josef wrote:How has Philadelphia been this disappointing a place for rail projects for decades?! What the hell is wrong with the people who ran this place?
In a nutshell, like much of what we see in today's society, corporate influence trumped good public policy. The original private sector transit operator - Philadelphia Rapid Transit (PRT) - was heavily invested in the streetcar mode of transport. PRT built the Market Street tunnel due to the demand for transit service and the congestion in Center City Philadelphia, but was unwilling to pursue other subway projects due to construction related costs and the financial condition of the company. PRT also did not build any of the proposed elevated lines other than West Market Street. The City of Philadelphia never mandated rapid transit extensions as part of the PRT operating franchise.
PRT certainly did not want a municipal subway operation that would have provided competition for the streetcar network. In concert with the economic circumstances created by the existence of World War One, PRT president Thomas Mitten, operating within the Tammany Hall-like atmosphere prevalent in the Philadelphia city government, was able to thwart much of the proposed subway system that Philadelphia Transit Commissioner A. Merrit Taylor was attempting to advance. The Broad Street Subway was eventually built, but it was also delayed long enough that none of the proposed branches were ever built due to the economic conditions created by the Great Depression. Unlike New York City, Philadelphia did not move forward with subway expansion as a way to alleviate the crushing unemployment of the period.
World War Two diverted any resources that might have been available, and post-war declines in transit ridership coupled with - and created by - flight to the suburbs provided little incentive for system expansion. The interesting question is why Philadelphia was essentially bypassed for subway expansion during the UMTA period of the late 1960's and 1970's. PATCO came into existence then, but SEPTA was only able to expand the Broad Street Subway south from Snyder to Pattison. Perhaps the I-95 construction, which required a segment of the Market Frankford Line to be rebuilt, and the Center City Commuter Tunnel absorbed the majority of the funding available for the region?
