SEPTA fare increase

[elSicomoro]

For those of you outside of Philadelphia, SEPTA is our public transit system.

SEPTA's committee is meeting today to determine the rate increase that will kick in on July 1. The original talk was an increase of base fare to $1.90 and transfers to 60 cents. Now there is talk of a $2 base fare in order to give the city of Philadelphia a 5% discount on buying tokens for students. There is also talk of only a 50 cent transfer.

What say you, the residents of metropolitan Philadelphia? I don't know how many of you ride SEPTA, but I do on occasion, and my fiance rides it every day. Personally, I am all for the increase, with the hope that SEPTA will begin extensive use of farecards (as Washington's Metro system uses). Even if the fare goes up to $2, I will still pay less than I did in DC. Not to mention, the passes are still a good deal as is regional rail. Furthermore, fares have not been raised in 6 years.

Thoughts, opinions?

[russotto]

$2 for a bus ride makes gas and parking look cheap.

(the ride itself makes parking look easy)

[Dagnabit]

The only hope that I have is that the fares increase to the point where only I can afford the train and I am the only one on it whenever I go. The biggest hassle in getting the train is the parking at the station. If half these people would only drive, I could take public transportation more often. Yes I realize the irony in the situation!

[elSicomoro]

*laughs*

In the long run, it's a matter of cost analysis really. Let's say you work in Center City, and you're company does not pay for parking. Now, let's say you live in Valley Forge, or Torresdale, or Paoli. That's a good hike into Center City, putting up with a ton of traffic and delays, not to mention, paying as much as $18 a day for parking.

Or...you can take some of that time from the delay, pay $30 for a Zone 3 Trailpass (as I would buy) and ride into Market East or Suburban smoothly. Then walk or hop a bus to work. In the end, it just depends where you live and where you work. The only reason I ever drove when I worked in Society Hill and Center City is because CVS paid for my parking at both locations. Otherwise, I would have hit the El or the R7.

SEPTA has its bad spots--buses that smell like pee, cranky folk, and Frankford Terminal (which is its own problem)...not to mention, late buses and trains. On the whole though, I have had a relatively good experience with SEPTA, and support the fare hike.

Besides...what are you going to do? It's not like you can really boycott SEPTA...unless you have friends eager to carpool.

[Slithy_Tove]

Originally posted by sycamore
Now, let's say you live in Valley Forge, or Torresdale, or Paoli. [...] Or...you can take some of that time from the delay, pay $30 for a Zone 3 Trailpass (as I would buy) and ride into Market East or Suburban smoothly. Then walk or hop a bus to work. In the end, it just depends where you live and where you work.

And that's the problem with public transportation in general. It's built on a very narrow concept of where people live and how they work. It assumes that people live in the suburbs, commute to the city (or vice versa) and work banker's hours.

Increasingly people (like me) work in one suburb (Darby) live in another (Concord township), and some of us work very odd hours (11 pm to 7 am). Although I don't have the emotional attachment to public transportation that the politically left-of-center seem to, I would gladly use it if it got me where I needed to go, at time when I needed to go there. It doesn't.

Private cars are an American success story because they provide a flexibility that public transportation doesn't. An additional problem is that Septa has been slowly closing down lines for years. There used to be a commuter train station fairly near my house. It's no longer in service. To even get to the station, I have to drive miles and miles.

I think public transportation works better in Europe for a number of reasons. 1) The city/suburb hub/spokes structure is less broken; 2) governments there artificially keep the price of gas high, discouraging private car use; 3) Europe is denser in population than the US, and travel distances are shorter.

For Septa, the fare hike is a bad sign. After every recent strike in recent decades they've increased fares, seen ridership fall off, then shortened lines and reduced services. It's a steady downward spiral. It doesn't bode well. It may be a symptom of a city that is still losing jobs and population.