Other Advantages

While Atrios does (as usual) have a good point here, one of the reasons that [super]trains are compared to air travel rather than auto is because they are more comparable experiences.  You buy a ticket, get a seat, are on your own to get to and from the stations, can't bring too much stuff and can't decide to take random breaks for whatever.

If I could take my dog on a train with me (as you can lots of places in Europe...at least the city light rail) and if there was a good enough network that after I get off the intercity rail there were plenty of other trains/transit options to get around at the destination (as there is in Europe and in some US cities) then I could look at a train as an alternative to driving.  Right now, it isn't, and it won't be.

Dear SEPTA,

When I moved close to the Jenkintown train station I rode the train almost daily to Warminster for work.  It was (if I recall) $68 for a monthly (2-zone) pass.  Over the years, my travel increased a bit, that pass price kept going up and I started buying only in months I knew I was commuting to work for the whole of.  Now that pass doesn't exist and I would need to buy the $109 cross county.

I now ride SEPTA to/from the airport and occasionally to/from the city but otherwise not at all.  If the pass had been kept at the (already too-high) $75 level, I would still get a pass for months I wasn't travelling otherwise (e.g. I would have gotten one this month).  If that $75 was for the cross county I would consider buying it every month (except maybe Dec) regardless of whether or not I was travelling.  So SEPTA could be getting $600-800 a year from me, a single counter-flow rider whose ticket purchases are pure profit for you and who doesn't crowd out others (i.e. not riding peak to/from city), but instead you get $0 because your pricing for tickets is too high for non-center city commuters (especially considering your much worse scheduling for us).

SEPTA really should realize this: There is far more space on the counter-flow trains so extra commuters are pure gravy.  But it is cheaper than $75/month and MUCH more convenient for me--and for most suburban workers--to drive to work, so people with cars [who are not going to the city for work] currently have no good reason to ride SEPTA because the prices are just too damned high.

If I were in charge of their pricing I would try making the cross county pass $60/month, would market it to weekend city riders as well as suburban commuters, give it a year and see what happens.  I would buy that every month even though I wouldn't always be riding.

Commuters to the city have to deal with crappy traffic and paying for parking in the city: I don't.  I like the train because 1. the walking at both ends does me good and 2. reading on my commute is much easier.  When I drive, however, I can stop off at Costco, my Co-op, the beer store, or Target on my way home, so even months that I mostly take the train, I will likely want to drive occasionally.  If the pass price is so high that I can only justify it by riding every day...I won't buy it.

Transit Woes

I lived in Chicago for a couple years and I thought the Chicago Card used for transit was fucking brilliant.  It was my model for how transit should be done.  I mentioned it to friends and family, I probably mentioned it on this mess of a blog a time or two.  It worked well, it was inexpensive to catch rides, encouraging more ridership, and it just made sense.  Apparently, that is no more.  And why this change from a good, functioning, efficient system:

...under the old system, rich investors didn’t get a piece of the action. Under this one, they most decidedly do.

Ah, yes: privatization makes things better dontcha know?

SEPTA Nonsense

View Larger Map

I live fairly close to possibly the highest demand regional rail station SEPTA operates. It's a great station because 3-4 (depending on how you count) lines converge and go through it, and it's about a 25 min ride to downtown, 50 min to the airport, ~40 min to the sports complexes (drive times from this point are very similar).

Naturally, therefore, SEPTA wants to take advantage and build luxury mid-rise apartments a parking garage. I think park and ride is fine, and unlike some of the protesters, I don't think the parking garage is ugly, or will result in lots of crime. However, looking at the map what should be really clear is that this station is surrounded by residential with NO MAJOR ROADS.

All of the roads that lead here are narrow, 2-lane, 25 mph, and some with street parking and/or no painted lines! This is not an area to try and bring extra traffic to, not because [NIMBY] but because the roads don't support it, and while the plans do improve traffic in and out of the lot/across the bridge, they don't do anything about the feeder roads--because they can't.

On top of this the cost is something insane (in the neighborhood of $100k/parking space added), and SEPTA refuses to even attempt simple fixes to the problem that the garage is supposed to address (lowering fares from further out, increasing parking tolls). It's a giant clusterfuck of a bad idea that just won't die (though it has been pushed back).

The ideal solution would be luxury mid-rise (even low-rise) apartments or condos, which could, if done right, sell for a mint. They could also help to accelerate the revitalization of the nearby downtowns (there are 3). Oh, and the closed bar/restaurant in the station--the one SEPTA wants $6k/mo rent for--could conceivably be opened and operated at a profit as well.

I'm Seeing More Riders

I take the train (SEPTA regional rail) to work on a semi-regular basis--I'll drive if I sleep late or need my car for something during/after work e.g. When I first started, shortly after I moved a year back, an average morning would see the train car I rode on roughly 1/8th occupied and an average of 5 people on my shuttle from the final train stop. Now I would put the train car at more than 1/4 full (nearly one person in every bench) and probably 8-12 people on the shuttle.

I'm not entirely sure why this is, but I do like the trend.