Railroad Forums 

  • How to Best Use New Capital Funding

  • Discussion relating to Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (Philadelphia Metro Area). Official web site can be found here: www.septa.com. Also including discussion related to the PATCO Speedline rapid transit operated by Delaware River Port Authority. Official web site can be found here: http://www.ridepatco.org/.
Discussion relating to Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (Philadelphia Metro Area). Official web site can be found here: www.septa.com. Also including discussion related to the PATCO Speedline rapid transit operated by Delaware River Port Authority. Official web site can be found here: http://www.ridepatco.org/.

Moderator: AlexC

 #1231006  by MikeBPRR
 
Now that SEPTA received [part] of the money they've been begging for, the question now becomes how to best use the influx of capital. I thought it would be interesting to list projects in terms of perceived priority and open a debate on how to best use the cash. It's a tough question, because SEPTA has many different needs.

Here's my (admittedly incomplete) list:

1) Crum Creek Bridge on the Media/Elwyn line
2) Bridgeport Viaduct replacement
3) New trolleys to replace the K-Cars
4) Down payment for City Hall station accessibility
5) new substations
6) Silverliner VI
7) other Media-Elywn bridges
8) Cynwyd line approach to replace the bridge over the Main Line

What does your list look like? Also, does SEPTA already have a plan on how they're going to use the money?
 #1231009  by JeffK
 
My (admittedly biased) additions to that list would be

N) The P&W extension
N+1) De-bustitution of selected streetcar and trolley-bus routes. Probably Day 2; I'll open the question as to which line(s).
 #1231036  by Clearfield
 
MikeBPRR wrote:Also, does SEPTA already have a plan on how they're going to use the money?
Since you mentioned it, here is SEPTA's 2014 Capital Budget.

They've saved you from having to reinvent their wheel.
 #1231084  by zebrasepta
 
R36 Combine Coach wrote:
BuddCar711 wrote:I would include M-5 Market-Frankford cars.
M-4s are only 15-16 years old.
should be new BSL cars instead and also I wish they would make a 3rd track between Glenside or Jenkintown and Wayne Junction but it probably will never happen
 #1231112  by SCB2525
 
zebrasepta wrote:
R36 Combine Coach wrote:
BuddCar711 wrote:I would include M-5 Market-Frankford cars.
M-4s are only 15-16 years old.
should be new BSL cars instead and also I wish they would make a 3rd track between Glenside or Jenkintown and Wayne Junction but it probably will never happen
The time to do that or at least plan for it would have been when they were designing a replacement for the Greenwood Ave bridge; theoretically you could take out the parking lot driveway and run a third track but you'd have to move the station building and then also build up the creek embankment which means an environmental study. Plus the rock cuts and bridges that only have 2 tracks between Fern Rock and Jenkintown. Basically, a complete non-starter. Look how much of a to-do adding the third track on the West Trenton branch is and its within clear right-of-way where there was already a track. You'd be better off fiddling with the branches like extending double tracking through Willow Grove and south of Davisville Rd and building a turnout (with a hopefully reactivated Newtown branch) at Ayres that allows West Trenton to have alternate routing for expresses to relieve the Fern Rock to Jenkintown bottleneck.

Also, the BIV cars have at least another 10-20 years in them with a GOH; the Budd R32s are getting minor overhauls in NYC and they're 50 years old.
 #1231115  by SCB2525
 
Same with the K-cars. While they're long in the tooth concerning ADA access and their reliability has dropped considerably in the last few years; a major overhaul can extend their lives enough to be worth it. If reliability can be improved and maintained, I wouldn't mind riding a vehicle that looks dated if it means improved service elsewhere. That might buy enough time to allow one big purchase of new trolleys when the 23 and 56 are restored.
 #1231118  by Clearfield
 
If it isn't listed in the Cap budget as an active or deferred project, you're wasting bytes.

But have fun with the "never ever ever" going to happen projects.
 #1231237  by Malvern Metroliner
 
Clearfield wrote:If it isn't listed in the Cap budget as an active or deferred project, you're wasting bytes.

But have fun with the "never ever ever" going to happen projects.
As far as unfunded Capital Needs, it is the table to refer to. The unfunded needs are described on pages 40-50 in this document. As far as planned and active expenses in the capital budget, it is limited to the Bus Purchase Program, Infrastructure Safety Renewal, NPT, Rail Modernization, SoGR, Accessibility of Stations, and Vehicle Overhaul.

Image

As far as planned vehicle overhaul, "Highlights of the Fiscal Year 2014 program include the overhaul of 40-foot low-floor New Flyer diesel buses, Broad Street B-IV
cars, City and Suburban trolleys, Regional Rail Silverliner IV and Bombardier Push-Pull railcars and locomotives, Market Frankford M-
4 cars, Norristown High Speed Line N-5 cars, and support vehicles and equipment. Highlights of campaigns for Fiscal Year 2014
include N-5 car seat replacement, M-4 car truck work, and the retrofit of hybrid cooling systems in New Flyer diesel buses. Regional
Rail Silverliner IV campaigns include the A/C condenser unit overhaul, rotating equipment change out, trap door and double-ended
blower overhauls, rebuilding of pantographs, and main transformer conversion. "
 #1231284  by SCB2525
 
They should put some money into extension of platforms to be able to service 8 cars on the West Trenton line; at least extend the platforms that can't service the 6-7 car trains they run now.
 #1231418  by gprimr1
 
Simple.

If it's not a bridge, a wire, or a piece of rail, it doesn't get money.
 #1231437  by jdcollette
 
MikeBPRR wrote:Now that SEPTA received [part] of the money they've been begging for, the question now becomes how to best use the influx of capital. I thought it would be interesting to list projects in terms of perceived priority and open a debate on how to best use the cash. It's a tough question, because SEPTA has many different needs.

Here's my (admittedly incomplete) list:

1) Crum Creek Bridge on the Media/Elwyn line
2) Bridgeport Viaduct replacement
3) New trolleys to replace the K-Cars
4) Down payment for City Hall station accessibility
5) new substations
6) Silverliner VI
7) other Media-Elywn bridges
8) Cynwyd line approach to replace the bridge over the Main Line

What does your list look like? Also, does SEPTA already have a plan on how they're going to use the money?
1. The Wawa station on Route 1. (I'd like the see the Media Elwyn go back to West Chester, but that'll never happen...that area has exploded in growth and 322 traffic makes me want to hurt myself :) ).
2. Roosevelt Blvd Subway Extension (It blows my mind that there's nothing but regional rail and bus service for huge segments of the City, particularly Northeast Philly.) That's something that should have been done 50 years ago. I can probably get to Baltimore faster than I can use public transit to get to parts of Northeast Philly.
3. Resume the "temporarily suspended" trolley service from South Philadelphia to Germantown.
3. Navy Yard Broad Street Line Extension (it should continue under the River to Gloucester County, NJ, but that'll happen when hell freezes over)
4. It will never happen in my lifetime, but I'd like to see service restored to Allentown and Reading.
 #1231507  by Quinn
 
jdcollette wrote:3. Navy Yard Broad Street Line Extension (it should continue under the River to Gloucester County, NJ, but that'll happen when hell freezes over)
Is an extension to the Navy Yard economically feasible? I would imagine that the marshy land there would make subway tunneling rather expensive. There was a channel between the southern end of the city and the former League Island that was filled in.