Route 52 offers 'Transit First" service

Transit First Program to Improve Service and Travel Time with Some Stop
Changes

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- SEPTA, in cooperation with the City
of Philadelphia, has completed a major "Transit First" project along the 52nd
Street corridor to improve service and decrease travel time for riders using
SEPTA bus Route 52 service. Route 52 operates between Wynnefield and South
Philadelphia.
Transit First refers to an initiative which outfits buses operating on
Route 52 with special equipment that sends a signal which keeps traffic lights
green until after the bus has safely entered the intersection, decreasing
delays while improving the flow of traffic.
Route 52 is the first SEPTA bus route outfitted with Transit First
equipment although similar technology is also currently in use on the SEPTA
Route 10 and Route 15 trolley lines.
In addition, to improve service, several stops between 53rd & Jefferson
Streets and 52nd & Catherine Streets have been repositioned from nearside
(before the light) to farside (after the light) stops. They include:

53rd & Jefferson Streets North and Southbound
52nd & Jefferson Streets North and Southbound
52nd Street & Lancaster Avenue North and Southbound
52nd & Master Streets North and Southbound
52nd & Thompson Streets North and Southbound
52nd Street & Girard Avenue Southbound only
52nd Street & Westminster Avenue North and Southbound
52nd Street & Haverford Avenue North and Southbound
52nd & Race Streets North and Southbound
52nd & Arch Streets North and Southbound
52nd & Locust Streets North and Southbound
52nd & Spruce Streets North and Southbound
52nd & Pine Streets Northbound only
52nd Street & Cedar Avenue Northbound only
52nd & Catharine Streets North and Southbound

Stops at 52nd & Parrish Streets and 52nd Street & Larchwood Avenue have
been discontinued.
Due to the shift from nearside to farside stops, the Philadelphia Parking
Authority has also relocated some on-street parking meters. New signs
identifying Route 52 bus stops, new parking zones, and no stopping transit
zones have been posted.
For additional information, contact SEPTA Customer Service at
(215) 580-7800 or visit http://www.septa.org.



Original Release Below
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stori ... 546&EDATE=

[bleep] it only took them 18 years...

If it works as well as the "system" on Route 15, we should get Tom Brokaw out of retirement for another special episode of "The Fleecing of America". Just another waste of money for something that doesn't work.

About 6 to 7 years ago, there was a similar project involving the discontinuance of a number of Route 10 stops in an effort to speed service.

The project was quietly shelved after a couple years when it became apparent that there was no time improvement. Aside from rider complaints, there was increased dwell time at the remaining stops, and trolleys still got caught by traffic lights at discontinued stops.

Let's see how long it lasts for Routes 15 and 52....

Looks like "irate" riders have stopped the 52 because they don't like waiting on the other side of the intersection and having to walk an extra block:

Philly.com article

"SEPTA moved 27 stops along the route from the start of the intersection to the end of the intersection, enabling buses to travel through intersections on the extended greens.

But the project is suddenly screeching to a halt at the red light of community opposition."

"But "elected officials come under tremendous pressure when an old lady with a cane says, 'Now I have to walk another block,' " Heinle said. "We had to restore most of the closed stops.""

Lucius Kwok wrote:Looks like "irate" riders have stopped the 52 because they don't like waiting on the other side of the intersection and having to walk an extra block:

Philly.com article

"SEPTA moved 27 stops along the route from the start of the intersection to the end of the intersection, enabling buses to travel through intersections on the extended greens.

But the project is suddenly screeching to a halt at the red light of community opposition."

"But "elected officials come under tremendous pressure when an old lady with a cane says, 'Now I have to walk another block,' " Heinle said. "We had to restore most of the closed stops.""

They actually only closed 4 stops in each direction (and SEPTA's own press release mistakenly had Spruce Street on that list). Many others simply went from near-side stops to far-side stops, on account of the traffic light delay system. For those riders, it's a mere walk across the street to their stop. For others, the farside stops shorten their walk.

Riders complain that SEPTA's buses are too slow, and there had been complaints from riders along the Route 52 corridor in the past about the ride being too slow. So SEPTA does what steps they can to even minimally speed the ride by setting all this up, and they complain about having to walk across the street to a stop, or down a block. Most of the closed stops were lightly patronized in comparison to the surrounding blocks. There are hundreds of farside and mid-block stops in the city. Route 52 is not unique in that respect now.

I'm afraid I have to side with SEPTA on this one. As long as people here resist the changes needed to bring this system into line with better transit systems across the country, we will be stuck with a 20th century system in a 21st century world.

But should I be shocked? The eliminated stop setup on Route 10 failed. Now I just hope they don't restore the stops to nearside, or that will eliminate the delayed-light system and thus, we will have spent taxpayer dollars for nothing in order to satisfy a few.

Now I just hope they don't restore the stops to nearside, or that will eliminate the delayed-light system and thus, we will have spent taxpayer dollars for nothing in order to satisfy a few.

You mean you didn't know? SEPTA loves to cater to the few, except of course when it comes to closing train stations. There is no transit first concept in this city. Transit always comes last. We always have to cater to the poor and infirm, and I didn't realize how many people had trouble walking until I rode the 15. Kind of defeats the purpose of mass transit, and makes it pointless when it crawls like a snail.

jfrey40535 wrote:

Now I just hope they don't restore the stops to nearside, or that will eliminate the delayed-light system and thus, we will have spent taxpayer dollars for nothing in order to satisfy a few.

You mean you didn't know? SEPTA loves to cater to the few, except of course when it comes to closing train stations. There is no transit first concept in this city. Transit always comes last. We always have to cater to the poor and infirm, and I didn't realize how many people had trouble walking until I rode the 15. Kind of defeats the purpose of mass transit, and makes it pointless when it crawls like a snail.

Oh, I know....lol....I remember the Route 10 fiasco.

As far as I know, there's not been a similar outcry on the eliminated Route 15 stops as of yet. And at the moment, they do not plan to move the farside stops on Route 52 back to nearside. I hope they stick to their guns on that.

I have heard alot of loud complaints about the discontinued stops on the 15, mostly on the western portion of the line. In fact, many are crying discrimination because there were not stops eliminated on the eastmost portion of the line (from Girard to Allegheny), where in fact some stops should have been eliminated (do we need to stop at Cambria AND Somerset??).

Fortunately on the 15, it has not come to the point of people blocking the route to make a point. But for all the stop elimination they did and the useless traffic control system that was installed, the route is not fast at all. If you want a fast trolley ride, ride it after 11pm when the street and passenger traffic die down.

Regardless, transit will not be attractive to more people in the region without improving its performance. Aside from "Transit First" technology, which in itself is a waste of money, SEPTA could improve travel times on some routes by realigning their paths. For example, there is no DIRECT service from the northeast to Franklin Mills right now. There are plenty of bus routes that go there, but they all take forever. SEPTA could do 2 things here: 1. Create a express route from FTC, or your hub of choice, to FMills that went down Bridge St and straight up I-95, or 2. Create a shuttle bus that went directly from Cornwells Heights to Franklin Mills (I don't know if this one would work). Bear in mind option 2 will only work if the bus directly meets the train, and SEPTA is famous for having buses leaving transferring rail passengers in the dust.

Of course, Route 20 is still by far the fastest, most direct, and most frequent of the three routes out of Frankford Transportation Center to Franklin Mills (just over 40-45 minutes) as opposed to the hourly service provided by Routes 67 and 84, both of which take over an hour to get to the mall at times.

Most of the mall ridership feeds off the Market-Frankford. That being said, I agree, at least some kind of express route would be nice to Franklin Mills. Extending Route 66 up Knights Road would provide an even faster route than the 20 to Franklin Mills. But that proposal died (NIMBY's against the trolley poles and wires along Knights and the mall property). So a new bus route would have to suffice....

some kind of express route would be nice to Franklin Mills.

Not nice...desperately needed. See this is why anyone with a car snubs their nose at anything SEPTA (rail included), just as an example, if I were to go to Franklin Mills by BUS (yuk), its a quick 20 minute ride on the 73, then transfer to the overcrowded 20 for 45 minutes, plus average 10 minute transfer time = 75 minutes. Or, I can hop in my car and be there in 20 minutes (outside PM rush), but even during rush worst case might be 40 minutes. SEPTA can't compete period. Kind of hard to fix that problem.

On the Franklin Mills issue, seeming how heavy the mall routes are, and how people are coming from all over creation to get to these routes, it really would make sense to build the Blvd subway extention and then have a feeder route to the mall from Southampton Road. But by now, the latest study on the subway is probablly locked in a vault with an inch of dust on it.

Overall, SEPTA really makes no effort to speed things along. Crews and operators do their best, but if you're using the complete system (bus-subway-train) there's no competition with the car.

Another example......Route 124/125, supposed to be an express from CC to KOP right? Except expressing down I-76 is like a bad joke. Why not run hourly R6 Norristown express trains from CC to NTC, then have a direct bus from NTC to KOP? If the R6 were a bit faster, and there was a direct bus from NTC (the 99 is a joke), you wouldn't need a bus from Center City, and more people just might ride it. Oh, and while they're at it, maybe they could actually schedule the buses to meet the trains, instead of speeding off as the train approaches (status quo at NTC).

Most riders get on at Wissahickon Transfer or 29th Street now, but it just seems ludicrous to trust the "depressway" with getting there ontime. The R6 could easily handle 1/2 hourly headways with a express followed by a local. If you could do Market East to NTC in 30 minutes, plus a 10 minute bus ride to the mall, that would make it more attractive to car owners to use SEPTA.

Where's the intuitive thinking SEPTA?

Another example......Route 124/125, supposed to be an express from CC to KOP right? Except expressing down I-76 is like a bad joke.

The 124/125 situation is even more messed up than you describe. The two started out as the single Route 45 and was SEPTA's first attempt at a "premium" service (hence the special, higher fare zones that are unique to the route to this day). After getting on the Messway at Gulph Mills buses ran direct to 30th Street with local stops only to discharge passengers inbound and pick up outbound.

Then someone decided to add a detour to Wissahickon, so there came another 10 or 15 minutes to serve what my experieces saw to be maybe one or two extra riders per trip. Next, people along Market Street started complaining about being passed by - even though there are how many other local routes??? - so drivers were ordered to operate full local service from 30th Street to the route's end, anywhere from 16th to 10th Streets. OK, nobody can do anything about the Crawlway, but why add a good 20 or 25 minutes more to the travel times of riders who are already paying the highest bus fare of any SEPTA route? A few people who squawk loudly for special treatment screw things up for hundreds of other riders.

The same mess happened to the 123. It originally ran direct from the malls to 76 at 202, then to the Blue Route and finally W.C. Pike. On the Pike it operated the same way as the original 124/125 - discharge inbound, pick up outbound. The trip averaged about 35 minutes and was certainly better than taking a chance on making the 125/100 connection at Gulph Mills. Then more screaming from people along the Pike; apparently seeing one express bus run nonstop every half hour was just too much to bear even though there are five other local routes. Result - the 123 became a local from the 476 interchange all the way to 69th Street, with run times close to 50 minutes. Finally, SEPTA added a rush-hour detour to Gulph Mills (remember, the 100 already runs from Gulph Mills to 69th Street in <20 minutes on rails) so it's now pushing an hour. Somehow I don't see the math here: double the travel time of every person making the full trip so that a couple of minutes can be shaved off the wait of people travelling maybe a mile and a half??

Why not run hourly R6 Norristown express trains from CC to NTC, then have a direct bus from NTC to KOP? If the R6 were a bit faster, and there was a direct bus from NTC (the 99 is a joke), you wouldn't need a bus from Center City, and more people just might ride it.

IMHO a far more attractive solution would be for SEPTA to get off its collective bureaucratic butt and start building the 100 extension to the malls. A high percentage of the people commuting to work at the malls are coming from West Philly. Making a reverse commute to 30th St., taking the R6 and then another shuttle to the mall would take over an hour in the best of circumstances. Plus it's a double transfer where connections would be chancy even if SEPTA weren't clueless. Finally it would require paying RRD fares, not something to take lightly on a store employee's wages. A P&W spur has been on the drawing boards for years; it would be a two-seat trip taking maybe 40 or 45 minutes for a third less in fares. Remember, the spur was why SEPTA already paid for an extra substation and 10 or so additional N-5 cars. But yet again, lack of will, lack of political clout, bending in the face of NIMBYs, lack of any common sense all prevailed.

A P&W spur has been on the drawing boards for years

Along with BSS extentions, and restoration of already existing lines. Clearly something is very wrong that this company can't get anything done other than install LED signs at stations that tell you "Trains are running every 10 minutes"---what a waste that is! Sad thing is, no one is interested, no one cares (anyone with clout). That leaves us to do the gruntwork which involves taking time off from otherwise revenue generating hours to try and persuade someone to do something about our dismal transportation system. As bas as I-76 is, I'm really surprised people aren't shouting for alternatives.

Well, the good news is that they chopped off almost all the Gulph Mills detours for the Route 123 except for 4 westbound AM and 4 eastbound PM trips. Seems someone realized the illogic of the situation, to a degree.

Also, 123 buses were making local stops along S. Gulph Road, and some Center City-bound people were boarding the wrong buses along there and at Gulph Mills. The original intent of the Gulph Mills detour was to get buses off the Distressway jams at Rt. 202 during the rush. Then they figured "since you're passing Gulph Mills <b>ANYWAY</b>....and they were not supposed to make any local stops along S. Gulph.

But......que sera, sera.....