Summary of complaints:
1. No Alvinator announcements.
2. Bus did not take the best route from Yardley to Woodbourne.
3. The only article with full details about the incident was on a newspaper site that charges non-subscribers (not SEPTA's problem).
On Thursday, July 31, I arrived at West Trenton around 5:07 p.m. to take train 3755, scheduled to leave at 5:18. I knew that TranView was showing suspension of service on the West Trenton line, but I hoped that this would clear up. The dreaded "police activity" phrase was not being used.
Over the next hour and a half, there were NO announcements over the "Alvinator". We did gradually learn from Internet coverage that a train (eventually figured out to be 3791) hit a car at one of the crossings between Yardley and Woodbourne. Around 6:30, an outbound train finally came into West Trenton, and I held out hope that this would turn around and take us with it.
Shortly after that, though, a SEPTA employee came to the platform and pointed out a bus waiting for us on the nearby street (Railroand Avenue). It would be going to Woodbourne, where we could then catch a train. We boarded it around 6:35, and it left a few minutes later. By then, incidentally, several people who had been waiting for 3755 and 373 had gotten rides or had taken NJT bus 608 to Trenton. (The ones choosing the latter option were people going to Center City.) I was on the verge of having someone come for me from 30-45 minutes away at the time the bus showed up. The bus was likely there because one last check of TrainView showed that only outbound service had been restored on the West Trenton line. That train now in the yard wasn't going anywhere just yet. (A freight could be seen waiting further down the line, beyond the yard and was likely not going anywhere yet, either.)
The bus ride got underway. There were probably fewer than 10 of us, and this was one of those big articulated busses. I hadn't been paying attention to the road earlier, so I don't know if this bus had been used to bring an outbound crowd of people earlier.
The trip to Yardley was uneventful. The trip to Woodbourne was not. There is no direct way to Woodbourne from Yardley, We went on a lot of back roads. From the time we left West Trenton, a SEPTA vehicle with a flashing light on the top led the bus. I don't think the Frontier garage has articulated busses, so this was probably a City Division driver who had never driven a Bucks County route before and needed to be shown the way. We finally turned on what I learned was Woodbourne Road, leading to the station side of the railroad tracks. We then got stuck in a long line of traffic. Some cars in front of us began turning around. The SEPTA lead vehicle also turned around.
The SEPTA lead vehicle blocked traffic behind the bus to allow it to back up to where it could turn backwards into an intersecting road. Once it had backed up into that road, it completed the turnaround to go in the other direction, back to where we had come.
Soon, we were on the Newtown Bypass, heading for I-95. I hoped we were not going back to West Trenton! Fortunately, the bus took I-95 south, then US1, then 213, then Woodbourne Road leading to the station from the other side of the tracks. We got to Woodbourne Station without further incident. We learned also that the real problem with that original route was that there was a narrow and/or low-clearance bridge that the bus couldn't pass through.
By then, it was 7:51. I had been on that bus for more than an hour. We were met by another SEPTA person at Woodbourne. I asked when a train would be coming. It turned out that service had been resumed at West Trenton, and a train was due to leave right about then and be at Woodbourne in about 10 minutes. At least it wasn't going to be an hour!
That train did show up, although it was a few minutes late. It made good time the rest of my ride.
I think that the bus was trying to get us to Woodbourne in time for a 7:11 p.m. train. Once we got stuck on the way, they didn't bother to hold it for us (which was the right choice, for the sake of people waiting for it down the line). The bus should have taken route 332 out of Yardley, directly to I-95, to get us to Woodbourne quickly.
I read on one of the broadcast media web sites that two injured people from the car were taken to nearby Aria Hospital (which I'm familiar with because one of my Toastmasters groups meets there). When I tried to find newspaper articles online in the next couple of days, the only one I found was on the Caulkins paper site, which now charges you to read just about every article on their site if you're not a subscriber. I don't like the Intelligencer enough to be a subscriber, so this is a real pain.
If any of you have access to that site, can you please post the text of that article here? Yes, I know that we're not supposed to do this (post full articles), but I think exceptions should be made for sole source articles behind pay walls.
1. No Alvinator announcements.
2. Bus did not take the best route from Yardley to Woodbourne.
3. The only article with full details about the incident was on a newspaper site that charges non-subscribers (not SEPTA's problem).
On Thursday, July 31, I arrived at West Trenton around 5:07 p.m. to take train 3755, scheduled to leave at 5:18. I knew that TranView was showing suspension of service on the West Trenton line, but I hoped that this would clear up. The dreaded "police activity" phrase was not being used.
Over the next hour and a half, there were NO announcements over the "Alvinator". We did gradually learn from Internet coverage that a train (eventually figured out to be 3791) hit a car at one of the crossings between Yardley and Woodbourne. Around 6:30, an outbound train finally came into West Trenton, and I held out hope that this would turn around and take us with it.
Shortly after that, though, a SEPTA employee came to the platform and pointed out a bus waiting for us on the nearby street (Railroand Avenue). It would be going to Woodbourne, where we could then catch a train. We boarded it around 6:35, and it left a few minutes later. By then, incidentally, several people who had been waiting for 3755 and 373 had gotten rides or had taken NJT bus 608 to Trenton. (The ones choosing the latter option were people going to Center City.) I was on the verge of having someone come for me from 30-45 minutes away at the time the bus showed up. The bus was likely there because one last check of TrainView showed that only outbound service had been restored on the West Trenton line. That train now in the yard wasn't going anywhere just yet. (A freight could be seen waiting further down the line, beyond the yard and was likely not going anywhere yet, either.)
The bus ride got underway. There were probably fewer than 10 of us, and this was one of those big articulated busses. I hadn't been paying attention to the road earlier, so I don't know if this bus had been used to bring an outbound crowd of people earlier.
The trip to Yardley was uneventful. The trip to Woodbourne was not. There is no direct way to Woodbourne from Yardley, We went on a lot of back roads. From the time we left West Trenton, a SEPTA vehicle with a flashing light on the top led the bus. I don't think the Frontier garage has articulated busses, so this was probably a City Division driver who had never driven a Bucks County route before and needed to be shown the way. We finally turned on what I learned was Woodbourne Road, leading to the station side of the railroad tracks. We then got stuck in a long line of traffic. Some cars in front of us began turning around. The SEPTA lead vehicle also turned around.
The SEPTA lead vehicle blocked traffic behind the bus to allow it to back up to where it could turn backwards into an intersecting road. Once it had backed up into that road, it completed the turnaround to go in the other direction, back to where we had come.
Soon, we were on the Newtown Bypass, heading for I-95. I hoped we were not going back to West Trenton! Fortunately, the bus took I-95 south, then US1, then 213, then Woodbourne Road leading to the station from the other side of the tracks. We got to Woodbourne Station without further incident. We learned also that the real problem with that original route was that there was a narrow and/or low-clearance bridge that the bus couldn't pass through.
By then, it was 7:51. I had been on that bus for more than an hour. We were met by another SEPTA person at Woodbourne. I asked when a train would be coming. It turned out that service had been resumed at West Trenton, and a train was due to leave right about then and be at Woodbourne in about 10 minutes. At least it wasn't going to be an hour!
That train did show up, although it was a few minutes late. It made good time the rest of my ride.
I think that the bus was trying to get us to Woodbourne in time for a 7:11 p.m. train. Once we got stuck on the way, they didn't bother to hold it for us (which was the right choice, for the sake of people waiting for it down the line). The bus should have taken route 332 out of Yardley, directly to I-95, to get us to Woodbourne quickly.
I read on one of the broadcast media web sites that two injured people from the car were taken to nearby Aria Hospital (which I'm familiar with because one of my Toastmasters groups meets there). When I tried to find newspaper articles online in the next couple of days, the only one I found was on the Caulkins paper site, which now charges you to read just about every article on their site if you're not a subscriber. I don't like the Intelligencer enough to be a subscriber, so this is a real pain.
If any of you have access to that site, can you please post the text of that article here? Yes, I know that we're not supposed to do this (post full articles), but I think exceptions should be made for sole source articles behind pay walls.
Soon you will need to be in your 60s in order to remember the 60s.
