SEPTA Regional Rail on Strike - 6/14 - PEB to Mediate

Hacker wrote:If it means eliminating all those empty buses roaming the streets at night and in the suburbs, that would be a start.

Unless you're working late shift and have no other way to get home.

At night.

And in the suburbs.

Are you one of those people?

I'm sure the BLET is aware that I-495 is shut down between Terminal Ave. and 12th St. in Wilmington because of a defective bridge that will take months to rectify. Are they using that shutdown for leverage to bring commuters from DE to their side? And speaking of DE, has ridership on the Wilmington/Newark line increased in the wake of the 495 shutdown? (sorry I didn't want to start a new thread about that last sentence)

motor

Clearfield wrote:

Hacker wrote:If it means eliminating all those empty buses roaming the streets at night and in the suburbs, that would be a start.

Unless you're working late shift and have no other way to get home.

At night.

And in the suburbs.

Are you one of those people?

Nope, and judging from the number of empty buses trolling the streets at night, there seems to be alot of room for cuts. On some routes it would be more cost effective to buy cabs for late night workers instead of a 60 foot bus with 2 people on it.

Many times counties and townships will fund service on individual lines, so if a cut is made on one route it doesn't necessarily mean it will go elsewhere.

If there is a Regional Rail stoppage, I've often wondered if Amtrak would likely offer to "take up some of the slack" by honoring SEPTA tickets and passes within the SEPTA territory of the NEC (between Trenton and Wilmington), as well as along the Paoli/Thorndale Line, since commuters along those lines would likely resort to using Amtrak during a Regional Rail strike. Also, would Amtrak likely offer to serve some of the more heavily-used SEPTA stations along the NEC/Paoli Lines as a "courtesy" service during the strike??? Maybe even NJT could "pitch-in" and help SEPTA Regional Rail riders during the strike, since the Atlantic City Line serves 30th Street Station and part of the NEC...

motor wrote:And speaking of DE, has ridership on the Wilmington/Newark line increased in the wake of the 495 shutdown? (sorry I didn't want to start a new thread about that last sentence)

According to Delaware Secretary of Transportation Shailen Bhatt, ridership at Newark and Churchman's Crossing Stations is up 30% since the closure. (DelDOT collects daily AM boarding counts at the three stations it owns, so their numbers should be very accurate.)

SubwayTim wrote:If there is a Regional Rail stoppage, I've often wondered if Amtrak would likely offer to "take up some of the slack" by honoring SEPTA tickets and passes within the SEPTA territory of the NEC (between Trenton and Wilmington), as well as along the Paoli/Thorndale Line, since commuters along those lines would likely resort to using Amtrak during a Regional Rail strike. Also, would Amtrak likely offer to serve some of the more heavily-used SEPTA stations along the NEC/Paoli Lines as a "courtesy" service during the strike??? Maybe even NJT could "pitch-in" and help SEPTA Regional Rail riders during the strike, since the Atlantic City Line serves 30th Street Station and part of the NEC...

LOL! Doubtful.

SCB2525 wrote:Many times counties and townships will fund service on individual lines, so if a cut is made on one route it doesn't necessarily mean it will go elsewhere.

Name one township that funds service on an individual line.

It is very unlikely that Amtrak will offer any kind of local service in the NEC/SEPTA territory in the event of a strike. They do not have the equipment nor the crews available to do that and in addition I think the unions would frown on such a happening. People in the Philadelphia area; it is about time you muster up to the situation, get some leadership in that state that supports rail service in Philadelphia and get some leadership in SEPTA that will do the right thing and settle with the unions, I don't mean give away the store but three to four years without a contract then they don't want to offer back pay, that's ridiculous. How to recover the money, simple a modest fare increase would help a lot, you can not expect the employees to subsidize the commuters, it is simply not fair. What will happen here, at this point I wouldn't even venture a guess.
Noel Weaver

The more I look at the timelines as reported by sources tied to both the unions and SEPTA, the more I think SEPTA is provoking a walkout now for tactical purposes. By imposing their own terms unilaterally, they get to put the union in the position of walking out in direct response to receiving an immediate 11% raise, and disrupt the timing of any plan to co-ordinate simultaneous strikes with TWU 234.

Remind me, if I ever play poker with Joe Casey, to bring reloads.

Just wondering how long something like this might last before they are compelled to go back to work (assuming the emergency board the governor will be asking for is instituted).

Also, I'd assume conductors wouldn't get paid by SEPTA for being idle, correct?

Today's Wall Street Journal reports on this labor dispute, but, absent the reader having knowledge of railroad labor relations, it raises more questions than it answered:

http://online.wsj.com/articles/philadel ... 1402608098" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Brief passage:

Officials at Philadelphia's transit system, Septa, and two unions are set to meet with a federal mediator Friday in an attempt to avoid a strike at the system's commuter rail lines, which carry 60,000 passengers a day.

Septa has been in a contract dispute for more than four years with two unions representing 430 locomotive engineers and railroad electrical workers. The employees operate cars on 280 miles of track that fan out into Philadelphia's suburbs.

The system's commuter rail lines account for about 10% of its total ridership. Septa also operates subways and buses within Philadelphia.

The National Mediation Board has supervised the talks. But as a 30-day cooling off period is set to expire this weekend, Septa has said it would impose a contract on the workers.

"

The points that the article could raise with a layman, unfamiliar with provisions of the Railway Labor Act, are:

What transit is affected; commuter rail, buses, subways, 'all of the above'?

What's a National Mediation Board?

Are buses and Subways have a separate union?

What's a 30 day cooling off

What is this federal railroad retirement program; isn't that called Social Security?

Being unaware of this dispute, I really had to read the article quite carefully to determine that it is the rail lines covered by the Act, and not the buses and Subways that are only covered by the 'trilogy'; Wagner, Taft Hartley and Landrum Griffin .

SubwayTim wrote:Also, would Amtrak likely offer to serve some of the more heavily-used SEPTA stations along the NEC/Paoli Lines as a "courtesy" service during the strike??? Maybe even NJT could "pitch-in" and help SEPTA Regional Rail riders during the strike, since the Atlantic City Line serves 30th Street Station and part of the NEC...

You're asking union workers to be scabs? Asking them to help minimize the impact of a strike by their brothers? If anything, Amtrak workers should refuse to stop at 30th Street, CWH, and Paoli if there are picket lines there. When union members at my employer were on strike, our NJT bus driver honored picket lines by refusing to stop at our office. We had to walk to the next stop, a half mile away, to get the bus.

Noel Weaver wrote:I don't mean give away the store but three to four years without a contract then they don't want to offer back pay, that's ridiculous.

Have they gotten no raises at all since the contract expired? What sort of raises have the non-railroad workers gotten in the past 4 years?

It is unlikely that Amtrak or any other carrier would run take up slack service, being it would be an affront to fellow union members. Cross-honoring fares, would be if a deal was struck with Amtrak management. If the conductors are told to accept SEPTA tickets they will.

A PEB can be gathered together as quickly as it's asked for. Im surprised that it hasnt happened yet, seeing how we've had two for LIRR.

Im watching this very closely, because of our own local events.