A poor first impression

Tourism is one of the largest industries in Philadelphia. The city's economy took in more than $6 billion last year alone from visitors, and the city's tourism board spent millions to get them here....After the game, thousands of fans, many of who had come from North Carolina to watch their beloved Blue Devils, streamed across the vast parking lots toward the Broad Street Subway. What they found on the other side of the asphalt expanse was one open entrance to the subway. The other three were closed....When tourists who spent good money to travel here leave saying, "That's ridiculous; I'm never coming back to Philadelphia again," as one couple I overheard did, it's easy to see the problem. Remember that $6 billion the Convention and Visitors Bureau says tourists bring in? It won't be there in a few years if all of these people tell their friends that the City of Brotherly Love was anything but...SEPTA, meanwhile, should be doing everything it can to attract riders, not turn them away. A SEPTA customer service representative I spoke with about my gripes from Saturday told me there was little anyone could do about the system.
Wrong answer -- especially for an agency that reported a 1.4 percent decline in ridership last year. Worse, SEPTA's latest budget shows its operating deficit widening by more than $53 million.

Read the article in full at the Daily Pennsylvanian

Its the plain truth that SEPTA goes out of its way to turn people away, and make the system as unattractive as possible to existing and new riders. I don't know if this comes from above, or if its stupidity and laziness on the part of front line workers.

One thing SEPTA is notorious for, is closing subway entrances. Go to 15th Street on any given day, and except for 2 hours a day, half of the turnstiles are closed, and if you're going to Frankford, that's the turnstile you want to use.

Want to go to Frankford from 11th Street after 9pm? You'll get a good workout thanks to SEPTA, and maybe even miss a train. Why? Because SEPTA closes the cashier booth on the Eastbound side after 9.

At Market East with minutes to spare before your Airport train leaves? Use the ticket machine...oh, but they won't do you any good unless you have 10 year old paper currency on you, so get on the train and pay $2 more!

And the best part about using city transit to get downtown, if you're lucky enough to do it on a one-seat ride, you get to lug around a pocket full of tokens because SEPTA doesn't believe in stored-value cards, or cheap enough transpasses for riders who only use 2 rides per day!

If anyone really wants to be the next mayor of Philadelphia, they could probablly win if they ran on a trash-and-rebuild of SEPTA.

We need more of these news articles that document these things. Petition to redress a list of grievances. Write to elected officials and government staff about these things. Attend public hearings where SEPTA is there. I think you'll find a lot of people with similar issues. Maybe have a web site with a list of grievances.

If you think this is a negative first impression, try riding the Airport Line! Too bad Septa doesn't have the guts to post the email addresses of the board and principals on their website so we could send them the article, not that they'd read it.

glennk419 wrote:If you think this is a negative first impression, try riding the Airport Line! Too bad Septa doesn't have the guts to post the email addresses of the board and principals on their website so we could send them the article, not that they'd read it.

Well, it just means you have to do a little of your own research. Several of the board members are state legislators, and you can get their addresses from http://www.legis.state.pa.us/ Others either are or represent the mayor of Philadelphia and the county commissioners of the suburban counties. (I know Montgomery is http://www.montcopa.org and the city is http://www.phila.gov: the rest are left to the reader as an exercise).

You can always write to Faye Moore at 1234 Market St., Philadelphia PA 19107 (I will not post her e-mail address). And the address of the Transportation Funding and Reform Commission has been posted elsewhere in this forum.

Now get writing!

Thanks Matthew, I was hoping (and knew ) you'd chime in.

Not to discourage, but it only goes so far. Faye doesn't write back, she has one of her minions do it, and all they do is regurgitate standard text (their position is they are right and you are wrong type responses).

I did have a letter volley with Jettie Newkirk a few times (she's very ignorant). I also had it out with a member from Montco who thought the route 15 conversion was going backwards (he never wrote back to me).


If I'm not mistaken, Rendell's rescue money runs out this summer, which means SEPTA will be out with their tin cups again. This is our opportunity to have legislators attach specific conditions to future funding: no more closing subway entrances, etc.....

Legislators all seem to miss the point, they want reform, but only in terms of reducing subsidy. No one seems to be crying for improving quality of service. If we can't afford more service, why can't the existing serivce at least be reasonable?

jfrey40535 wrote:If I'm not mistaken, Rendell's rescue money runs out this summer, which means SEPTA will be out with their tin cups again. This is our opportunity to have legislators attach specific conditions to future funding: no more closing subway entrances, etc.....

The transit money runs out around December 2006. The highway money runs out sooner, as I understand it, which might help focus some legislators' attention.

Don't expect any significant funding bill to materialize before the election in November.

how about the deplorable third world state of the city hall station on the BSL giving a neagtive first impression?

there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON, that those formerly white tile walls can't be power-washed to at least remove some of the dirt and grime from the 1930s.

pathetic!

nittany4 wrote:how about the deplorable third world state of the city hall station on the BSL giving a neagtive first impression?

there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON, that those formerly white tile walls can't be power-washed to at least remove some of the dirt and grime from the 1930s.

pathetic!

Posted by Philacycle to Phillyblog.com today:

Excerpted from THE DELAWARE VALLEY RAIL PASSENGER Vol. XXIV, No. 2 March 2006

City Hall to Get Facelift
A ‘blitz’ of cleaning and painting will give a welcome new look to City Hall subway station. The job is scheduled to be performed on weekends from April through June, and will require one track at a time to be closed. On the weekends when one of the outer tracks is taken out of service, trains will have to skip the Fairmount station, since the next interlocking is at Girard. Crews will carry out a bunch of aesthetic fixes, including resurfacing the floors, painting the walls, and painting handrails. Plans for the $57 million renovation of the station, with installation of elevators and some new entrances are being re-viewed by various departments of city government for final approval. More than 56,000 passengers use the station each day.

From SEPTA’s “Fiscal Years 2006-2017 Capital Program”

CITY HALL STATION REHABILITATION

This project will provide for the renovation of City Hall Station on the Broad Street Subway Line. City Hall Station is the heaviest patronized station on the Broad Street Subway Line serving 57,000 passengers on a daily basis. The station is a junction point between the Broad Street Line, Market-Frankford Line, Subway-Surface Lines and Regional Rail Lines. Opened in 1928, the
station has deteriorated over the years and is in need of repairs. In addition, the station requires accessibility improvements to meet ADA standards, as well as passenger amenity improvements and aesthetic enhancements to uplift its overall appearance and appeal.

Preliminary and final design for this project will focus on the following items: 1) New entrance in Dilworth Plaza, including elevators, accessible ramp and a fare collection facility; 2) Elevator accessibility from street level to the platforms of the Market-Frankford Line and the Broad Street Line; 3) Elevator accessibility from street level to Dilworth Plaza and Suburban Station;
4) Modification of the fare collection facility on the lower concourse level; 5) More open space at platform level; 6) Straightening and widening of passageways; 7) New finishes, lighting and signage; 8) Art-In-Transit; 9) Mechanical and natural ventilation in re-opened shafts; 10) Structural repairs; and 11) Prevention/interception of water infiltration. The design phase of the project is currently in progress and is scheduled for completion in Calendar Year 2007. [Overall project completion by 2017]

FY 2007-2009: *$9,000,000
FY 2010-2017: *$38,500,000
P
TOTAL COST $57,000,000

pennengineer wrote:
Posted by Philacycle to Phillyblog.com today:

Excerpted from THE DELAWARE VALLEY RAIL PASSENGER Vol. XXIV, No. 2 March 2006

City Hall to Get Facelift
A ‘blitz’ of cleaning and painting will give a welcome new look to City Hall subway station. The job is scheduled to be performed on weekends from April through June, and will require one track at a time to be closed. On the weekends when one of the outer tracks is taken out of service, trains will have to skip the Fairmount station, since the next interlocking is at Girard. Crews will carry out a bunch of aesthetic fixes, including resurfacing the floors, painting the walls, and painting handrails. Plans for the $57 million renovation of the station, with installation of elevators and some new entrances are being re-viewed by various departments of city government for final approval. More than 56,000 passengers use the station each day.

wow, good news on this fourm

that's a switch

City Hall station needs more than a facelist. I'd say a bomb would be a good start, but in this day and age, someone would take that the wrong way and I'd be headed for the funny farm. City Hall is in desparate need of new lighting, platforms, stairwells (current stairwells do not support bi-directional traffic) and wallcoverings.

Rat control would be a nice start too.