Some really swell news out this week about SEPTA's increased ridership. From the Daily News:
And with gas prices projected to continue to rise, SEPTA ridership may increase even more. But SEPTA can't just sit back and position itself as the least best transit option and watch traffic and gas prices get worse. It's got to continue to improve.When SEPTA hiked fares 12 percent last summer, transit-agency officials said they expected ridership to decline, as it had after prior fare increases.
But when gasoline prices jumped sky-high and stayed there, SEPTA ridership escalated by 30,000 daily trips (4 percent) from July 1 to Jan. 1 over the same period in 2006.
Regional Rail ridership rose 12 percent, or 13,000 daily trips, while city transit (trains and buses) increased by 17,000 daily trips or 2.6 percent.
The ridership renaissance continued last month, up 51,000 daily trips or 6 percent over the previous January - up 32,000 daily trips on city transit; up 19,000 daily trips on Regional Rail.
Of course, one of the downsides about increased ridership is packed trains. SEPTA had already been shifting cars around to keep up with demand on the regional rails. But it was looking forward to receiving a delivery of new cars later this year. But that all changed now.
The Inquirer this morning reports that they had to push back the delivery of railcars for almost a year
SEPTA has granted Rotem USA Corp. an extension until April 2009 to deliver the first three Silverliner V railcars because of steel shortages and the bankruptcy of a communications equipment supplier, said Patrick Nowakowski, chief operations officer.
That will mean delivery of the rest of the 120-car order will also be pushed back at least four months, Nowakowski said. Final delivery of all the railcars is now scheduled for October 2010.
The culprit for the delay? The war in Iraq, of course:
Rotem was unable to procure enough of the type of steel specified in the SEPTA contract because the U.S. government has cornered the market; it is using the steel for armoring vehicles bound for Iraq, Nowakowski said.Riders will now have to wait awhile for relief from packed trains.