September 5 Schedule Changes

SEPTA sort of announced changes to the Regional Rail schedules effective September 5, 2021. The changes were announced late last week through posters and on the SEPTA website:

http://www.septa.org/key/updates/region ... -2021.html

Some highlights to the changes:
1. Service back to 65% weekday and 53% weekend levels.
2. Cynwyd is back with "limited service".
3. Some rush hour expresses/locals will return to Paoli-Thorndale, Lansdale-Doylestown, Warminster, West Trenton and Wilmington-Newark.
4. Weekend changes include 2 hour service restored to Fox Chase, Media-Elwyn lines with Sunday schedule for Paoli-Thorndale starting at Malvern (current weekend schedule has trips to and from Thorndale every 4 hours and every 2 hours from Malvern).

No schedules posted yet, but good to see something resembling normal service. I have been going in twice a week and using Amtrak at least 50% of the time due to the current SEPTA schedule.

RCT and Everyone:

SEPTA with this advance notice on RRD service enhancements in September four weeks out is notable...

All parking in SEPTA-run parking lots at RRD stations will be free until the end of October.
This does not cover PPA parking at some stations within the City of Philadelphia.

There may be RRD riders returning to the system for the first time since the sale and use of legacy tickets
was discontinued that will have to learn how to use and commute with the Key card going forward.
The flexibility of RRD single ride and 10 trip legacy tickets good for six months is permanently gone.

I have noticed that some mass transit systems are offering incentive discounts such as lower fares to
lure riders back to mass transit...In this regard will SEPTA offer any reduced fares to riders?
With their "Every Dime Every Time" bean-counter mentality?

As they say on TV: "Stay Tuned..." MACTRAXX

MACTRAXX wrote: ↑Wed Aug 11, 2021 12:13 am Will SEPTA offer any reduced fares to riders?

Good one, I needed that laugh

Push Pulls are supposed to be back, most Airport trains will be going to Fox Chase during the week, hourly weekend service on some lines, although in some cases that will only be mid day.

More changes coming, the summary that usually gets posted to their website two weeks or so before the changes will be looooonnnggg

Searching for an old schedule I found the new ones effective September 5 (no Cynwyd posted yet):

Thorndale: https://septa.org/schedules/future/rail/pdf/tho.pdf

Airport: https://septa.org/schedules/future/rail/pdf/air.pdf

Chestnut Hill East: https://septa.org/schedules/future/rail/pdf/che.pdf

Chestnut Hill West: https://septa.org/schedules/future/rail/pdf/chw.pdf

Fox Chase: https://septa.org/schedules/future/rail/pdf/fxc.pdf

Doylestown: https://septa.org/schedules/future/rail/pdf/doy.pdf

Norristown: https://septa.org/schedules/future/rail/pdf/nor.pdf

Elwyn: https://septa.org/schedules/future/rail/pdf/elw.pdf

Trenton: https://septa.org/schedules/future/rail/pdf/tre.pdf

Warminster: https://septa.org/schedules/future/rail/pdf/war.pdf

West Trenton: https://septa.org/schedules/future/rail/pdf/wtr.pdf

Wilmington: https://septa.org/schedules/future/rail/pdf/nwk.pdf

Looks like limited express/local service is coming back on Paoli Thorndale, Wilmington, West Trenton and Warminster including some reverse commute express/local on the first two. The service times off peak and weekend are better on some lines as well.

Odd that the express now stops at Overbrook.

mcgrath618 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 12, 2021 1:34 pm Odd that the express now stops at Overbrook.

I still have an old schedule in my desk in the office and the pre-COVID afternoon inbound express stopped at Overbrook . It also stopped at Haverford.

Can the airport line support frequencies higher than every 30 minutes? Especially since the economy lot is closed, the employee lot is closed and also preflight parking is closed as well.

Hope they still offer free parking

PHLSpecial wrote: ↑Thu Aug 12, 2021 3:19 pm Can the airport line support frequencies higher than every 30 minutes? Especially since the economy lot is closed, the employee lot is closed and also preflight parking is closed as well.

It could, but it would be wildly inconvenient for travelers because you'd need to use both tracks at the airport. Generally the preference is to use No. 2 track for access to both platforms. It's really not necessary to run more during the week, these trains are hardly bursting at the seams. I do feel half hourly service should be restored on the weekend.

Would it kill SEPTA to make a chart that isn't more stretched and distorted with every new schedule?

Any who, looking at the old schdules I can find online https://www1.villanova.edu/content/dam/ ... hedule.pdf

and http://www.brynmawrpa.org/r5.html

It looks like they are back to more trains so it's not brutal if you miss one, but it's still well short of having 30 minutes between trains on weekdays. That being said...4 hours between trains is brutal past Malvern. Might as well book Amtrak at that rate, but at least the weekend's are back to being more reasonable

RCT and MCG: Overbrook has a substantial number of reverse intermediate commuter riders westbound in the
AM Peak and eastbound in the PM Peak. Providing or adding an Overbrook stop to serve those passengers does
not surprise me at all. These Overbrook reverse commuters use Cross County passes and intermediate OW fares.

SEPTA made changes in the last years of sales of legacy Cross County passes that made them much more flexible
to use is that the only restriction was they are not valid to, from or through the five CCP RRD stations weekdays.
All of the other City Transit restrictions and surcharges were removed making the Cross County a less expensive
version of the Anywhere pass for many reverse commuters.

PHL: Since the Airport Line opened in 1985 half-hourly trains everyday is the regular service level.
The one noteable reduction was hourly service instituted with the 2020 pandemic service cuts.
Two trains per hour as CNJ notes is adequate for the Airport Line.

MCG: NJT connections shown in the SEPTA Trenton Line schedules were removed with the 2020 pandemic service
cuts. Riders are advised to use a NJT NEC timetable or the NJT website for connecting NJT train information.

In closing expect even more changes before the September 5 timetables go into effect...MACTRAXX

SEPTA posted the Cynwyd schedule:

https://septa.org/schedules/future/rail/pdf/cyn.pdf

5 roundtrips a day.

Mactraxxx wrote: ↑Wed Aug 11, 2021 12:05 pm Will SEPTA offer any reduced fares to riders?

Update: I'm hearing rumors that weekly, though not monthly, passes will be discounted for select weeks in September.

I don't know if this has been mentioned but on the quarter parking at the outlying stations it says parking payments have been suspended until the end of October.

http://septa.org/key/pdf/Key-Summer-Fal ... 21-rev.pdf