SEPTA Spotting

I was driving across the country over the past week and low and behold, I saw a SEPTA bus lumbering down the highway... IN INDIANA.

Can anyone think of a reason this bus was a little out of the service area?

Charter service?

It's the new 1436 bus, with service to West Chester, Pittsburgh, and Terre Haute?

Milton Street wanted to visit his godfather, and pressured SEPTA to establish a route?

They're inflating the operating costs by running extra long routes in order to more effectively beg more funding?

It's the route 116, Chester to Granite Run Mall, via Parkside and Aston?

Who would want to ride a transit bus ( assuming that that's what was seen) from Philly into Indiana?

Sounds like one of those recently restored trolley routes I keep hearing about.

I thought it was a new driver who was told to work the 105, and was headed to Ardmore ... Oklahoma.

Maybe Amtrak is trying Bustitution, and subcontracted SEPTA to handle the work.................

A little off-topic, but similar - I have seen NJ Transit buses in Wytheville, VA (coach-style, southwest corner of the state, October 1999) and on New York Ave in DC near Amtrak's Ivy City terminal (articulated city bus, May 23, 2004). Maybe the Hoosier State figured if San Francisco could cash in on ex-SEPTA PCC's, maybe they could get in on the act too.

That's the odd part. This seemed to be a BRAND NEW SEPTA bus. It also had 'Not In Service' on the destination board. It should have been '32 Ridge/Lycum via Tulsa.' hehe

It could have been comeing from the manufacturer in Minnesota (I believe the new ones are New Flyers) Though I would suspect they would normally put them on rail cars and ship them east. You avoid a bunch of tolls by going into Indiana and then across Ohio via Dayton and Columbus.

I believe SEPTA's buses are equiped with EZ Pass though! LOL

Not that it applies here, but sometimes a local transit agency will borrow buses from other cities for special events like the Olympics. Perhaps someone could google on Salt Lake, buses, and Olympics and find out how far some of those buses and drivers came.