SEPTA to possibly rename as SEPTA Metro

https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/ne ... on-system/

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- SEPTA is introducing a new name and look to their rail lines in 2024 that aims to take the guesswork out of how to use the Philadelphia region's public transportation system.

Management hopes SEPTA Metro will make the process easier for commuters to understand and for new riders to use the system.


SEPTA Metro will encompass the Market Frankford Line, Broad Street Line, Trolleys 10, 11, 13, 15, 34, 36 101 and 102, the Media-Sharon Hill Line and the Norristown High Speed Line.

There's a chart on the website on how they're gonna rebrand these lines.

All this rebranding lately suggests more graft (consulting fees) for marketing firms.

Maryland MTA rebranded its system as BaltimoreLink and the Baltimore Metro as "Subway Link".

What I do find ironic is the liberal use of "high speed line" used by the MFL, BSL, Norristown/P&W and PATCO.

Not exactly new or just possible. The initiative and posters were launched at least as early as 2021 https://www5.septa.org/media/news/septa ... -concepts/ and it is happening/already happened https://beta-static.septa.org/metro/ just waiting on signage
Posters were put up in stations long enough ago that most have been discarded . Its just a rebranding of septa transit to septa metro and shortening the line names down to a letter... which is the opposite of what they did to the rail lines

ryan92084 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 15, 2023 8:57 am shortening the line names down to a letter... which is the opposite of what they did to the rail lines

I'm so glad someone else sees the irony here.

I really would love to hear how SEPTA thought they could simplify the rail lines by getting rid of numbers and color codes.

The obvious thing would have been for them to renumber the Reading or PRR half of the system, and keep the R numbers. I am still not sure why they insisted on throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

I will still call it the P&W or R100!!!!

AlexC wrote: ↑Wed Nov 15, 2023 5:10 pm I will still call it the P&W or R100!!!!

I too refer to it as the P&W because it has far more history than SEPTA's attempts to operate the line like a railbus.

That said I strenuously avoid the "R100" moniker because I saw too many times when both riders and the media confused it with the former "real" R-lines. There were more than a few mornings when I watched someone board at one of the shared-name (but not shared-location) stations like Villanova, Radnor, etc. expecting to get off at say 30th Street, only to find themselves at 69th Street

dcipjr wrote: ↑Wed Nov 15, 2023 2:59 pm

ryan92084 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 15, 2023 8:57 am shortening the line names down to a letter... which is the opposite of what they did to the rail lines

I'm so glad someone else sees the irony here.

I really would love to hear how SEPTA thought they could simplify the rail lines by getting rid of numbers and color codes.

The obvious thing would have been for them to renumber the Reading or PRR half of the system, and keep the R numbers. I am still not sure why they insisted on throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

There's additional irony in their decision to retain the numbers for internal use in assigning train numbers. Various "outsiders" suggested putting a 1 in front of Reading-side numbers, but what did they know?

I also think it was a bad idea to introduce "Norristown Transportation Center" and then use DeKalb St. for a different station (Hughes Park or King Manor?). Some room for misunderstanding there.

The subway-surface cars should keep their route numbers, being surface lines like buses and trackless.

Everyone - Below on this page is this topic titled "The Metro" started by AC on September 7, 2021
(9/7 to 11/29/2021 - 37 posts) in which there was a good discussion going such as my very opionated
thoughts as to what the letters and line names should be and why previously in this proposal...

the-metro-t173487.html

I do not want to be repetitious in this subject - as I will note these letters and names SHOULD be (and WHY)
M - Market Frankford Line (Market Street and Broad Street are Philadelphia's most important transit routes)
B - Broad Street Line (as noted above)
N - Norristown Line (Keeping the well-known line name in part)
E - Media Line -and- H - Sharon Hill Line (Giving each line a letter code using the second letter of each name)
As for my undecided thoughts -
Using T for the five trolley routes can be T10, T11, T13, T34, T36 or as example T1, T2, T3, T4, T5 in that order...
G can designate the #15 Girard route - as example "G15"...(I will note color coding in another post)

The "Metro" concept can be a decent one - provided that well-established names (as example) be retained...
MACTRAXX

ExCon90 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 15, 2023 10:05 pm I also think it was a bad idea to introduce "Norristown Transportation Center" and then use DeKalb St. for a different station (Hughes Park or King Manor?). Some room for misunderstanding there.

That change does nothing but add to the existing problem of NHSL/P&W stations having the same names as those on the Paoli and Norristown RRD. Those on the Paoli line are somewhat less problematic because the paired stations are generally close to each other, a quick drive or even a short walk apart. But the prior and newly-named DeKalb Street stations are almost two miles apart on a congested road, which could cause more than a bit of grief for someone who's not familiar with the area.

The even more puzzling aspect is that when the issue of dual names came up at a public meeting, the SEPTAsuits' explanation was that they wanted to associate station names with nearby cross-streets, similar to the subway and el ... yet nearly every other P&W station and almost all ~250 RRD stations are named for the communities they serve.

R36 Combine Coach wrote: ↑Wed Nov 15, 2023 12:40 am All this rebranding lately suggests more graft (consulting fees) for marketing firms.

Maryland MTA rebranded its system as BaltimoreLink and the Baltimore Metro as "Subway Link".

Pittsburgh did it too, going from PATransit to Pittsburgh Regional Transit.

Back in SEPTAland, the Norristown route will always be the 100 to me.

Having been born and bred in Delco, at least SEPTA maintained a "Red Arrow Division" (if not the logo) for the first few years after annexing the PSTC system.