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SEPTA
Like literally ON the bus. This video is NSFW if your W doesn't want you to watch videos of naked dudes running around under the El.
[Editor's note: Yes, we're a little late to the draw on this, but it's kind of ... cool — a term we do not often throw out in reference to SEPTA announcements.]
Smart Cards — excuse us, New Payment Technology — may be years away, but SEPTA announced last week two new techy services that might make make waiting for the bus or trolley in the heat a little more bearable.
TransitView allows customers to track the progress of their bus or trolley through in close-to-real-time GPS updates. The location, posted on a GoogleMaps interface, is updated every three minutes.
Those without a smart phone however, can track trains, bus and trolleys with a new SMS Schedules program.Customers (with the exception of Sprint and T-Mobile users) can find out the next four scheduled stops of their route by texting a unique “Stop ID” code to the number 41411.
One catch: You still need a smart phone or to get online ahead of time to know what the station codes are — but SEPTA says it plans to introduce signs with “Stop ID” codes to all of its 15,000 bus stops across the city.
This month, SEPTA made a big announcement regarding its years-behind plan to implement smart cards instead of tokens and cash fare.
The announcement: they're still working on it.
The agency expects to award a contract this summer, but says that smart cards are still years away.
Meanwhile, in all the years it's been working on smart cards, SEPTA hasn't managed to place token machines at all of its stops, forcing riders to pay full fare instead of the discounted token rate. Many stations still refuse to take cash, even when a booth operator is present.
Are smart cards better than tokens? We suppose so.
But we're going to make a radical suggestion: Maybe "smart cards" are effectively a kind of red herring — as long as we're waiting for the improvements associated with smart cards (my city planning buddy assures me these improvements will be real, and they will be good), we are less inclinced to focus on all the improvements that aren't being made to service right now — things as small as SEPTA's posting train schedules at stations or making its announcements of delayed service easier to hear.
And so we've commissioned the following thoroughly un-scientific poll. What do you most want to see SEPTA prioritze?
Our intrepid Matt Stroud brings us this report from what was apparently a fire on the Broad Street Subway.
According to Stroud, police say someone "threw a bag onto the tracks," that somehow led to a fire, that somehow spread. Police are not calling it a "terror" incident, says Lt. Robert Wright.
The subway is closed indefinitely between Walnut and Erie stations. While SEPTA is running a shuttle service along Broad street, Stroud reports from Spring Garden Street that most are already full: "I watched four go by without picking anybody up."
More later.
I suppose when someone puts a quick update on an earlier story, it must be as long as the original story. I was unaware that the cliffnotes version of war and peace was as long as original. Actually on checking, it is Longer than the original. "Police are not calling it a "terror" incident, says Lt. Robert Wright" This would push me to thinking that he was a policeman. Please, lay off the caffeine Mr. Grant
This story is incomplete. Who is Lt. Robert Wright? Does he work for the Philadelphia Fire Dept., Philadelphia Police Dept., SEPTA Police Dept. was anyone hurt or taken to the hospital? Was there any damage to the station? A better job needs to be done when you are so called 'reporting the news'. Especially if you are serious about relaying timely, accurate, and useful information to the public. Just an observation from someone who keeps track of local news and current events.
little hood rats f-ing up my sitch..
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A Philadelphia Speaks user â as Newsworks noted in a recent post â recently asked whether the mysteriously ambiguous voice that says "Doors closing" â like "Dawhs Closing" â on SEPTA's Broad Street Line had been changed.
Intrigued, we at CP did what we at CP do: reported the story out.
News Intern Tanya Hull (Welcome, Tanya!) contacted SEPTA and delivers this report:
SEPTA spokesperson Jerriah Williams confirms that the voice from above has, indeed, been changed throughout the Broad Street Line. Williams said the announcement changes were made in Sept. 2010 when Pattison Station was updated to what is now AT&T Station.
Ms. Williams explained the change in the long-familiar but oddly accented "Doors Closing" announcement as being part of a system-wide "communications upgrade," but did concede that, "It was so fast, it sounded like the woman was from a foreign country!" and that "the recording now is clearer, slower, more manageable."
Despite those advantages, she added, "I miss it, as a matter of fact."
Hear the difference yourself:
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Philly City Paper, Drew Lazor, Drew-Shane Homie!, Derrick Q. Lewisâ¢, Ed Skirkie and others. Ed Skirkie said: RT @citypaper: SEPTA confirms that they've changed the weird "doors closing" voice on the Broad Street Line: http://ow.ly/3I9hN [...]
This is great..! For the last couple of rides I was really disturbed by that voice.. Then I noticed a few days Ago that it was diff.. I'm excited..!!
Not in Philly anymore but oh God I miss that sound! Who knew I would miss things like that when I left the city?! It's the little things in life that mean the most!
[...] apts for $25M (Philly.com) Broad Street run sells out in four days (Philadelphia Business Journal) SEPTA confirms: Weird Broad Street Line voice has been changed (CityPaper) Beyond Cheese Steaks: A Tour of Philadelphia Restaurants (New York Times) Admirers wish [...]
[...] Speaking of Septa ⦠Listen closely. The sort-of-creepy voice of the Broad Street Line has changed to be slightly less creepy. [Citypaper] [...]
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| Courtesy of Riding My Train |
Riders Against Gender Exclusion (RAGE), the folks who've lobbied SEPTA to get rid of its gendered TransPass, are holding a town hall meeting tonight to discuss how our transportation authority screws over other folks, as well:
Fed up with discriminatory policies and an unresponsive SEPTA administration, a group of transit riders will gather Wednesday to compose the first SEPTA Riders Bill of Rights. Citing biases against elderly riders, riders with disabilities, and transgender and gender non-conforming riders, the group hopes to create a compilation of riders' rights and establish standards of treatment for all SEPTA passengers.
It's from 6 to 8 p.m. at FIGHT (1233 Locust St., fifth floor, 215-985-4448).
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This is the one of the most fun-sounding protests we've heard of in a while:
Join Riders Against Gender Exclusion (RAGE) for a drag show style action. This public performance will show SEPTA that its transgender/genderqueer riders demand respect and attention, we will not... stay quiet while SEPTA ignores its promises for a safer transit system.
SEPTA continues to insist on the use of M/F gender stickers on its fare cards, subjecting transgender, genderqueer and other gender non-conforming riders to questioning and harassment when their sticker doesnt match their perceived gender.
SEPTA says that they dont want their riders experiencing unnecessary discrimination due to their gender. In October, SEPTA committed to taking steps to set up a way for riders to report incidents resulting from the gender sticker policy, promising that they would address these complaints to ensure more safety and respect for transgender riders. Its been five months and SEPTA has not taken a single step to follow through on what they promised.
It's also for a good cause: SEPTA's insistence on not getting rid of its M/F gender stickers seemingly to discourage people from using their opposite-sex friends' and family members' fare cards as their own, as if that's really a disincentive is insensitive and pointless.
The protest will go from 4:45 to 5:45 p.m., at the plaza across from City Hall.
[...] the Riders Against Gender Exclusion (awesome acronym, BTW) protest earlier this week, in which transgender activists dressed in drag and marched around City Hall, in order to speak out [...]
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Oh, goddammit! Why did I not read this until after using a normal token each way today? Well, really, I lost like, what, 80 cents, so I guess it's not that bad.
More details here: http://www.visitphilly.com/articles/philadelphia/spread-the-love-winter-promotion (Some specials during the week, too.)
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No, they won't make change for you at most stations; no, their "Smart Card" won't be coming any time soon; no, you can't hear a word of their infrequent subway station announcements â but SEPTA does do one thing really well: their updates on Twitter are timely, accurate, and incredibly useful for anyone who can access them.
(Had I checked the feed this morning, for example, I'd have known to catch the Route 34 to City Hall instead of wait in the snow for a trolley that, it turned out, would not come.)
Give them time. The Twitter feed (which is indeed very useful), the new site, the improved signage - they're all indications that SEPTA has finally gotten the message about the need to address customer service. The issues you raise are larger, more systemic changes that will take longer, but I think SEPTA riders finally have reason to hope that there's a management in place that understands the improvements that need to be made.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Philly City Paper, Allied Philadelphia, Philly News Now, Yancey @YanceyG, Tara Broadway and others. Tara Broadway said: RT @citypaper: Turns out @SEPTA does one thing really well: Tweet. http://bit.ly/cEDfCx [...]
Nice to see the positive comments by Isaiah and Neil here, be sure to tell SEPTA as well, who knows, maybe someday they'll post them to facebook as well! http://septa.org/cs/comment/
This is an interesting little story, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it just yet. On the one hand, hell yeah, it's about time somebody challenged these Wall Street bastards. On the other, isn't suing Goldman for greed a bit like suing the sun for shining?
I'm going to dig around today, time permitting, but I wonder if these sorts of suits have gone anywhere. I mean, from a strictly legal perspective, I would imagine that this case is an uphill climb for the transit authority. If they don't like the way their money is managed, they do have remedies — their stockholders' vote, namely. Or they could pull their money out of Goldman and allocate it elsewhere.
Curious if there are any lawyers out there who could give me a sense of what SEPTA's chances are with this thing. If you are, or known someone who is, please e-mail me at jeffrey.billman@citypaper.net, or just hit up the comments.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Philly News Now, Yancey @YanceyG. Yancey @YanceyG said: SEPTA sues Goldman Sachs: This is an interesting little story, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it just yet.... http://bit.ly/63p3re [...]
AWESOME!!!!!!! Hands down, the smartest idea I've seen in terms of handling those jerks; fight fire with fire!
Goldman Sachs Vs Septa! Its like Godzilla Vs Mothman, its a joke, Septa has the best hired guns in the tri state area and so does Goldman Sachs. Does anyone really think that there was anything going on that either party wasn't aware of? Its like one big gangbang, you never know who's going to be having sex with who, friggin lawyers! Its all bullshit, Septa stands accused of underfunding employees pension plans while getting billions in city, state and federal money and Goldman S, squanders it on chancy investments, thick as thieves I tell Ya.
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