Progress

I had to take the late train home tonight, which was late (as usual). But heck, I was just happy it had a crew to get me home.

I started thinking back over the last few decades of how my trip from Lansdale to Philadelphia (and sometimes Norristown to Philadelphia) has changed over the years riding the rails. I started digging up schedules and tried my best to do an unbiased apples-apples comparison in trip time from Reading, to Conrail, to SEPTA.

The infrastructure has improved since 1976 from stick rail to smooth welded rail. The signal system improved from one direction signaling to bi-directional signaling with cab signals for safety. The towers closed down to streamline operations in one, big, modern control center with all the latest communication devices and computers. Now we have PTC. The trains went from old, shaky, blue liners, to Budd cars, RDC's, Silverliner IV's, AEM-7's, to Silverliner V's. Each new fleet purchase brought more creature comforts (like air conditioning and air spring cushioned ride quality) faster acceleration, and smoother, quieter braking systems. Stations have been refurbished or rebuilt. The increase in the equipment fleet brought more service frequency. Weekend service went from 6-8 trains per day to hourly service. Freight service died, so there are no more delays following a slow ore train towards Bethlehem from Tabor Station.

And yet......the ride is longer and less predictable.

I couldn't find any 1976 schedules, but I found a 1964 Reading Company schedule:
Train 360 used to run Lansdale to RDG Terminal in 52 minutes
Train 313 used to run RDG terminal to Lansdale in 36 minutes
Train 97 used to run RDG terminal and express to DeKalb Street Station in 29 minutes
Train 2 used to run from DeKalb Street Station and express to RDG Terminal in 28 minutes
Train 620 used to run local to West Trenton from RDG terminal in 53 minutes
Train 602 (the Wall Streeter) used to make the same trip as an express in 39 minutes

Then I found a few Conrail public timetables from 1981:
Warminster Locals ran the trip in 57 minutes
Warminster Express trains ran in 39 minutes
Lansdale Locals took 51 minutes to RDG terminal
Lansdale Express took 45 minutes
Doylestown Express took 60 minutes
A Norristown express took 36 minutes to DeKalb Street from RDG Terminal

Then I looked at a 2016 SEPTA schedule:
Lansdale Local to "Jefferson" takes 58 minutes (train 5379)
Doylestown Express to "Jefferson" takes 1'30" (train 5307)
Warminster Local takes 50 minutes (train 405)
Warminster Express takes 52 minutes (train 411) ......that's right.....it takes longer!
West Trenton local takes 1'05"
West Trenton Express takes 55" (train 6352)
Norristown express takes 40" (train 6293) from Norristown transp. Center to Jefferson

So, with nearly 40 years of progress and fewer stations (Fellwick, Ogontz, Logan, Hunting Park, Spring Garden) the trip time increased 4 minutes on a Lansdale local. There was a 7 minute decrease in trip time on Warminster locals, a 6 minute increase in trip time on Norristown express train service, a 16 minute increase in trip time for West Trenton express trains, and a 12 minute increase in running time for West Trenton locals.

So I find myself asking the question: ARE WE THE TAXPAYERS AND RIDING PUBLIC ANY BETTER OFF THAN WE WERE 40 YEARS AGO AFTER BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WERE PUMPED INTO THE SYSYEM TO IMPROVE THE INFRASTRUCTURE? HAS THE PROGRESS THAT HAS BEEN MADE TO THE REGIONAL RAIL SYSTEM MADE THE TRAIN ANY MORE COMPETITIVE TO AN AUTOMOBILE COMMUTING DOWNTOWN? I BELIEVE THE SYSTEM IS SAFER THAN IT WAS 40 YEARS AGO, BUT IS IT ANY MORE EFFICIENT OR FASTER? HOW DOES NEW TECHNOLOGY MAKE A 130 YEAR OLD SYSTEM OPERATE SLOWER?

This is such a great post, thanks for making it. I love this kind of stuff. I've got some old timetables down in the basement from even earlier, I'll have to dig up.

I'm sure it will be well analyzed by everyone.

The West Trenton Express "Wall Streeter" is the one that surprised me the most. 16 minutes is quite a bit. I wonder if they used the New York Shortline between Cheltenham and Neshaminy Falls.

NorthPennLimited wrote:HOW DOES NEW TECHNOLOGY MAKE A 130 YEAR OLD SYSTEM OPERATE SLOWER?

New technology badly applied makes any system slower.

For instance, take the Light Rail in Baltimore. It used to run with 7.5 min headways from the start. Now they added ATP, but tried to save money by implementing maybe 75%. Braking rates dropped, which wasn't a good thing when the vehicle was rated for higher rates and the goal was for the higher rate. The end result was 10-15 minute headways and a slower ride.

Your post is interesting, and you point out new technology AND more trains, the congestion will of course cause bottle necks, schedulers will add more padding into a timed run so any conflicts don't affect on time performance (this is done in all companies), the new technology has slowed trains down, ATC forces the engineers to take certain actions whereas when there was no ATC the same stretch of track wouldn't need an action at that said point, PTC is also causing the same thing, these two systems are for safety, and someone, somewhere has decided the programmed way is the safe way, even if it's different to decades of previous running, as we let technology take over our lives we have to sacrifice some things, this time it's safety over speed

Also factor in that the Lansdale and West Trenton lines were very heavy freight corridors under the Reading and Conrail. With old wayside signals and towers being the only thing keeping trains from banging into each other, they somehow ran a safe railroad without forced separation and computerized signalling.

Another factor, not very relevant on the Reading lines today is there were no high level platforms that are being put in (in part) to speed boarding. People had no problem navigating gravel and dirt platforms. Even crossing active tracks to board trains (such as Franklin Street).

Technology has its benefits, but has clearly hurt the efficiency of the septa system.

Very interesting thread.

You make a lot of good points about the schedules and the system being safe. I do agree that the technology has slowed down trains. I too would like to see the old timetables as well.

NPL, awesome analysis.

It has been widely known that the "upgrade" to 562 slowed things down with greater separation and things like a forced brake application coming into Jenkintown. While PTC would certainly have prevented incidents like the Warminster branch cornfield collision a couple years ago and the North Wales and West Chester branch collisions many years before that, overall the railroad ran pretty efficiently given the technology available at the time.

Good thread.
People were horrified by and complained about the carnage in passenger train wrecks (not saying Reading but in general) back in the old days, but I think they were on some level looked at as an almost unavoidable aspect of trains. These days human lives are valued far more than they were back then - a near infinite amount of $$ is spent on things like PTC - passenger train wrecks are now viewed as "unacceptable" - by engineers, system decision makers, and the public. I don't think the public today would vote for the old schedules if they were told the chances of fatal wrecks would go up by such and such, (assuming no more $$ were spent for more tracks, etc), rational or not.

It is interesting - for cars, I think society still accepts wrecks as an unavoidable part of the technology - about 100 people PER DAY are killed in the US in car wrecks last time I looked. About twice as high as the murder rate. Maybe some day with smart and/or self-driving cars, and a change in public attitude to demand it, changes will be made to bring that number down close to zero - and that they will be viewed as unacceptable. And who knows what side effects that may cause . I hope I'm still here to talk about it (and post on web sites like this) when and if it happens.
Jim

This post is spot on.

It's true that passenger railroads have been quite safe for many years/decades, but I think we all agree they're safer now than they ever have been.

I ride trains every day and I complain about the schedules and how slowly they travel. Having said that, I wouldn't want SEPTA to sacrifice safety just to get me somewhere 6 minutes faster.

I think we also leave out there is often less capacity for more suburban sprawl. What kind of passenger loads did the trains of the past have? Another big deal that is often left out is crews of the past were often "encouraged to make up time." This was easy to accomplish when trains weren't equipped with forced compliance and speed control systems. But left out of the equation is the impact of federal certification, with its universal discipline process. Prior to federal certification, speed issues addressed by the individual railroads, which often had different policies. Crews knew their territory and knew what the tracks and equipment were "actually good for" if it became necessary to eek out a few more minutes.

This is no longer the case and with a federal decertification looming, crews are no longer willing to "give them a good move,' knowing the railroad would "take care of it." As such, the railroads added more padding to the end the schedules. Naturally, this leads to a longer scheduled operation. However, sometimes that is not enough these days, a late train is often a late train.

I think a small part of it also plays into the human side of railroading.

The older generation that worked in the 70's and 80's seemed to have more pride in their work. Yes, sometimes their eyes were bloodshot, and they smoked cigarettes walking down the isle of the train collecting tickets, but they commanded respect. They seemed knowledgable, the wore 2 piece and 3 piece conductor uniforms that were cleaned and pressed. When you asked why the train was late, they had a technical answer, like "the switches lost power Wayne Junction". They seemed proud to be railroaders.

The newer generation don't even wear a neck tie, or button up their dress shirts, let alone wear a suit. I sometimes see the engineers in sweat pants and sneakers. When you ask why the train is late or just sitting in the station, you are met with a blank stare.....and forget about them walking through the cars when there is a major problem.

It just seems like the young guys are just here to collect a paycheck. They just don't seem to have the same zeal for railroading like the baby boomer generation, or our parents generation.

And if you don't love your work, or you work in a demoralizing work environment (either real or imagined) you won't try to do a good job for your co-workers and bosses. Most of these new guys (and gals) at SEPTA seem bitter.

Well, I'm going to ruffle feathers and say a lot of what you stated above is a direct result of society and technology. It was easy to command respect when it was mutual. However, what occurs today is hardly what I call railroading. It is a glorified customer service that happens to be provided on the rails. Years ago, if passengers, crew members or anyone even associated with the trains failed to follow rules, they were booted off, demoted, fired. You could put up a policy stating no golf clubs and woe be to he or she that attempted to board a train with them. The only part of the train they saw is the markers as it pulled away. The company would back you.

That all changed. Everyone sues or has some sort of right to not do as the policy states. It has spread among employees as well. Hats are a part of a certain railroad's uniform code. Years ago, if you didn't wear your hat, eventually you'd lose your job. Originally, crew members attempted to run around it by getting a doctor's note, stating that it caused headaches. Years ago, managers would stare at you and ask "So, you're telling me that you're no longer of performing duty in this craft because you're unable to comply with the uniform code?" They would disqualify you from the position. Now, it is called discrimination. An unfortunate side effect is other employees see it and basically say "well, you can't do anything to me if you didn't do anything to them." The mentality spreads like a virus. It leaves the people that are trying to do the right thing exposed like a sore thumb since they are in the minority (no ma'am you can't use that ticket..I'm not sure why "everyone else let's you do it and I'm the first person to complain. My name? How long have I worked here?)

When you are constantly beat up for attempting to do the right thing, eventually people give up. When a passenger gets on twitter and accuses the engineer of speeding (she knows this because she rides twice a month) and the company rakes you over the coals, looking for error and then when they find nothing, they don't apologize or even stand up for you to the passenger, what kind of pride would you have? What kind of respect do you actually command? Before electronic transmissions, if a passenger actually took the time to write a letter, find out where to mail it, put it in an envelope, buy a stamp and mail it, you could tell they were serious and you knew there would be consequences. Now, everyone is emailing and tweeting (often incorrect) policies, information and stories. At this point, a lot of employees would rather say nothing instead of ending up on youtube, being called a liar and have their words misconstrued.

You complain about overcrowding and the company does nothing. How many times as a passenger do you want hear the same, lame apology? As an employee, how many times do you want to make the same, lame apology. What instills pride other than you trying to achieve your personal best...and after awhile, you're drained and defeated. You can't tell me the passengers don't feel the same way.

The bureaucracy infiltrated the railroads many, many years ago when states took over. Over time, it has ceased being "railroading" and has become just another political specter.

So many great great posts here... A few thoughts:

STrRedWolf wrote:

NorthPennLimited wrote:HOW DOES NEW TECHNOLOGY MAKE A 130 YEAR OLD SYSTEM OPERATE SLOWER?

New technology badly applied makes any system slower.

Absolutely. Some of the worst offenders in Septaland, in terms of general slowness, imho... Technological and Other:

• ~Timetable riddled with overly-conservative and/or obsolete speed restrictions.

• ~Rudely implemented & poorly maintained 562 territory.

• ~PTC slapped atop 562, amplifying inefficiencies.

• ~OTP-padded scheduling (pre-July Emergency only).

• ~Off-the-street Dispatchers with limited Railroad comprehension.

And all the other stuff which was stated so much more eloquently than I could: The loss of pride, the lack of respect... The demoralization, frustrations, and bitterness are real. Are they symptom or cause of the intolerable mediocrity of our Quasi-Public construct?

Scheduling and dispatching on my little corner of he system, even in just the past five years I've become a regular rider, have completely jumped the shark. The 507 Jefferson to Glenside used to take 19 minutes on a regular basis (yes, I timed it). On occasion, usually a Friday with lighter loads, saw it done in 18 mins. I think the schedule said 21 or 22 minutes, not unreasonable given the mass of passengers detraining glenside. Now it regularly takes 28+, only a minute or two of which are explained by the added stop at jenkintown. That is not ptc, or engineers being forbidden to speed, or passengers or crew being jerks. That is pure scheduling and dispatching error. The schedules on several other trains this route got inflated, too.

- From a scheduling standpoint, if schedulers had made it their goal to ensure every express quickly catches up to a local and crawls most of their route, they couldn't have done a better job.

- from a dispatching standpoint, one can only assume that dispatchers are threatened with immediate termination if an express passes a local before the end of 4 track territory at Wayne.

The real reason for this happening? I dunno. I know there are a lot of new dispatchers. Are there new schedulers, too?

Dispatchers don't dispatch like they used to, it has become normal for the computer to route the trains, which one goes first depends on which one hits the circuit for the interlocking signal first, yes there is still a human overlooking it, but it depends on whether they see it or are allowed to override it, remember they aren't just sitting at a computer watching your train, they may be controlling more than one territory, they may have other problems they need to take care of, it doesn't account for all the issues but may explain some.