A friend of mine and I were talking, and the following message is the end result. I've sent this into the Philadelphia Daily News for consideration in their editorial pages.
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It’s time for SEPTA to wake up and smell the latte. They have competition!
Feel like making a trip to New York City? Tired of paying high Amtrak fares, but you also don’t want to put up with late SEPTA trains and then missing the NJ Transit connection at Trenton?
There is an alternative that is reliable and even cheaper now. It’s NJ Transit’s new River LINE light rail service. And you can do it in almost the same amount of time.
How? A friend of mine and I did some schedule crunching and came up with this: Starting from 8th & Market, take PATCO to Walter Rand Transportation Center in Camden. If you time it right, you can make a six-minute connection to a Trenton-bound River LINE train at Walter Rand. Arriving at Trenton, just walk across the street to Trenton station and leisurely purchase your NJT rail ticket to New York and board your train. Total running time from 8th & Market to Trenton: 1 hour, 9 minutes.
Now, the SEPTA contrast: Starting from 8th & Market, walk over to Market East Station. Stand in line to purchase your tickets because the ticket machines won’t accept your new $20 bills. Now, you get to the platform and pray that your train is not delayed coming out of Chestnut Hill East. If it is on time (and you’ve not missed it while buying tickets), then you pray that you’re not held by Amtrak en route to allow their trains to run first. Arriving at Trenton, you do the mad dash up the platform (or over to the other platform) to purchase your NJT rail ticket to New York and try not to miss the train. If everything goes well, the total running time from 8th & Market to Trenton: 1 hour, 4 minutes.
Now, let’s look at the cost contrasts. Using one-way fares for simplicity’s sake, traveling the SEPTA-NJT Rail combination could cost you a total of $17.40 ($7 on SEPTA, $10.40 on NJT). The PATCO-River LINE-NJT Rail combination could only set you back a total of $12.65 ($1.15 on PATCO, $1.10 on the River LINE, $10.40 on NJT).
Oh yes, and let’s not forget that SEPTA’s R7 trains to Trenton only run every hour during the off-peak and weekends. The River LINE runs every half-hour daily. And on weekdays when NJT trains to New York also run half-hourly, the River LINE offers more connection opportunities.
I put the above theories to the test on Friday. I made a round trip from 8th & Market to Trenton and back, using the R7 on the outbound trip, and the River LINE-PATCO combination to return. The R7 was 4 minutes late arriving at Market East and then held at Morrisville to allow a southbound Amtrak train to pass before we could cross over for the final stretch into Trenton. My total travel time from 8th Street was 1 hour, 15 minutes. On the return trip, I boarded the River LINE for the trip to Camden. Arriving at Walter Rand, I made almost an instant transfer to PATCO, as the train arrived right as I got on the platform. My total travel time from Trenton back to 8th Street was 1 hour, 6 minutes.
Look out SEPTA. A much more reliable option is just across the river! It’s possible that the Philly-New York monopoly may be broken once word of this gets out unless they can better work with NJ Transit on more varieties of joint fare deals and service improvements!
Joe
______________________________________
It’s time for SEPTA to wake up and smell the latte. They have competition!
Feel like making a trip to New York City? Tired of paying high Amtrak fares, but you also don’t want to put up with late SEPTA trains and then missing the NJ Transit connection at Trenton?
There is an alternative that is reliable and even cheaper now. It’s NJ Transit’s new River LINE light rail service. And you can do it in almost the same amount of time.
How? A friend of mine and I did some schedule crunching and came up with this: Starting from 8th & Market, take PATCO to Walter Rand Transportation Center in Camden. If you time it right, you can make a six-minute connection to a Trenton-bound River LINE train at Walter Rand. Arriving at Trenton, just walk across the street to Trenton station and leisurely purchase your NJT rail ticket to New York and board your train. Total running time from 8th & Market to Trenton: 1 hour, 9 minutes.
Now, the SEPTA contrast: Starting from 8th & Market, walk over to Market East Station. Stand in line to purchase your tickets because the ticket machines won’t accept your new $20 bills. Now, you get to the platform and pray that your train is not delayed coming out of Chestnut Hill East. If it is on time (and you’ve not missed it while buying tickets), then you pray that you’re not held by Amtrak en route to allow their trains to run first. Arriving at Trenton, you do the mad dash up the platform (or over to the other platform) to purchase your NJT rail ticket to New York and try not to miss the train. If everything goes well, the total running time from 8th & Market to Trenton: 1 hour, 4 minutes.
Now, let’s look at the cost contrasts. Using one-way fares for simplicity’s sake, traveling the SEPTA-NJT Rail combination could cost you a total of $17.40 ($7 on SEPTA, $10.40 on NJT). The PATCO-River LINE-NJT Rail combination could only set you back a total of $12.65 ($1.15 on PATCO, $1.10 on the River LINE, $10.40 on NJT).
Oh yes, and let’s not forget that SEPTA’s R7 trains to Trenton only run every hour during the off-peak and weekends. The River LINE runs every half-hour daily. And on weekdays when NJT trains to New York also run half-hourly, the River LINE offers more connection opportunities.
I put the above theories to the test on Friday. I made a round trip from 8th & Market to Trenton and back, using the R7 on the outbound trip, and the River LINE-PATCO combination to return. The R7 was 4 minutes late arriving at Market East and then held at Morrisville to allow a southbound Amtrak train to pass before we could cross over for the final stretch into Trenton. My total travel time from 8th Street was 1 hour, 15 minutes. On the return trip, I boarded the River LINE for the trip to Camden. Arriving at Walter Rand, I made almost an instant transfer to PATCO, as the train arrived right as I got on the platform. My total travel time from Trenton back to 8th Street was 1 hour, 6 minutes.
Look out SEPTA. A much more reliable option is just across the river! It’s possible that the Philly-New York monopoly may be broken once word of this gets out unless they can better work with NJ Transit on more varieties of joint fare deals and service improvements!
Joe
"CSX Detector. Milepost Six Point Four. No Defects. Repeat: No Defects. Total Axles Seven Four Seven. Detector Out"
