New Regional Rail Schedules (NEW EXP. TRAINS)

[Push&Pull Master]

http://www.septa.org/schedules/upcoming.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Highlights:

Lansdale/Doylestown
New afternoon express service begins: Train 6596 will operate express service from Temple University Station to Fort Washington Station, then local service to Lansdale Station
Train 6576 (Weekday towards Doylestown) will depart Center City stations 6 minutes earlier, with express service from Temple University to North Wales Station and then local service to Doylestown Station
Paoli/Thorndale
New early morning Weekday inbound Express, Train 1502: Will depart Paoli Station at 4:30 a.m. and will serve Wynnewood, 30th Street, and Suburban Stations
Trenton
New early morning Weekday express Train 1703: Will Depart Suburban Station at 6:13 a.m. and serve 30th Street, North Philadelphia, Torresdale, Cornwells Heights, Levittown-Tullytown, and Trenton Stations. This Train will provide service to Penn Station New York via New Jersey Transit Train 3924 to Trenton Transit Center

[zebrasepta]

well someone here got the train he wanted
that morning express to Trenton

[jackintosh11]

That paoli express doesn't make sense to me. Why wynnewood?

[loufah]

The Trenton express ought to be welcomed by a bunch of people. The 5:53 and 6:32 trains out of 30th aren't crowded, but the 5:53 is difficult to make from some western suburbs via 69th Street because connecting transit doesn't start early enough, and the 6:32 usually runs into congestion near Trenton such that despite a scheduled 7:22 arrival time, it usually arrives late enough that making the 7:31 NJT connection isn't possible (I see in the new schedule they don't list that 7:31 connection any more, showing the more plausible 7:47 train instead.)

[Amtrak7]

That express Paoli train will now originate at Malvern effective 12/14. Newark is also getting a new express train and more evening Wilmington service.

New this year: 9569, 9561 (GVF), 6378, 9251, 6576 will not operate on Christmas Eve. Budget cut?

[khecht]

That express Paoli train will now originate at Malvern effective 12/14. Newark is also getting a new express train and more evening Wilmington service.

At least for me, a user of the Wilmington/Newark trains, these are good changes. From http://www.septa.org/schedules/upcoming.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; :

Wilmington/Newark
Weekday Outbound (towards Newark) Train 273 will now service Wilmington Station
Weekday inbound (towards Center City) Train 274 will now operate from Wilmington Station
Train 7239: New Afternoon Express service from Center City and serving University City, Chester, Marcus Hook, Claymont, Wilmington, Churchmans Crossing, and Newark Stations
Weekday outbound (towards Newark) Train 7241 will now operate local service between Temple University and Wilmington Stations
Select midday weekday Trains will now operate through service to Norristown

7239 doing a midafternoon express run is a bit unusual, but potentially useful at times, though I assume it's more about positioning equipment for the evening rush hour.

The big news really is 273 operating to Wilmington evenings - it fills a pretty big hole in Delaware service between the 7:37 and 9:36 departures from Suburban with an 8:40 departure, which makes working late/doing dinner in Center City much more plausible without that significant 2 hour gap that has existed for years, and doing this has been my top "easy" wish for this line for a long time.

[jackintosh11]

What's the point of train 4249 only running to Claymont and not to Wilmington or Marcus Hook?

[NorthPennLimited]

At Claymont, the tracks go from 4 to 2 into Wilmington Station. I'm guessing Amtrak doesn't have a time slot available during rush hour for train 4249.

Pssssst (Claymont is south of Marcus Hook, so you are getting an extra Delaware stop out of a Hook train)

[ExCon90]

That's it. Previously, 4249 terminated at Marcus Hook, leaving a gap for Claymont-and-beyond from 4.25 to 5.09, and there were a lot of Claymonts packing (5>9)251, the next available train after 9245 at 4.25. The solution was to extend 4249 as far as Claymont to relieve crowding on 5251 (as I believe it then was) without getting into complications south of Claymont, as mentioned above. As it is, it takes some fancy footwork to reverse after Claymont, since there is no connection at HOLLY between Tracks 2 and 3. I think the normal practice is to run Track 1 from HOOK, then lay up south of HOLLY on the northbound freight track waiting for chance to slip in behind a northbound on 2 to deadhead back to Phila.

[zebrasepta]

apparently a petition helped the Wilmington/Newark line getting extra trains in
https://technical.ly/delaware/2014/12/0 ... id-curtis/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In July, David Curtis — Wilmington resident and a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government — started a Change.org petition asking SEPTA to increase service to the Wilmington Train Station.

"This service upgrade is happening not because of my involvement, but because 1,700 people signed a petition demanding better service."
DAVID CURTIS
Currently, outside of the 5-8 p.m. rush hour, trains from Center City Philadelphia only stop at Wilmington once every two hours. Trains stop every hour at Marcus Hook — the last stop in Pennsylvania and two stops prior to Wilmington.

But all that is changing.

SEPTA recently released a new schedule, with updates to the Wilmington/Newark schedule.

We asked Curtis a few questions about the changes.

[25Hz]

All i see are a bunch of changes to give people commuting to and from the city a faster ride, with no connection to west trenton or warminster at jenkintown. Disappointment muchly.

[khecht]

That's it. Previously, 4249 terminated at Marcus Hook, leaving a gap for Claymont-and-beyond from 4.25 to 5.09, and there were a lot of Claymonts packing (5>9)251, the next available train after 9245 at 4.25. The solution was to extend 4249 as far as Claymont to relieve crowding on 5251 (as I believe it then was) without getting into complications south of Claymont, as mentioned above. As it is, it takes some fancy footwork to reverse after Claymont, since there is no connection at HOLLY between Tracks 2 and 3. I think the normal practice is to run Track 1 from HOOK, then lay up south of HOLLY on the northbound freight track waiting for chance to slip in behind a northbound on 2 to deadhead back to Phila.

I've used this train a number of times and in addition to all of your valid points above, it also helps a bit with the parking lot egress at Claymont. In spite of some small improvements to the US 13/Myrtle Ave traffic light situation recently, the 5:09 express generates a significant backup getting out of the lot as hundreds of people leave and/or are picked up, so much so that if you're at the back of line, you lose much of the time savings from the express. You see plenty of people running to their cars to try to be first

Sometimes this train turns at Claymont by running south on the northbound local track (I'm not up on my NEC track numbering, sorry) and reversing in station, but most of the time it does indeed drop passengers off normally on the outbound platform then reverse south of the station.

[25Hz]

That's it. Previously, 4249 terminated at Marcus Hook, leaving a gap for Claymont-and-beyond from 4.25 to 5.09, and there were a lot of Claymonts packing (5>9)251, the next available train after 9245 at 4.25. The solution was to extend 4249 as far as Claymont to relieve crowding on 5251 (as I believe it then was) without getting into complications south of Claymont, as mentioned above. As it is, it takes some fancy footwork to reverse after Claymont, since there is no connection at HOLLY between Tracks 2 and 3. I think the normal practice is to run Track 1 from HOOK, then lay up south of HOLLY on the northbound freight track waiting for chance to slip in behind a northbound on 2 to deadhead back to Phila.

I've used this train a number of times and in addition to all of your valid points above, it also helps a bit with the parking lot egress at Claymont. In spite of some small improvements to the US 13/Myrtle Ave traffic light situation recently, the 5:09 express generates a significant backup getting out of the lot as hundreds of people leave and/or are picked up, so much so that if you're at the back of line, you lose much of the time savings from the express. You see plenty of people running to their cars to try to be first

Sometimes this train turns at Claymont by running south on the northbound local track (I'm not up on my NEC track numbering, sorry) and reversing in station, but most of the time it does indeed drop passengers off normally on the outbound platform then reverse south of the station.

Perhaps better bus service would help this situation? Woodbourne has the same problem, as does langhorne. The gates are still down as the first people exit in their automobiles. Langhorne is not as bad, given that it sort of has an alternate route that leads to a bridge, but again, you lose that time at the traffic light on the other side of the bridge. Curse these odd street/track arrangements...! If only some integrated smart planning was undertaken. I think the reading side is worse with this, as it cuts through streets at some really awkward places.

[khecht]

Perhaps better bus service would help this situation? Woodbourne has the same problem, as does langhorne. The gates are still down as the first people exit in their automobiles. Langhorne is not as bad, given that it sort of has an alternate route that leads to a bridge, but again, you lose that time at the traffic light on the other side of the bridge. Curse these odd street/track arrangements...! If only some integrated smart planning was undertaken. I think the reading side is worse with this, as it cuts through streets at some really awkward places.

Claymont actually already has a few DART (DelDOT) bus lines that serve the station and are timed to connect to trains. Given that most people are coming from residential areas within, say, 5-8 miles of the station, with this lower density living people are inclined to drive. Parts of those bus lines run through those neighborhoods, so I'm not sure that more buses would have a significant impact on traffic. There are also a few other bus lines that serve downtown Wilmington from the North Wilmington suburbs and also stop at the Amtrak station there. Two other things might help:

1) Myrtle Ave is a dead end just after the station's main lot, boxed in by the recently closed Claymont Steel plant. If the plant is torn down, perhaps there will be an opportunity to build a road connection to US 13 north of the 13/495 interchange to dump traffic heading in that general direction out there, or perhaps to drop all traffic more efficiently via a higher capacity intersection on US 13 rather than make them drive through the neighborhood along Myrtle Ave. Something like this is probably the most feasible, but whether anyone is thinking this, let alone anyone who has any $$ for it, is a very different question. And you still need to pass a number of homes in a neighborhood on the way.
2) A much more expensive and harder option (due to space) would be an I-495 connection to the station similar to what I-95 has to the Trenton line. However, this would bypass a lot of residents close to the station as the next exit south is about 5 miles south on DE route 3 and a lot of people come from neighborhoods south of the station but not that far south. So you'd have an expensive to build interchange that might only help to get more people driving from further afield to a lot that is usually 95%+ full already by 9am. There probably isn't the ROI on this to make it practical.

[CComMack]

Some of the problems mentioned at Claymont could be fixed by incentivizing the use of the secondary entrance, the pedestrian bridge over I-495 to Gov Printz Blvd Extension. That might include:

• sound walls and/or windscreens on the bridge itself (though I won't speak to whether or not the bridge could handle the extra wind loads),
• streetscape improvements like filling in the gap between where the sidewalk cuts out on Manor Ave, and the bridge, (Manor Ave is expected to get a lot more pedestrian traffic after Darley Green gets built out),
• a signalized intersection between Gov Printz Blvd Extension and Gov Printz Blvd, allowing for safe left turns from cars and safe crossings for pedestrians
• lighting and security improvements to the secondary parking area along Gov Printz Blvd Extension

...and probably a few things I'm forgetting. But ultimately, if your entire ridership is park-and-ride, you're going to have a few hundred cars heading for the exit every time a popular train comes in, assuming your service is at all successful. Such is the nature of the beast.