SEPTA Public Meetings

SEPTA has announced a series of public meetings to discuss some of their future plans. The meeting schedule is on the press release. This is their introductory note:

General Manager Joseph M. Casey announced the beginning of a new chapter for SEPTA customers with the Fiscal Year 2009 Operating Budget.When asked about the upcoming $1.080 Billion budget program, Casey said…“We recognize that public transit is a customer service business and we are now in a financial position to commit our resources to the issues that matter the most to our customers - service, cleanliness, convenience, courtesy, and communications.”

SEPTA has seen steady and significant ridership increases on all service modes.In the first seven months of the current fiscal year (FY’08), Transit ridership grew by 4% or 30,000 daily trips and 12% on Regional Rail, a 25 year high. Responding to this growth and with the aim to improve customer convenience, the proposed budget identifies 65 initiatives to enhance service by addressing overcrowding, expanding peak hour service, improving midday, evening, late night Transit service, and expanding late night, weekend service on Regional Rail.Many of these enhancements are designed to provide service to growing employment, retail, and residential markets, and to better serve riders employed at businesses with 24 hour operations.These improvements are the next phase of service enhancements already in place including the recent expansion of weekday AM peak and midday service on the Market Frankford El and the addition of express train service and 1200 additional seats on peak hour trains on the Warminster, Elwyn, West Trenton, and Lansdale/Doylestown Regional Rail Lines.

Increasing the number of trains and adding cars are always good things. Myself, I've seldom run across bad customer service. Most of the conductors and all of the ticket agents I've dealt with are pleasant people.