[PRCo] Re: SEPTA ROUTE 15 RAIL SERVICE RESUMPTION

[mtoytrain at bellsouth.net]

Fred

Thanks for the update, yes as a fomer Pittsburgher, the news of a "Rail" line opening up in Philly
 was great for me,  stationed in Philly in the l960s I enjoyed and made a practice of riding around
 the city of brotherly love on their street car system.    Sure wish the "Burgh" still had one.

 One a sad note, with all the misery in New Orleans, I trust that the famed Street Car system can
 be salvaged.   Mark Mcguire and myself talked about going to the Crescent City one day to ride
 their historic trolley lines.   

 Fred, thanks for your hospitality given to Mark and I back in June on our visit to PTM.  Special
 thanks also to Ed and Derrick for the tour of the Ole Charleroi Interurban line. 

 Jerry Matsick
 Jacksonville
> 
> From: Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net>
> Date: 2005/09/05 Mon PM 08:57:41 EDT
> To: Pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org,  Bill Vigrass <billvigrass at comcast.net>, 
>         Daniel D Joseph <danldjoseph at juno.com>, 
>         Don Duke <trainbook at earthlink.net>, 
>         Bill Middleton <wdmiddleton at earthlink.net>, 
>         Scott Becker <Sbecker at pa-trolley.org>, 
>         Karl F Groh <Webster1214 at webtv.net>, 
>         Mike Taplin <miketap at globalnet.co.uk>, 
>         Dave Hamley <david.h.hamley at us.transport.bombardier.com>, 
>         Russ Jackson <rejmhj at netzero.net>
> Subject: [PRCo] SEPTA ROUTE 15 RAIL SERVICE RESUMPTION
> 
> For those on Derrick's list --- sorry that this isn't Pittsburgh.  If  
> Philly doesn't interest, kindly push delete key.
> 
> I did not make the initial first day of rail service on SEPTA Route  
> 15, which was yesterday.  However, I was told that it was a mixed bag  
> of cars and buses.
> 
> However, I did have the opportunity to see how SEPTA managed to  
> handle the second day of revived rail service today.   We met our  
> first car laying over at 63rd and Girard.  I asked the motorwoman if  
> there were any buses out ... she said 2 buses and 6 cars.  By  
> afternoon I think it was 3 and 6 or 3 and 5.  A supervisor explained  
> that they did not have enough qualified rail operators to handle the  
> service.   Note that the service had been planned for several years  
> and the start date had been postponed for more than a year not  
> because of a lack of crews but because of political friction between  
> SEPTA, the city, and the neighbors over parking interfering with cars  
> entering Callowhill Carhouse.    The parking issue still has not been  
> resolved.
> 
> Schedule maintenance today was dreadful ... the banana system of  
> dispatching appeared to be used (they come in bunches).   I  
> encountered one man on the street up in Fishtown squawking about how  
> poorly they kept schedules, and I guessed it was a supervisory  
> issue.  He remarked that the street supervisors were hiding in the  
> shade under I?95.  I didn't try to confirm.   The scheduled headway  
> this afternoon was 15 minutes.  The actual interval between vehicles  
> varied from 5 to 25 minutes.  I witnessed buses driving around rail  
> cars on Girard Avenue, which must have made a real headache for  
> supervisors, i.e. the lead man is 10 minutes late but the follower  
> comes in on-time.   I'm not going to speculate why.  I was told that  
> it takes 6 minutes to use the wheel chair lift but I never saw anyone  
> in a wheelchair at any car stop.  I also didn't ride any car.   The  
> only supervisor I encountered was at Richmond an Westmoreland loop,  
> the east end of the line.
> 
> I also met a woman who asked if this was permanent?  Would anyone  
> spend $90 million and not make it permanent?  Please, don't answer that.
> 
> Two bays at Callowhill are again rail, one for route 10 and the other  
> for route 15.  The Kawasaki cars on route 10 pulled out of Elmhwood  
> on Saturday morning and pulled in at Callowhill that evening.   
> Operators for route 10 were transferred from Elmwood to Callowhill.
> 
>