Future of Septa Regional Rail Fleet

Head-end View wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 7:58 pm I always thought it was SEPTA policy to have one uniformed crew member per car.........

As somebody who has worked many, many five and six car trains by myself, I can assure you that is not the case. Pre-pandemic, Assistant Conductors floated between crews throughout the day. Now, with many if not all AC runs being married to Conductors, and if that job can't get filled, that's it.

The days of three and four ACs to a rush hour train are by and large over until they get their act together with staffing.

Very interesting...... I haven't ridden SEPTA Regional Rail since probably 2019, before the pandemic. I didn't know things had changed so much.

JeffK wrote:I found this story regarding progress - or lack thereof - on CRRC's work for MBTA's Red and Orange Line cars. Has anyone heard whether there's been similar problems with SEPTA's bi-level order?
https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/veh ... train-deal

Like clockwork, the inky just published an article

https://www.inquirer.com/transportation ... 30302.html

My current favorite out of the article:

At one point last year, CRRC reworked staircases between the lower and upper levels of SEPTA’s cars because the clearance was too low, and many passengers would hit their heads on a panel, agency officials said.

It will be nice to have the CRRC cars in several years, but I don't think SEPTA is in a particular rush at this point. Does SEPTA even have the crews to run them unless SEPTA would use them to replace Silverliner runs?

RCT: With SEPTA RRD ridership around 60 percent of 2019 levels currently SEPTA has enough equipment to provide current service levels...Train crew staffing should be at least adequate remembering that RRD had problems in the past having enough Engineers to provide service - CNJ should know more about this.

The MAIN problem is getting the 44 contracted CRRC multilevel cars built and delivered in the firstplace... With the troubles that the MBTA is having with CRRC fulfilling the contract for their new Orange and Red Line car fleets (see the ongoing topic at the MBTA Forum) and with only two multilevels actually built - the timeline looks to be indefinitely delayed...It may take legal action from SEPTA for a resolution...

SEPTA has enough extra ACS64 motors to provide added RRD P/P trains - as you may know SEPTA tested using push-pull equipment outside of peak hours but each time problems arose on being able to hold the schedule - MU cars are more flexible to provide most of SEPTA RRD's service needs...MACTRAXX

These railroads need to modernize. Yes, high level platforms will cost money, but they will speed things up and require smaller crews to operate trains.

And then there's the ridiculousness of collecting tickets. Proof of payment makes so much more sense, LIRR alone is wasting $250M/year on collecting tickets, which is preventing OPTO. I'm not a huge fan of OPTO for more than the smallest of trains, but railroads should at least be technically capable of it.