Transit geek: Philadelphia
Mar. 11th, 2007 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dmazeWas randomly in Philadelphia a week ago. Stuff to see there is sufficiently concentrated, and the city is sufficiently walkable, that we didn't have a car. This actually worked out reasonably.
Before I get into things on rails, it's worth mentioning this: there are signs on sidewalks every block or two with an area map, and arrows pointing at the things nearby. The city has gone out of its way to make touristy things easy to find on foot, and it works well. (Now, if only they'd include coffee shops on those signs...)
Philadephia is at an odd confluence of transit systems. Most service is provided by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority, but New Jersey Transit runs intercity busses into Philadelphia, and the (Delaware River) Port Authority Transit Corporation has its own line into Camden and points east. SEPTA, much like the MBTA, runs bus, subway ("el", but the parts I saw were entirely underground), light-rail, and commuter-rail ("regional rail") around Philadelphia.
One pleasant surprise is that there is rail service not just to the airport but actually to the terminals; the stairs to the train stations are between the gates and baggage claim. It's regional rail, which is a little interesting, and they're not shy about charging for it: even though the airport is nominally in regional rail zone 2, the airport fare is a zone 5, peak-hour fare. Runs every half hour and into downtown, which is helpful.
The regional rail system ultimately goes into a four-track tunnel under Market Street. The Market East station has signs at each platform saying what the next several trains are, where they go, and how close to schedule they are. Adjacent to this tunnel is a normal subway tunnel, which beyond City Hall also has light-rail stops.
Signal geeking: the R1 regional rail line to the airport has everything. The subway has what seem to be tower-format color-light signals, except they show restricting after a train passes (so the signal I was watching was red-red-yellow, yellow-red-red, green-red-red). Then coming up to 30th Street station, it's position-light dwarves. You turn left to briefly join the Northeast Corridor, and so there are classic Pennsy position-light signals. The last stretch out to the airport is all standard color-light towers again.
The other fascinating bit is the light-rail system. The blue line el stops at 15th Street and then runs express to 30th; the trolley line starts at 13th, stops at 15th, and makes local stops. It comes up to surface on the west side of University City, and then fans out to run four branch lines. These are all street-running (no dedicated right-of-way), with non-articulated cars, and with trolley poles instead of pantographs. Usual two-block color-light signals in the subway.
Before I get into things on rails, it's worth mentioning this: there are signs on sidewalks every block or two with an area map, and arrows pointing at the things nearby. The city has gone out of its way to make touristy things easy to find on foot, and it works well. (Now, if only they'd include coffee shops on those signs...)
Philadephia is at an odd confluence of transit systems. Most service is provided by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority, but New Jersey Transit runs intercity busses into Philadelphia, and the (Delaware River) Port Authority Transit Corporation has its own line into Camden and points east. SEPTA, much like the MBTA, runs bus, subway ("el", but the parts I saw were entirely underground), light-rail, and commuter-rail ("regional rail") around Philadelphia.
One pleasant surprise is that there is rail service not just to the airport but actually to the terminals; the stairs to the train stations are between the gates and baggage claim. It's regional rail, which is a little interesting, and they're not shy about charging for it: even though the airport is nominally in regional rail zone 2, the airport fare is a zone 5, peak-hour fare. Runs every half hour and into downtown, which is helpful.
The regional rail system ultimately goes into a four-track tunnel under Market Street. The Market East station has signs at each platform saying what the next several trains are, where they go, and how close to schedule they are. Adjacent to this tunnel is a normal subway tunnel, which beyond City Hall also has light-rail stops.
Signal geeking: the R1 regional rail line to the airport has everything. The subway has what seem to be tower-format color-light signals, except they show restricting after a train passes (so the signal I was watching was red-red-yellow, yellow-red-red, green-red-red). Then coming up to 30th Street station, it's position-light dwarves. You turn left to briefly join the Northeast Corridor, and so there are classic Pennsy position-light signals. The last stretch out to the airport is all standard color-light towers again.
The other fascinating bit is the light-rail system. The blue line el stops at 15th Street and then runs express to 30th; the trolley line starts at 13th, stops at 15th, and makes local stops. It comes up to surface on the west side of University City, and then fans out to run four branch lines. These are all street-running (no dedicated right-of-way), with non-articulated cars, and with trolley poles instead of pantographs. Usual two-block color-light signals in the subway.
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-11 06:03 pm (UTC)I have no idea where you were visiting, but it certainly was not Philadelphia. It might have just been Center City, but the rest of the city is neither walkable nor has signage. SEPTA is infamous for having been the worst transit system in the country, although I hear they have been improving, maybe just in the touristy areas.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-11 09:43 pm (UTC)My one criticism of SEPTA would be that its coverage of the center city is actually pretty sparse. There's about eight tracks east-west under Market Street, which is a lot. A dozen blocks south is South Street, which seemed quite the bustling area, and there was no transit there at all. Looking at maps of more of the city, it looks like a lot of the coverage of further-out parts is regional rail rather than rapid transit.