn promised " intensified" efforts to " restore the transit system to a clean, dependable form of transportation" by adding 250 rebuilt buses and 150 new buses to the fleet, adding 60 security officers, rebuilding subways, removing graffiti from vehicles and improving maintenance and quality-control programs. Gunn saved his strongest language for his discussion of the Commuter Rail Division.

A yearlong wage freeze and revised work rules for Commuter Rail Division workers, coupled with " the elimination of high-cost, low-density rail diesel service and the rescheduling of electric service," is essential, he said. "Without these measures, the Commuter Rail System will likely cease operation during fiscal 1982," he said.

A fare increase on the commuter lines would probably cost the system money because riders would opt for other ways to get to work, he said. SEPTA recently revealed that the last fare increase, which took effect Jan. 1, reduced fare revenues.

Gunn's proposal did not specify where service cuts would be made on the commuter lines, but a SEPTA spokesman said that the cuts would be "systemwide."

Gunn's call for a wage freeze and changed work rules was immediately denounced by one union leader representing the workers involved. Charles H. Little, an official of Transport Workers Union Local 2013, noted that Conrail, not SEPTA, negotiated contracts with 11 unions whose members run the commuter trains. Conrail operates the trains under contract to SEPTA, and SEPTA has been urging Conrail to take a tougher line at the bargaining table.

Little said that a wage freeze had not even been discussed in his union's current negotiations with Conrail. At any rate, such a proposal is " out of the question with the rising inflation," he said.

"We negotiate with Conrail, and we have no intention of allowing SEPTA to sit at the same bargaining table with us," he said.

Act II: The Cuts Begin as SEPTA Struggles with Conrail

Paper: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
Title: SEPTA VOTES CUTS IN TRAINS
Author: FREDRIC N. TULSKY
Date: July 23, 1981
Section: LOCAL
Page: B03


By Fredric N. Tulsky Inquirer Staff Writer

The SEPTA board yesterday voted to slash train service and, if necessary, seek a six-month contract with Conrail in order to keep commuter lines running until a long-range solution to the transit authority's financial crisis is found.

The board's action comes as it faces a deadline of Aug. 31, when Conrail has said it will stop running the area's 800 daily commuter trains because it considers SEPTA's offer of $93 million in operating funds for the fiscal year unsatisfactory.

SEPTA Chairman David Girard-diCarlo said that the six-month contract would be offered only if SEPTA is unsuccessful in its other efforts to keep Conrail running the trains.

The vote was, board members said, merely an effort to give the board time to find another way of running the trains - either on its own or through another carrier.

Conrail officials late yesterday left open the possibility that they would not accept even the six-month offer authorized by the SEPTA board yesterday. The commuter train service, which is used by an estimated 60,000 daily riders, has faced rising costs and declining ridership as ticket prices have skyrocketed. SEPTA officials have said train service can only be continued if there are cutbacks and Conrail greatly reduces its costs.

As a result, the board yesterday voted to cut back by more than one-fourth its daily service, effective Aug. 2. All diesel trains will be eliminated, and service on the Reading lines will be cut to hourly during off-peak hours as of Aug. 2. There will be no train service beyond Norristown on the Reading-Pottstown line, nor trains beyond Lansdale on the former Quakertown line. And the daily SEPTA trains to Newark will end Aug. 2.

SEPTA officials have demanded that Conrail convince its workers to concede major labor reforms in order to bring its costs down to $93 million, the amount SEPTA budgeted for train service in the fiscal year that began July 1. Conrail estimated that it will cost $99 million to run the trains this year, even taking into account the reduced service approved by the board yesterday. And, the railroad said, SEPTA must be willing to pay whatever it actually costs to run the trains.

On that basis, Conrail officials notified SEPTA in late June that the carrier would not run the trains beyond late August.

SEPTA officials have gone to the Interstate Commerce Commission, and are ready to go to court, in an effort to find someone to order Conrail to continue running the trains. But should those efforts fail, the board yesterday indicated, SEPTA is ready to offer Conrail $25.7 million in subsidies for the next six months. Combined with ticket sales, that would amount to about $50 million for the six-month period.

SEPTA board members said they anticipate that they can trim the costs greatly in the later part of the fiscal year to remain within the $93 million that SEPTA says is available.

The offer still does not indicate that SEPTA is willing to pay the actual costs of running the trains.

A Conrail spokesman said yesterday that the railroad cannot accept any offer without such a provision. The spokesman added, however, that Conrail could not comment on the offer until it is received and evaluated.

SEPTA board members, meanwhile, emphasized that even if Conrail agrees to the contract through the end of this year, long-term problems remain.

"If the board does get over this immediate crisis," said Girard-diCarlo, "the crisis has not gone away."

SEPTA officials are studying plans to take over train service - a proposal that board member Judith Harris said yesterday she is prepared to veto. She called on SEPTA to find another company to run the trains, something that SEPTA officials said they will pursue.

The rail crisis, ironically, comes while city officials are spending $400 million on the Center City Commuter Tunnel, a project to connect the city's two separate train systems. Despite the uncertainties about the future of train service, the SEPTA board yesterday voted - after considerable debate- to pay General Electric Co. $13.6 million to modify about 200 train cars so they can be used in the tunnel.

The board's action came after an appeal from staff members, who said that if the work was delayed costs would escalate and the cars would not be ready by 1984, when the tunnel is scheduled to open.

Act III: the Newtown Line Languishes as Bucks Efforts Come to Naught

Paper: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
Title: 12 YEARS OF PLANNING GETS RAIL LINE NOWHERE

Author: Amy Linn, Inquirer Staff Writer
Date: December 10, 1984
Section: LOCAL
Page: B01

It's a 15.2-mile stretch of train track, a twig in the enormous branch of trains and bus lines that form the SEPTA transit system.

But the tiny Newtown-to-Fox Chase train line - and the proposal to upgrade it for electrified train service - has managed for more than a decade to irritate, infuriate, overwhelm and exasperate citizens and public officials. What was once a modest proposal with a $3 million price tag is now a $16 million bureaucratic monster. And the line has yet to be built.

"This has been one of the most controversial rail projects in all Philadelphia," said Carol Lavoritano, SEPTA manager of program planning and development.

"It drives me absolutely crazy to see how long this has gone on. It's like shoveling sand against the tide," Robert Moore, executive director of the Bucks County Planning Commission, said of the 12-year wait.

"We'd really like to see the project finished, but the way they're going about it, I have my doubts," said Nancy Harris, chairwoman of the Newtown board of supervisors.

And Lettie Gay Carson, an 83-year-old rail enthusiast, is perhaps angriest of all.

"When I moved here in 1980, I was told there'd be eight trains a day from Newtown to Philadelphia," said Carson, president of Newtown Area Rail Action, a group she created to fight for the train line.

"There have been countless hearings on this railroad," she said. "It's an unbelievable situation, really."

The story of the Newtown line involves a prominent family and an influential environmental group, a state government conflict and a local government squabble.

But mostly, it's a story of wasted bureaucratic energies.

A decade's worth of memos, letters, speeches, public hearings, cost estimates, preliminary engineering studies and lobbying efforts have done little but keep the project at an impasse.

The electrified trains were supposed to replace deteriorating diesel trains that for years traveled the Newtown-to-Fox Chase line, a service that was wildly expensive and, above all, impractical. For years, diesel trains left the Newtown Station at 6:48 a.m. and 10:19 a.m., departure times that were either too early or too late to accommodate most commuters.

Riders who did take the diesels had to transfer at Fox Chase if they wanted to get to central Philadelphia. And the cost of running just two diesel passenger cars from Newtown to Fox Chase - with six trips each weekday and five trips on weekends - was estimated to be between $600,000 and $1.3 million per year.

The diesel trains were abandoned in 1982. Shuttle buses to Fox Chase were then provided as a stopgap until the electrification project was completed.

The electrified trains, it was hoped, would link Newtown directly with Philadelphia, bringing the growing number of residents in the area a fast, economical and efficient way to get to and from the city.

Although the project is still on SEPTA's drawing boards, still included in the state's clean-air plans, still a part of the state's rail plan and still mentioned in the state transportation budget, the greatest possibility is that it will never be completed.

Today, even the Newtown-to-Fox Chase shuttle bus is threatened. SEPTA officials recently proposed abandoning it to save money.

"This project is like a fly with one of its wings pulled off," said Moore. "We've been watching it limp around forever."

The saga of the Newtown project goes as far back as 1972.

SEPTA officials that year wrote a letter to Montgomery County Planning Commissioner Art Loeben, asking of his agency's interest in a $3 million project to electrify the Newtown train line, a small portion of which runs through Montgomery County near the borough of Bryn Athyn.

Bucks County had already emerged as one of the leading advocates of the project. Newtown Township, Bucks planners said, was one of the fastest-growing suburban areas in the state, with a population of 4,527 that was expected to reach 11,000 to 14,000 by the year 2000. Neighboring Northampton Township was expected to double during the same period to 48,000 residents.

The only four-lane road in the area was a short bypass circling the borough, and traffic was a headache.

An electrified train line, SEPTA argued, would save as much as $500,000 a year in operating costs and would attract an estimated 2,500 new commuters in the Newtown, Northampton and Upper and Lower Southampton areas. Money for the project would come from federal, state and local governments.

The arguments for the project seemed persuasive, but no one seemed to be taking any action.

Lettie Carson set to work. A former New Yorker who for years headed an organization that fought to save rail service to New York City, she sent letters, attended meetings and watched patiently as support for the project grew.

With PennDOT and SEPTA both singing the project's praises, the line looked as good as built. But the months slipped by, inflation shot up and the critics got louder.

The strongest opposition came from the Montgomery County Planning Commission and the Pennypack Watershed Association, a nonprofit environmental group founded by prominent area residents. Members of the Pennypack Association, many of whom live along the rolling hills and poplar forests of the Pennypack Creek watershed, had long dreamed of creating an 800-acre wilderness park in the glens and glades of their Bryn Athyn and Lower Moreland properties. Slowly but surely, the group acquired 250 acres to make the dream come true; it currently holds 500 more acres' worth of commitments from local landowners.

The trouble was, the existing Newtown-to-Fox Chase rail bed cut right through a portion of the proposed park.

Trains and wilderness areas don't mix, argued Feodor Pitcairn, the president of the Pennypack Association. A member of the Bryn Athyn family that owns the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co., Pitcairn is also the vice chairman of the Montgomery County Planning Commission and chairman of the Bryn Athyn Planning Commission.

The Pennypack Association has its own plans for the train track, Pitcairn said. "We have always said that we have a real interest in that corridor if and when that rail line was ever abandoned," he said, "because it represents just a super opportunity to put in a bicycle path."

The cost of the electrification project, Pitcairn added, is not justified by the need.

Montgomery planning chief Loeben shares that objection and is blunt about what he thinks is best.

"One of the problems over the years with this thing is that no one really knows how much it would cost. . . . From our point of view, we'd rather have a wilderness park."

Bucks County planning chief Robert Moore has enough letters, memos and studies on the Newtown project to fill two cabinet drawers in his back office. But the work is now considered either incomplete or obsolete.

Officials from PennDOT recently wrote Moore and asked for a new feasibility study. "With the information currently available on this project, we cannot support the expenditure of state funds for construction or engineering," the letter stated.

Moore has nearly lost patience.

"I've been with Bucks County for 14 years," he said, "and in terms of the Newtown electrification project, it's been 14 years wasted."

A stack of documents tucked away in Moore's office shows the fits and starts that have hounded the project since its inception. Among them:

* A March 1975 letter from Jacob Kassab, then state secretary of transportation, to Joseph Catania, then chairman of Bucks County commissioners. The letter cheerfully states that "the General Assembly has provided funds for this project and the Governor has approved it."

* A 1978 speech by George M. Metzger, then chairman of the Bucks County Board of Commissioners: "Clearly, the electrification of the Newtown line is a project whose time is long overdue. . . . Bucks County wants this project started at once."

Perhaps the toughest remarks came in a letter drafted by Moore in January 1978.

"It seems like only yesterday that representatives of your agency, Bucks and Montgomery Counties and PennDOT sat down to 'iron things out once and for all,' Moore wrote to the SEPTA general manager at the time, William Eaton. ''But alas, all that meeting produced are memories."

Thursday, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission once again discussed the Newtown electrification project.

The agency agreed to undertake a thorough, indisputable ridership survey of the Newtown line, putting to rest once and for all the arguments about the need for the rail link.

Then, SEPTA hopes to arrive at a realistic cost estimate for the project. The current $16 million estimate is widely disputed, and some believe it was deliberately overblown to scare off any remaining support for the line.

"Our policy with respect to this project has admittedly changed back and forth several times," said SEPTA program manager Lavoritano. "But there's been a lot of disagreement over how much this is likely to cost. A lot of what we have now are 'back of the envelope'-type estimates.

"It's the same with the ridership estimates," she said. "They're all over the map."

Once the regional planning commission finishes its study, SEPTA must decide what priority the project should receive.

Don Bryan, deputy secretary of local and area transportation for PennDOT, estimates that only 100 people a day currently use the shuttle bus from Newtown to Fox Chase.

"The present level of ridership is hardly able to justify bus service," Bryan said. "If someone has some information that would change the situation, I'm willing to see it."

Moore hopes to meet the challenge.

"Why should these people out there not have decent rail service?" he said, preparing last week for one more meeting on the topic.
"I think it's just outrageous. I refuse to give up."

Back Story: The Efforts to Save the Diesel Lines

Paper: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA)
Title: NEWTOWN TRAINS TO HALT FOR 2 MONTHS' TRACK WORK

Author: JOHN HILFERTY
Date: June 5, 1981
Section: LOCAL
Page: B03


By John Hilferty Inquirer Staff Writer

Passenger-train service between Philadelphia's Fox Chase station and Newtown, Bucks County, will be suspended in July and August for track repairs, SEPTA assistant general manager John Ficarra said yesterday. Shuttle-bus service will be provided between the Newtown station and the Bethayres station, where Philadelphia-bound passengers can get a train to Reading Terminal, Ficarra said.

"We're trying to work out something else to bring the passengers from other stations down to Fox Chase directly, but we don't have it all worked out yet," he said.

He said that buses would run from Newtown to Richboro and then along the Second Street Pike to Bethayres, a route that will take about 45 minutes to cover.

The cost of improving the 15.2 miles of track, which is the last remaining nonelectrified line in SEPTA's transit network, probably will be $700,000 to $800,000. Ficarra said that the improvements would decrease travel time on the line, which now runs 42 minutes.

Ficarra said the Newtown-Fox Chase track has loose ties due to a weakening of the stone ballast. He said that about 8,000 new ties would be installed. Some diesel trains run all the way to Philadelphia, while others stop at Fox Chase, where passengers must transfer to a train on the electrified line. SEPTA wants a private company to take over operation of the diesel shuttle service. Ficarra said that SEPTA would open bids to contractors for the operation of the Fox Chase-Newtown line on Tuesday in Philadelphia.

SEPTA is not overly optimistic that private companies will want to run their own railroads, however. The bid opening scheduled for Tuesday had been planned for this week but was postponed after no bids were received. Only one company has shown an interest in the bidding, Ficarra said.

PennDOT efforts to save diesel branches fall through

PENNDOT TO HALT COMMUTER TRAINS ON POTTSVILLE AND BETHLEHEM LINES

Author: JOHN HILFERTY
Date: June 25, 1981
Section: LOCAL
Page: B03


By John Hilferty Inquirer Staff Writer

Commuter train service between Norristown and Pottsville and between Lansdale and Bethlehem will come to a halt at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday because a last-minute deal to find a new operator has fallen through.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) agreed in May to take over the failing diesel lines from SEPTA after the authority announced in April it was halting service by July 1.

The Pennsylvania General Assembly already had transferred $2.6 million to PennDOT, and with $600,000 in federal aid, plus up to $300,000 from fares, PennDOT had hoped to keep the little-used lines open from Philadelphia's Reading Terminal to the distant points.

But PennDOT spokeswoman Joyce Tomana said yesterday that a tentative agreement with the Berks Area Reading Transportation Authority (BARTA) to operate the trains on both lines for the state was rejected by BARTA's executive board at a meeting on Monday in Reading.

BARTA officials said they feared they would lose money by operating the lines because of the uncertainty of continued state and federal funds. They also were unhappy with PennDOT's offer of a month-to-month lease on the contract after an initial six-month lease that would have begun Wednesday. As a result, PennDOT has tentative plans to provide shuttle buses between Lansdale in Montgomery County, through Doylestown and Quakertown in Bucks County, and on to Bethlehem in Lehigh County.

Buses also would run from Norristown to Pottstown in Montgomery County and on to Reading in Berks County, then to Pottsville in Schuylkill County. Capital Trailways of Harrisburg already has increased its service from Pottsville to Philadelphia. SEPTA will continue to run electrified trains from Reading Terminal to Lansdale and to Norristown.

SEPTA announced it would operate the diesel-shuttle service that has been run by Conrail between the Fox Chase station in Northeast Philadelphia and Newtown in Bucks County after track renovations are completed on Sept. 1. SEPTA spokesman David Murdoch said that SEPTA is prepared to reject two bids that it received from private railroad operators on June 9 to run the 15.2- mile diesel portion from Fox Chase to Newtown. Murdoch said passengers aboard Philadelphia- bound trains from Newtown would transfer to electrified trains at Fox Chase.

He said SEPTA officials had decided to continue operating the diesel-portion of the line even though Conrail had contended the line was too expensive to run.

However, transportation woes that have continued to mount from another direction might eliminate the service altogether. Conrail posted notices on all of its 800 passenger trains and stations on SEPTA's 13 rail commuter lines stating that it no longer would operate the services past Aug. 30 due to contractual differences with SEPTA.

Thanks for the articles. They seem to point out how expensive it was to run those diesel services partly because of low ridership.

Philly should be grateful for what lines already exist. The history of commuter rail in other US cities has been massive cutbacks and most of those lines no longer run.

Low ridership from low frequency is hardly surprising. Cutting the service is not the answer, especially when they have been trying to get it back up and running not too long afterwards.

Also, the pressure on BARTA from the state was unfair.

Philly should be grateful for what lines already exist. The history of commuter rail in other US cities has been massive cutbacks

I cite Metrolink as the greatest exception thereof. NJ Transit even reversed its own trend of retreat, as has Metro-North, Metra, and many "other US cities" that have had no commuter rail for a number of years (Miami, Dallas/Fort Worth, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, and even Minneapolis in the future). SEPTA I would call the ones that are backward, with Pittsburgh overshadowing it somewhat. No, Philly should not suck up the status quo; they should fight SEPTA's backwards trend.

SEPTA will never learn that they cannot save themselves to sufficiency. That mentality has transformed our system into the mess it is today. Their thinking along with the region's procrastination on restoring service has made the cost of doing anything unattainable.

Lucius Kwok wrote:Thanks for the articles. They seem to point out how expensive it was to run those diesel services partly because of low ridership.

The subsidies were pretty atrocious on the diesel lines. However, the ridership figure is from the last few days and weeks of operation. I have seen quotes in other articles that suggest ridership was decimated by the poor service standards, strikes, and general transit mayhem of that era. As you know, many lines have seen their ridership rebound from lows in the early 1980s.

In the meantime, operating subsidies ignore capital considerations. We know that the Quakertown line would have high ridership today, because of recent development. However, we let the track slide into oblivion, so now the capital costs will be much higher than they would otherwise have been to ramp up service.

Perhaps some careful math might show that we (the public) lost money by closing the lines if we turn around and spend a pile money to reopen them. Plus we missed out on 30 years of ridership.

adamkrom wrote:The subsidies were pretty atrocious on the diesel lines. However, the ridership figure is from the last few days and weeks of operation. I have seen quotes in other articles that suggest ridership was decimated by the poor service standards, strikes, and general transit mayhem of that era. As you know, many lines have seen their ridership rebound from lows in the early 1980s.

In the meantime, operating subsidies ignore capital considerations. We know that the Quakertown line would have high ridership today, because of recent development. However, we let the track slide into oblivion, so now the capital costs will be much higher than they would otherwise have been to ramp up service.

Perhaps some careful math might show that we (the public) lost money by closing the lines if we turn around and spend a pile money to reopen them. Plus we missed out on 30 years of ridership.

From what I've seen in pictures, ridership on the Reading branch was pretty heavy. Stations like Quakertown averaged 80ppl/day in the late 70's but that number dropped to 50 in the last 6 months of service. Hatfield was in the 50's in 1979, but that number slid during the last 2 years down to 35 in the summer of 1981.

I think the region was very shortsighted in dropping all of these lines as development then was beginning to occur in the far suburbs, be it far from what its been over the past 10 years.

Not only have we missed out on 30 years of ridership, but all of the potential Center City workers and jobs that could have been had we made it easier for people to get to the city. When we killed those lines, where did the people go? Did they find other means of getting to the city, or did they stop going to the city altogether?

If we assume that running more services will somehow increase ridership, why not increase service on the R6 Cynwyd line first? And run trains every half hour during the midday on all lines? I think you will find that there are more variables than service frequency and times of service.

As for actual ridership numbers, the BCTMA business plan estimates ridership between 1,200 and 2,000 on an average weekday. That's far below the ridership of most RRD lines except the R6 Cynwyd.

http://www.svmetro.com/septawatch/accounting/ridership/

Most other cities have seen an increase in jobs in their downtowns, while Philly has been stagnant since the 1980s. Most of the new jobs in the Philly area have been created in the suburbs. Jobs, particularly in the finannce, real estate, and insurance sectors, are the primary ridership drivers, and Philly's wage and business tax environment discourages growth.

adamkrom wrote:PennDOT efforts to save diesel branches fall through

PENNDOT TO HALT COMMUTER TRAINS ON POTTSVILLE AND BETHLEHEM LINES

Author: JOHN HILFERTY
Date: June 25, 1981
Section: LOCAL
Page: B03


By John Hilferty Inquirer Staff Writer

Commuter train service between Norristown and Pottsville and between Lansdale and Bethlehem will come to a halt at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday because a last-minute deal to find a new operator has fallen through.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) agreed in May to take over the failing diesel lines from SEPTA after the authority announced in April it was halting service by July 1.

The Pennsylvania General Assembly already had transferred $2.6 million to PennDOT, and with $600,000 in federal aid, plus up to $300,000 from fares, PennDOT had hoped to keep the little-used lines open from Philadelphia's Reading Terminal to the distant points.

But PennDOT spokeswoman Joyce Tomana said yesterday that a tentative agreement with the Berks Area Reading Transportation Authority (BARTA) to operate the trains on both lines for the state was rejected by BARTA's executive board at a meeting on Monday in Reading.

BARTA officials said they feared they would lose money by operating the lines because of the uncertainty of continued state and federal funds. They also were unhappy with PennDOT's offer of a month-to-month lease on the contract after an initial six-month lease that would have begun Wednesday. As a result, PennDOT has tentative plans to provide shuttle buses between Lansdale in Montgomery County, through Doylestown and Quakertown in Bucks County, and on to Bethlehem in Lehigh County.

Buses also would run from Norristown to Pottstown in Montgomery County and on to Reading in Berks County, then to Pottsville in Schuylkill County. Capital Trailways of Harrisburg already has increased its service from Pottsville to Philadelphia. SEPTA will continue to run electrified trains from Reading Terminal to Lansdale and to Norristown.

SEPTA announced it would operate the diesel-shuttle service that has been run by Conrail between the Fox Chase station in Northeast Philadelphia and Newtown in Bucks County after track renovations are completed on Sept. 1. SEPTA spokesman David Murdoch said that SEPTA is prepared to reject two bids that it received from private railroad operators on June 9 to run the 15.2- mile diesel portion from Fox Chase to Newtown. Murdoch said passengers aboard Philadelphia- bound trains from Newtown would transfer to electrified trains at Fox Chase.

He said SEPTA officials had decided to continue operating the diesel-portion of the line even though Conrail had contended the line was too expensive to run.

However, transportation woes that have continued to mount from another direction might eliminate the service altogether. Conrail posted notices on all of its 800 passenger trains and stations on SEPTA's 13 rail commuter lines stating that it no longer would operate the services past Aug. 30 due to contractual differences with SEPTA.

It's a lot more political than what was written in the paper, 1. the inquier don't like it's Union Employee's and therefore fabricated some of what Railroad workers made compared to what transit workers made, thier benifits, hollidays , vacation time and paid hollidays. Like I said, you get what you pay for. Yeah, the subway workers we're cheaper, but lives we're lost and that line eventually went dead. Not to mention the fact that David Gunn , being so iggnorent, thought he could make a commuter rail line profitible, not realiing that passenger service never turned over a profit. The only thing that made passenger service turn over a profit was RPO (Rail passenger Office). Gunn himself along with the SEPTA Board we're just looking to keep stealing and keep blaming Labor

jfrey40535 wrote:

adamkrom wrote:The subsidies were pretty atrocious on the diesel lines. However, the ridership figure is from the last few days and weeks of operation. I have seen quotes in other articles that suggest ridership was decimated by the poor service standards, strikes, and general transit mayhem of that era. As you know, many lines have seen their ridership rebound from lows in the early 1980s.

In the meantime, operating subsidies ignore capital considerations. We know that the Quakertown line would have high ridership today, because of recent development. However, we let the track slide into oblivion, so now the capital costs will be much higher than they would otherwise have been to ramp up service.

Perhaps some careful math might show that we (the public) lost money by closing the lines if we turn around and spend a pile money to reopen them. Plus we missed out on 30 years of ridership.

From what I've seen in pictures, ridership on the Reading branch was pretty heavy. Stations like Quakertown averaged 80ppl/day in the late 70's but that number dropped to 50 in the last 6 months of service. Hatfield was in the 50's in 1979, but that number slid during the last 2 years down to 35 in the summer of 1981.

I think the region was very shortsighted in dropping all of these lines as development then was beginning to occur in the far suburbs, be it far from what its been over the past 10 years.

Not only have we missed out on 30 years of ridership, but all of the potential Center City workers and jobs that could have been had we made it easier for people to get to the city. When we killed those lines, where did the people go? Did they find other means of getting to the city, or did they stop going to the city altogether?[/quote


Now with the expansion of people that moved to Quakertown, limerick, near Pottstown and , douglasville , communities have trippled since '81. Now , wouldn't it be nice if SEPTA didn't scrap passenger trains going to Pottsville, , Bethlehem or Newtown?

RPO = Rail Post Office.

I just did an album with 1983 and 2007 photos:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/archiv ... x?id=27175