Friday, July 16, 2010

SEPTA Loses the R's

On July 25th SEPTA will stop using the R designation for regional rail routes. No more R1 to the Airport, etc. Now all the train signs will be gray instead of color coded for different routes. All routes will be referred to by their ending destination. Here is a list of routes:
Airport Regional Rail Line
Chestnut Hill East Regional Rail Line
Chestnut Hill West Regional Rail Line
Cynwyd Regional Rail Line Fox Chase Regional Rail Line
Lansdale/Doylestown Regional Rail Line
Manayunk/Norristown Regional Rail Line
Media/Elwyn Regional Rail Line
Paoli/Thorndale Regional Rail Line
Trenton Regional Rail Line
Warminster Regional Rail Line
West Trenton Regional Rail Line
Wilmington/Newark Regional Rail Line


As a rider I will really miss the Rs and the color coded signs. I can taken more than one line home and would just get on a train with one of the relevant route colors in the front window or on the side of the train. Now I'll have to read carefully.
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousFri Jul 16, 10:15:00 AM 2010

    this just seems like a misunderstanding of the psychology of information processing. I mean, I ride the Market-Frankfurt el line almost every day, and I think of it as the blue line. those colors are really helpful -- easy to look for on signs, helpful in finding train schedules, a shorthand in all kinds of way. why remove information? is it really about printing costs? misguided rebranding?

    -acm

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  2. AboveAvgJaneFri Jul 16, 04:36:00 PM 2010

    I don't know what is driving it (pun intended). But I will miss the R numbers and the color coded signs. Plus, not all the trains go the full distance all the time, not just express, etc., but some just go to a yard and stop at stations along the way. What will they be called?

    In this case change may not be good.

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