Nov. 5
By Anthony Campisi
For PlanPhilly
As the SEPTA strike ground into its third day, citizens throughout the city had to drastically change their commuting patterns. And for the unlucky Regional Rail riders who use Suburban Station, their commuting pattern took on a life of its own (check out video).
This was especially apparent at the regional rail stop at 49th Street and Woodland Avenues in West Philadelphia.
City Emergency plan
City Parking plan
West and Southwest Philadelphians normally enjoy convenient access to Center City — the Market-Frankford El, the five subway-surface trolleys and a multitude of bus routes make commuting easy and convenient.
But with those services suspended for the duration of the strike, residents crowded the 49th Street station. At about 7:30 a.m., the line to board waiting trains snaked up the steps to street level as SEPTA customer service agents stood at the top of the stairs, punching riders’ TransPasses as they got in line.
Most waiting passengers who normally took the subway-surface trolleys or the El to work were forced to walk or catch rides to the station.
Edison Freire, who occasionally takes the train in to work, said that he usually only sees “three or four people” waiting on the platform in the morning.
“It’s a lot more crowded,” he said, adding that boarding the train reminds him of a scene out of a country like India, where commuters hang out of crowded trains.
Though Freire was philosophical about the effects of the strike — “I’ve had great conversations with people,” he said — others were less sanguine.
Karen Smith, who usually catches the Route 36 trolley from 62nd and Elmwood, called the strike “sick.”
She had to walk about 20 blocks to the train station, adding at least an extra 45 minutes onto her 30 minute morning commute.
Though Smith got a ride into Center City yesterday, driving back to West Philadelphia after work took 2.5 hours.
Others had to travel farther.
April Moore usually catches the El at 52nd Street. Though she got a ride to the station, she will have to walk back to her home at 51st and Hazel this evening.
And though Lisa Reed has a longer walk than normal to the train station — she usually takes the Route 34 trolley along Baltimore Avenue — she has a much harder time getting to Olney, where she works for Albert Einstein Medical Center.
Instead of hopping the Broad Street Line, Reed has been taking the R3 in through Center City to Fern Rock, where she takes a hospital-run shuttle bus to work. That bus only runs once an hour, adding a considerable amount of time to her commute.
Because of the influx of regional rail riders, not everyone waiting at the platform was able to board when the train pulled up at about 7:45. Riders packed into already-full train cars, the overflow filling the vestibules. Conductors had to raise the stairs to train cars from outside the train and then hop on board themselves.
And inside an 8 a.m. train into Center City, riders were standing shoulder-to-shoulder, grabbing the ceiling and each other for support.
The evening commute was marked by queues for each Regional Rail Line, with hundreds of riders in each, snaking all around Suburban Station. The video below shows the huge line of folks waiting for the R3 Media, Elwyn train.
The Transport Workers Union has yet to agree on a time to sit down with SEPTA managers to continue negotiations, so there’s no telling how long the strike will continue.
But one thing is clear: West Philadelphians will be doing a lot more walking before it’s over.
Contact the reporter at campisi.anthony@gmail.com
Comments
The air is cleaner. The street traffic flows more freely -- even though there's more of it now. Pedestrians are actually safer.
It is so tragic that, aesthetically, the city is so much better off without it's over-sized busses, with over-zealous drivers, blocking not just their own lane of traffic but most times two lanes, and rarely pulling over to the curb even when it's free and clear. They make driving though the city immensely slow and laborious. They blow through yellow lights, and often through fresh-red lights, impervious to pedestrians or cross traffic. And they heavily pollute the air. (I lived on a bus route and had to clean our window sills daily and our curtains weekly! I do this only twice a year now living on a bus-free side street.)
It is so sad that so many thousands of commuters are so callously inconvenienced while Septa negotiators play games with people's lives. (Adding another 9 demands once a concensus had been reached? Unconscionable!) They are dedicated to their drivers and Septa workers at the expense of the job security, families and other life-commitments of every single rider. They will find that, through this ordeal, many of their regular riders may stay with the other solutions they've cobbled together. Some alternatives may be more pleasant and more reliable -- commuting with neighbors who drive, taking the train vs the bus, private van services, cab-sharing, buying a car, sharing the cost of Philly Car Share or Zip Cars with fellow commuters. Some may find they want to stay with the health benefits of walking a bit more each day -- I know that's when I gave up the bus entirely two strikes ago and started walking the 24 blocks to and from work. I tried different routes to explore different streets, and lost about a pound a week -- plus got in shape to go hiking in a National Park. But not everyone is lucky enough to actually be within a reasonable walking distance. And when this gorgeous fall weather is past, it will provide much more of a hardship.
People have gotten creative, and gotten to know their neighbors a little more through this. One of my neighbors, who's retired, drives two non-retired neighbors to work now each morning. (They walk home in the evening when they are less rushed, or share a cab.) I don't think they knew each other as well before this strike. Commuters who sat silently side by side on busses and trolleys now walk and talk to each other -- and mutually bemoan their plight and sometimes collaborate on a shared solution.
Sadly, the lack of public transit during the strike compels people have to get up too early -- making everyone even more sleep deprived. And they get home too late -- spending less quality family time together than ever.
And many kids who are public-transit dependent, can't get to school.
Each strike makes all commuting workers more inclined to live closer to their jobs, or work closer to their homes. It leaves a smaller applicant pool for each regional employer as folks are reluctant to take a job that leaves them Septa-dependent.
There are more latch key kids with no parent home to help with homework. But, a plus side is, kids may be learning to help get dinner started for when mom and dad are finally able to get home.
There is so much collateral damage that I think riders should do a complete boycott the day the strike ends to bring home the point that these are real people's lives and livelihoods they've been playing with. And the freeze out can go both ways. We need them, certainly. But without riders, they have no jobs at all.
If concessions are to be made to Septa workers, then let the rider emerge from this, also, better off. Let the pedestrians not flee in fear as busses blast through traffic signals, or cut across sidewalks taking wrecklessly tight turns, or terrorize bicyclists with whom -- for God know what reason -- they share a lane on Chestnut Street. Give scheduling relief to the poor little old lady, standing with only the support of her cane for half an hour at a bus shelter (with no seating provided) only to finally have three of the same bus come by -- one right after another -- rather than the every ten minutes they are scheduled.
And switch to smaller busses on underpopulated routes, and electric fleet to cut down on air pollution. Give the riders and residents something for putting up with this shut down of a critical city service. Give us our quid pro quo.
A friend who lives in Seattle says the busses that run around the down town area there are free to all riders within the city. It cuts down on car traffic and provides a service to the tax payers. What a concept. We pay, I believe, the highest bus fares in the nation. And, now at 8%, we also have among the highest sales tax. Do we have the best bus service for that price?
The extra exercise will be nice. Might this be a good time to re-evaluate our current public transit system and its redundancies? As well as a good opportunity to promote more sustainable commuting choices like bicycling? Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise for a city with a bloated transit system.
it would be nice if the poster above described what is meant by "bloated" and "redundant"?!
I walk, bike, transit and drive, and dislike any expressions of "modal bias".
Not all can easily walk or bike.
Lets all try to be more supportive of modes offering an alternative to SOV.
The strike goes on, but there's hardly a bleep, tweep, or word- to- the wise from the Mayor or Governor.
Ho hum. What's to be done? Deal with it. Complain on message boards. Suffer
silently. Be philosophical. Sorry, but these things just won't do anymore. Philadelphians
need to form large groups and find the clusters of protesting Septa workers,
and confront them angry mob style. A protest to protest the greedy strikers!
We need a Populist "rupture" of some sort because business as usual--ho hum, let's wait this out--just
isn't cutting it anymore.
>>The strike goes on, but there's hardly a bleep, tweep, or word- to- the wise from the Mayor or Governor.
Huh? The Governor was trying to work out the final pieces of a settlement--he even brought money to the table! What more do you want him to do? Handcuff Willie Brown to the table so he won't walk away again???
You bring the pitchforks, I'll bring the flaming torches