Return to Sender: Being Getting There

Dear SEPTA:

I've had the honor of taking you quite a bit lately. The new man in my life, you see, currently lives out on the Main Line.

And I'd just like to tell you, if I may, that a schedule is not a suggestion. It is a schedule.

Sure, your trains run more or less on time during rush hour in the morning and afternoon. But in between? Not so much. The trains are often running pretty late. Once in a while, though, they're actually early. And instead of pausing for a moment longer at every station to get back on schedule, they just leave a lot of people behind. Periodically, from what I've heard, the trains just don't come at all. That hasn't happened to me, thankfully, but I had a friend arrive at Market East fifteen minutes early for his 11:10PM train, and he ended up having to wait for the 12:10AM. All the while, the displays in the station said that the 11:10 was on time.

But as irritating as the Regional Rail schedules can sometimes be, it's nothing compared to the schedules for the El, trolley, and bus lines. The schedules, at least as printed on your website, seem to be terribly efficient. But in reality, the times indicated are, at best, to be taken with a grain of salt. Your 11:04AM bus may actually arrive on time at 11:04—but it could arrive as early as 10:45AM or as late as noon. Sure, there's no accounting for traffic, but the schedule is similarly bad on the El, which doesn't encounter traffic, and on the eastern part of the trolley routes (excepting the trolley on Girard), which doesn't, either.

It's gotten to the point where it's not worth looking at the schedules when I'm traveling within Philadelphia city limits. I just walk to my bus or trolley or El stop and wait. If I don't know what time my ride is supposed to arrive, I get a lot less frustrated when it's late. Or, you know, doesn't show up at all.

So why do I bring this up now? Well, as we reported yesterday, you're about to hike up your fares. Quite possibly a lot. And you may just slash your service, while you're at it. And I'm worried that this won't do you much good. It may actually do you a good deal of harm. People don't want to pay a premium for bad service. With the proposed increase, it may be just as cheap to take a taxi for a short trip as it would be to get on the bus. And with a taxi, you've got some degree of certainty that you'll be getting there more directly and without much of a wait. If you don't change something to make people trust you more, they may just lose faith in you altogether. And what would a big East Coast city be without its mass transit system?

It looks like the rates will go up, and the service will be cut, no matter what the governor asks. But do you think that if that happens, you might let SEPTA's riders see a benefit from it, too? We'd like to be riding on time, even if it's not in style.

Image via Flickr user child3283.