Pro-NHSL Petition Started

A Philadelphia blogger has started a Change.org petition in favor of the extension, specifically addressing not only its benefit to the community but also countering the opponents' views.

(Added as a new topic because it's not directly related to the planning meetings)

Looks like the petition stalled at 223 signatures.

BuddCar711 wrote:Looks like the petition stalled at 223 signatures.

that's more than the opposition! for that kindof money there are better projects IMO, and that is the most valid criticism

Suburban Station wrote:...for that kind of money there are better projects IMO, and that is the most valid criticism

I doubt anyone would say that a BSL extension, some kind of transit up Roosevelt Blvd., etc. shouldn't be at least as high in priority. The question's been asked at more than one of the public sessions. To try to summarize what I've heard, the NHSL's bubbled to the top for a bunch of reasons that are both financial and political:

• It has a very high ROI because the existing N-5 fleet is large enough to handle added riders and the necessary substation improvements are already in place. Those are sunk costs which means, rightly or wrongly, they aren't considered to be part of the total project price.
• It would replace 3 bus routes that are currently well below SEPTA's minimum acceptable on-time level.
• There's active support from local politicians and businesses. A few benighted NIMBYs notwithstanding, public reaction has been generally positive as well.
• Again rightly or wrongly, if the project is put on hold its planning clock goes back to zero rather than temporarily stopping. I.e. much of the existing planning and analysis would have to be redone. Aside from stretching the timeline even more, there's already been one restart. A second would raise a lot of political eyebrows.
• Conversely a successful outcome would increase political confidence in SEPTA for more-ambitious projects, which is important given the CCM and SVM debacles.

The nhsl is actually a higher cost per rider than the quakertown project not less. There was leftover planning money from the ccm and it has powerful backers in the region's Seco d largest county. That last item is enough because that is what moves things forward for better and for worse. 8500 riders at 550 million would have been a slam dunk but somehow project cost doubled. Imo the logic projects to build on septas successful tiger projects was an rrd extension

Suburban Station wrote:The nhsl is actually a higher cost per rider than the quakertown project not less. There was leftover planning money from the ccm and it has powerful backers in the region's Seco d largest county. That last item is enough because that is what moves things forward for better and for worse. 8500 riders at 550 million would have been a slam dunk but somehow project cost doubled. Imo the logic projects to build on septas successful tiger projects was an rrd extension

As much as I support the extension I'm having a hard time with that cost estimate. $220M per mile for an elevated light-rail line is at the high end of roughly comparable projects elsewhere in North America. Not an outrageous outlier but way up there. I can't help suspecting the original estimate was a lowball which makes me worry that the new figure could delay or even sink the extension. Another failure will push off the whole basket of projects even more.