mrobinson wrote:Sounds like a lot has changed on the NHSL in 25 years.
Yes, no, and "sort of". The greatest positive change is of course the N-5 fleet, which are sometimes referred to as "baby Silverliners". They're big-time more comfortable than their predecessors ... although one of the mixed blessings of the old cars was that in spring and fall their open windows could be very pleasant, esp. in some of the ROW with lots of good vegetation. Riding a Bullet through the woods was kind of like time travel back to the 1940s.
Another improvement for riders (but not one that SEPTA intended or planned) is that fares dropped because a big oversight ("oops!") in the Key farecard's design forced them to eliminate zones and surcharges. There's also an ongoing program to replace the old concrete-block station shelters with more-modern glass designs, put in better lighting, etc. Some of them are outfitted with electronic displays but AFAIK those haven't been switched on (and may never be, at the current rate). Such is SEPTA.
The negatives include gradual, salami-tactic style reductions in speed and service frequency. The old Bullets regularly topped 70 mph in places; Limiteds could run end to end in 20 minutes or so. The top speed for the N-5s has been cut, first to 60 and recently to 55, partly out of safety concerns (ATC instead of PTC) and partly for reasons known only to 1234. Beyond that there are no more Limiteds and enough stops have been added to Expresse runs that they barely merit the name anymore. Most times are now in the 28-32 minute range which equates to a blazing average of 26 mph. And most annoying, former 15- or 20-minute headways have mostly been cut to 30 minutes. Unless there's a justification such as ensuring unfouled stretches for repair work, from an admittedly naïve perspective it makes no sense to run 2-car trains with two drivers every half hour versus a single car every 15 minutes.
Here's a shot from 1993 and work at Bryn Mawr during the rebuild of the Pocket Track. Funny thing was that there was still 1908 rail in place at that time.
Very true. I walked part of the upper end (built 1912) and it also still had original rail, dated and marked with its origins in Steelton. The situation in the mid-90s was so bad that a local politician made some waves by (OK, dangerously) going onto the tracks at Villanova and pulling up handfuls of rotten wood from decaying ties. Since then there's been an ongoing track-renewal program with new ties, heavier welded rail, new switches, etc. However given demands from a multi-billion-buck backlog of other SOGR projects all over the network and the fact that SEPTA still can be pretty clunky about such things, the process is painfully slow.
Requiem for it's/its, your/you're, than/then, less/fewer. They were once such nice words with such different meanings...