[PRCo] Re: SEPTA ROUTE 15 RAIL SERVICE RESUMPTION

[Bob Rathke]

Thanks for the update, Fred.  Good to hear that the rust is being cleaned 
from the route 15 rails again.

Bob 9/5/05

-----------------------------
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
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>
Sent: Monday, September 05, 2005 7:57 PM
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.
>