Return to Sender: SEPTA... Cares?

Dear SEPTA El Operator #55:

Riding the El in the morning from the Girard station is rarely a pleasant experience. The cars are so packed that sometimes I don't even have a railing to grab onto. Not that I'm worried about falling. In the sardine can that is the El most mornings, I'm sandwiched in too tightly to fall.

Wednesday morning was especially bad. We watched three eastbound trains roll into the station before our westbound train—packed so tightly that it was literally impossible to enter through more than a few doors in the whole train (some cars were completely full). About a hundred people waiting on the platform managed to squeeze themselves in anyway, myself included. To call it miserable would be an understatement, but we all had places we needed to be, so on we rode.

Somewhere between Spring Garden and Second Street, you came on the intercom. "This is SEPTA Operator #55. I'd like to apologize to everyone for the overcrowding this morning. There was a track-switching error at the Frankford Terminal that caused us to leave about four minutes late. Again, this is Operator #55, and I'm very sorry for any inconvenience. Have a great day."

Wow. That might be the nicest thing said by anyone I've ever encountered working for or with SEPTA. I've been here for over six years now, and I'm used to the stories of busses running over grandmothers or trolley operators slamming into buildings because they fell asleep at the switch (true story: it happened to a friend of mine). Never, not once, have I heard—or even heard about—a SEPTA employee apologizing for any inconvenience he or the organization may have caused the many people who depend on SEPTA to get to and from work on time.

So thank you for doing a little bit to help us trust your organization. More people like you could help your organization go a long way.

Image Credit: Flickr user SignalPAD