Railroad Forums 

  • WalletHub study: SEPTA ranking versus 100 major systems

  • 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

 #1519839  by JeffK
 
A newly-released study compares 100 transit providers in a hundred large and medium US cities. SEPTA unsurprisingly came in very low for resources (86/100) but (surprisingly) got high marks for accessibility and convenience (9/100), and was almost at the bottom for safety and reliability (97/100).

My 2¢ is that without a SEPTA-specific breakdown of their metrics, I'm not sure how they arrived at those rankings. On one hand it's obvious SEPTA lacks full resources and has an aging fleet of rail vehicles, and their ranking of fares comports with the recent Pew study. On the other, I don't see how it could be considered unsafe or so massively unreliable - nor are swaths of it accessible and convenient outside the CBD and some suburban hubs.

Thoughts, comments, ideas?
 #1519872  by JeffK
 
Looking at some of the other cities ranked both high and low, I don’t see it completely in political terms. To me it's more a matter of trying to compare the incomparable - small systems in small cities versus places like NYC, Washington, and Boston - rail-heavy and multimodal operations to bus-only systems, etc. etc. And it’s totally obscure how they managed to assign some of those rankings. It seems to be a lot of wasted electrons, sorta like a restaurant ranking that combined fast-food places, bistros, and high-end French cuisine. Some "experts".
 #1519904  by rcthompson04
 
JeffK wrote: Wed Sep 11, 2019 8:20 pm Looking at some of the other cities ranked both high and low, I don’t see it completely in political terms. To me it's more a matter of trying to compare the incomparable - small systems in small cities versus places like NYC, Washington, and Boston - rail-heavy and multimodal operations to bus-only systems, etc. etc. And it’s totally obscure how they managed to assign some of those rankings. It seems to be a lot of wasted electrons, sorta like a restaurant ranking that combined fast-food places, bistros, and high-end French cuisine. Some "experts".
Really comparing transit systems is a joke because none of them are even remotely the same.
 #1519916  by JeffK
 
rcthompson04 wrote: Thu Sep 12, 2019 12:42 pm Really comparing transit systems is a joke because none of them are even remotely the same.
Amen. Like comparing apples to potatoes.