As an aside, there has a blurring of rush hour versus non rush hour passenger traffic.
Mid day trains used to be very lightly ridden. That's not true today, especially given the 50% increase in passengers over the past 15 years. Trains are busy all day.
I routinely take a train out of 30th St at 8:00pm that very frequently has standees on leaving Temple.
With SEPTA saying they expect delivery of bi-level cars in 2017, SEPTA's track record on new rolling stock sounds to me more like 2018 or 2019.
SEPTA's fleet of AEM-7's and the only ALP-44 operating in North America have never been overhauled. Should one of those locomotives leave service permanently before its replaced, the coaches can be redistributed to lengthen other Push Pull trains but the trains represented by that equipment will leave the schedule.
The good news is that ridership is increasing. The bad news is that because SEPTA has traditionally been underfunded, ridership may be increasing faster than SEPTA can catch up with equipment.
The rumor mill shows several AMTRAK AEM-7's slated for SEPTA once replaced by new ACS-64's. If its true, that's more good news.
If we want to increase the number of MU's, the 25 hz power system will exceed capacity of 80 year old substations.
Adding capacity sounds simple. There are so many gotcha's.
"The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few, or the one".............. Spock
My opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of any organization, Association, or Authority.
