Saturday November 14, 2009 3:43 pm
Track 6 Suburban Platform 30th Street Station Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA
I’m sitting in the suburban nave of an art deco cathedral to the American economy. The ancient arched steel and glass canopy filters a soft grey light onto the twenty patient passengers waiting for the 4:04 R1 train to the airport. The tranquil atmosphere is hushed between infrequent weekend trains. The air is cool but not cold. A middle aged woman chats quietly in French with her aged mother. The incessant rain of the last two days has blessedly relented.
This will be the 26th passenger train I’ve boarded in the last 54 hours on a whirlwind tour of Philadelphia’s rail network organized by the Transportation Research Board. The tour gave me a chance to reconnect with old friends, renew acquaintances and make new contacts. It also provided a hands-on opportunity to ride some services and see some facilities that I’ve only read about or haven’t seen in a long time.
The Ninth TRB Rail Passenger Caucus included a joint business meeting of the passenger
rail-oriented committees in the TRB Public Transport and Rail Groups and provided an opportunity to learn more about rail transit
systems, programs, and policies through a concentrated combination of
technical presentations and field tours.
The itinerary for the Rail Passenger Caucus provided in-service demonstrations and briefings of the following modes and agencies:
Thursday, November 12
Amtrak, DART & SEPTA Commuter Rail, SEPTA Light Rail & 25th Anniversary
Ceremonies for the Center City Commuter Connection
Friday, November 13
SEPTA Commuter Rail, Rapid Rail Transit, Light Rail, Streetcar, Electric Bus.
Saturday, November 14
PATCO Rapid Rail Transit, NJ Transit Commuter Rail and Light Rail.
PARTICIPATING AGENCIES
Delaware River Port Authoriity
Delaware Transiit Corporatiion (DART)
Delaware Valley Regiionall Planning Commiissiion
National Rail Passenger Corporatiion (Amtrak)
NJ Transiit Corporation
Port Authority Transit Corporatiion (PATCO)
Southeastern Pennsylvaniia
Transportation Authority (SEPTA)
Southern New Jersey Rail Group
A few quick observations: Philadelphia, like Boston has an extensive light rail and trolley network but in contrast to Boston it generally serves the city’s lowest economic stratum rather than its highest. The biggest surprises were the odd Norristown High Speed Line, the quaint Sharon Hill and Media lines, the newly reopened Girard Street car, the vitality of NJTransit’s RiverLINE and SEPTA’s 21st century operations control center. I never realized that Philadelphia had an extensive network of underground pedestrian passages.
Philadelphia’s investment in transport infrastructure continues to lag other major America cities, and like other cities in these times, the prospects of meeting their transport funding needs are dim for the foreseeable future. But unlike other cities they have a number of underutilized transport facilities that they continue to support at no small expense. If asked, I’d advise Philadelphians to focus their economic development efforts on employment, education and safety in neighborhoods and areas that are rich in transport capacity but socially and economically deprived.
David O. Nelson
Chair Subcommittee for Self Powered Railcar Technologies AP070(1)
45 annotated photos from the caucus are found at http://picasaweb.google.com/DAVID.NELSON.AT.JACOBS/TRBPassengerRailCaucusPhilaPANovember12142009?feat=directlink
