'Charter' Bus

I was running down Midvale Ave. today and I noticed a bus roll by on Ridge Ave. that had 'Charter' on the destination boards.

Does SEPTA charter busses? And who would want to charter a SEPTA bus? (This one was decrepit.)

SEPTA did charter buses years ago. When I was in college, my lacrosse team would sometimes go to away games on a SEPTA charter. But some time ago, maybe about 1990, maybe earlier, UMTA placed heavy restrictions on use of federally-funded equipment in charter service, specifically to prevent unfair competition with private operators who did not get federal subsidies.

Charter operations were not completely banned, but before a public agency could accept a charter contract, it had to publish notice of its intent to do so, and determine there were no private-sector operators able and willing to provide the service.

There are still occasional instances where the public agency does meet the requirements and charters buses. One recent example, which I happen to recall because there was some controversy over whether the regulations were followed, was the Rochester NY RTA providing parking lot shuttles for spectators at an LPGA golf tournament.

SEPTA does still provide railcars (subway, trolley, and RRD) for charter, and tariffs for such service are published. Don't recall if they're online though.

This regulation may also have been the impetus for SEPTA formally converting its special school routes into nominally-public 400-series routes, and for publishing formal tariffs for Mann Music Center service.

One other possibility, though with the current electronic destination signs this may not now be the practice, but deadheading buses ( in the PTC and Red Arrow days) used to display "Chartered" or "Special" destination signs to show that these buses were not in service. I have noticed in Baltimore and DC, the electronic sign equipped buses now use "out of Service" or "not in service" rather than "chartered", but this is a possible explanation for what was observed.

Well, this was a rather old bus, the lind with the little flipping dots rather than the LED ones on the new busses. That could account for the not having 'Not in Service' in the signage options.

Thanks for the info Walt.

The bus you saw was more than likely a 400 series route-school tripper which is chartered by the city, hence the Chartered destination. A lot of the older buses don't have the 400 series routes programed into their signs so they just display a Chartered destination.

I was on the Schuylkill Expressway the other day and there was an articulated SEPTA bus that had "Congratulations Seniors" on the marquee. I figured it was chartered for some kind of a high school graduating class function.

In the old "Hunter" sign ( signs made out of rolled fabric) days, "Chartered" was a catch-all, for any use not covered by a printed sign. It seemed that the companies would rather display "Chartered" than a blank sign.

Yes. I think that 'Chartered' conjurs up an 'I'm making money' thought where 'Not in Serive' makes one think that the bus is loafing around wasting money.

Actually, I take back my comment about the "congratulatons seniors" message on the buses. Today I saw another bus with that same message on Market Street. I guess it's in lieu of any sports team to cheer on... Maybe they should make it "GO SMARTY"

SubwaySurface wrote: I guess it's in lieu of any sports team to cheer on... Maybe they should make it "GO SMARTY"

At least you don't have to try to get MLB to return baseball after 33 years. I'm suprised that DC's Metrobuses haven't displayed "Bring the Expos to DC" yet!