When SEPTA brought back late night subway service

Came across this . Story was published yesterday

SEPTA weighing return of after-midnight subway service

PHILADELPHIA SEPTA may restore weekend late-night service on the Broad Street and Market-Frankford lines, agency officials said Thursday.

Because of increasing nightlife and residential activity in Center City, SEPTA may continue service after midnight, when subways now are replaced by "night owl" buses, general manager Joseph Casey said.

The service might continue until 3 a.m., officials said. Initially, it would be limited to Friday and Saturday nights, in a pilot program to test the response.

Chief financial officer Richard Burnfield said his staff was still assessing the costs - for security, operators, cashiers, and maintenance - to determine if a resumption of some late-night subway service would be included in the agency's proposed budget that will be released next month.

SEPTA halted late-night subway service in the early 1990s because of security and cost concerns. About 3,600 riders a day were forced to shift to nighttime buses.

I think this is good idea. I for one cannot stand taking a OWL shuttle bus. Have you ever ridden one from Frankford Terminal to 56/Walnut via EL Shuttle....the WORST. And besides many people are out and about in center city and other parts of the city using both the EL/BSL for the way home during the late hours of the night.

Please do not paste the entire article (only enough to get the point across) on to Railroad.net, also include the URL of the article as well.Alex

This is great news, and addresses a huge need. I cannot count how many people I know that hate having to take a cab home on a Friday or Saturday when they could just as easily take the subway.

Along the same lines, they should really investigate running select late-night RR service to more lines. I know Norristown gets it, but even that isn't quite late enough; 2:30-3am out of CC is the sweet spot. I know a lot of people up north who would use it even if it were only to Jenkintown.

This is long overdue. However, what's the point in shutting the system down at 3:30am only to reopen again at 5am? By the time the transit cops lock up the stations, it will be time to unlock them again.

It will allow for maintenance that may be necessary. The bulk of track and signal work occurs off-hours, and while the majority would likely be done during the week should late-night FRI/SAT service come to pass, you do have emergency work that comes up.

There's an episode of "World's Biggest Fixes" where they spend an overnight with the SEPTA subway crews. It's a decent look at all they do during the shutdown hours.

If SEPTA Decides to bring late night service back , would there be a real impact with the maintenance that takes place during those overnight hours ?. How often would these trains run Every 15-20 mins ?. I think this is a right step in the right direction it makes it more accessible for people. There has been times myself...i rushed home from work just to hang out down Center City. I live in Southwest and getting the trolley is fine...but if you miss the last EL....thats where the trip drags because i had to catch the "EL Shuttle". I think this may open the door for future late night service on the commuter rail lines somewhere down the line. The Media/Elwyn line could use it. I live around the corner from the line and the service on the weekends late night stops so early lol.

If other major cities, such as New York City as a prime example, can run their subways 24/7, I don't see any reason why Philly can't have 24/7 subway service. Of course unlike New York City, Philly is definitely not billed as a "city that never sleeps"!

I'm not familiar with the rest of the world, but assuming you meant North America you left out the "2", "Chicago as second example" and "some of" in "2 other major cities, such as New York City as a prime example, Chicago as second example, can run some of their subways 24/7"

And of curse you misspelled of course.

Oh, that's great for philadelphia........

How about having bus routes 127, 128, 129, 130 ( and a few others) run full routes later into the night and all weekend vs stopping at 9 weeknights and a huge gap 6 pm sat till 5 am monday? Now THAT would be something.........!

Toronto shuts down 0200-0600 (0200-0900 Sunday) to which time to run in/out of service has to be added, and some of the system is shutdown early on Saturday night to provide a wider window for tunnel liner replacement. 24 hour service by using single line operation has been mooted for the 1 Yonge Line after the signals are upgraded by means of single line operation but I don't see TTC following through on that. Systems with more than 2 tracks have more options when it comes to keeping maintenance up.

I think the reason that the Philadelphia subway network doesn't run 24 hours is because it is not that large. I know the the New York subway network is very large, while the Broad Street Subway is a straight line of about 20 mile and the MFL is about the same. I think if the network were larger and connected more of the city we would already have 24 hour subway service.

The other thing about buses at night is that they will (in a well considered network) bring you closer to your door and move at higher speed due less congestion. On the other hand electric transport at night would (depending on SEPTA's contract) use lower cost base load power.

It's not because of the system not being large. The EL/MFL do heavy numbers combined with the EL CARRYING the most. I was reading on a MTA fourm sometime ago MTA was saying they had to make cuts to some of it's overnight subway runs to free up some $$$$$.

I don't think there is enough potential ridership to justify 24/7 operation. Maybe an hour later Sun-Thurs if at all. Friday and Saturday nights are a different story.

SCB2525 wrote:I don't think there is enough potential ridership to justify 24/7 operation. Maybe an hour later Sun-Thurs if at all. Friday and Saturday nights are a different story.

I agree and disagree with you. I think the potential ridership is there. We have to remember there is still tons of people who work late and get off in the weee hours. But I will say mid-week to the weekend HELL YEAHH...I was out last night. Typical Center City it was packed as usual. And with Spring / Summer coming this could be valuable. I say if SEPTA make I in their budget to run it then go head