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to promote civic engagement in the Philadelphia region.SEPTA responds to criticism over parade day performance
Monday, November 3rd, 2008 at 5:10 pm - by Its Our City Staff. Filed under: Transportation.
Packed SEPTA train on parade day / Image credit: Septa Watch
By Joe Casey, General Manager of SEPTA
In the joyous frenzy that preceded the Phillies victory parade the dilemma facing SEPTA was simple arithmetic; how does a transit system that is already operating at full capacity accommodate a tidal wave of people going to the party?
The answer, while extraordinarily difficult to accomplish, is still basic math; place as many trains as possible where the largest number of people are expected, and run them as often as possible.
On any given weekday the SEPTA Regional Rail system carries about 135,000 customers. As our daily riders are already aware, we operate every available train car in our fleet, and, indeed, some trains are “standing room only.” On Friday, however, the trains carried an estimated 300,000 thousand people to the parade, upwards of three times our normal full capacity. Regretfully, to accomplish this we had to disappoint some people, there was simply no means to carry everyone.
At one o’clock, when the parade was well underway, we stopped operating trains into Center City and assembled the vehicles in the city in anticipation of the biggest crush of people of the day - the exodus. The conclusion of the party at the Sports Complex coincided with the Friday afternoon rush hour resulting in a sea of humanity at Suburban and Market East stations. Yet, by early evening most of the revelers were safely on their way home.
It was obvious that the Broad Street Subway, with Pattison Avenue Station at the doorstep of the Sports Complex, would be “ground zero” in our transportation challenge. The subway carries about 150,000 riders on an average weekday, for the big parade we carried approximately 400,000 Phillies fans.
To accomplish this, at two o’clock, when the celebration program was scheduled to begin in the ball park, we began harboring our trains in South Philly for the exiting crowd.
For SEPTA, it was a day of historic proportions. Never before had we carried as many people in such a relatively brief period of time.
And, despite the crush of humanity on so many of our platforms the best news was that - no one was injured.
While we couldn’t possibly carry everyone to the party, I truly regret the effect of this day on so many of our regular commuters whose trips to or from work were disrupted.
I am extremely proud of the hundreds of talented and dedicated SEPTA employees - including many office workers who left their desks to volunteer with crowd control - all of whom performed the Halloween magic trick of transporting three times the number of people than the transit system is normally capable of carrying.
Related link: So how did SEPTA and PATCO do?
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:30 pm
[...] Its Our City created an interesting post today on SEPTA responds to criticism over parade day performanceHere’s a short outlineIt was obvious that the Broad Street Subway, with Pattison Avenue Station at the doorstep of the Sports Complex, would be “g…The conclusion of the party at the Sports Complex coincided with the Friday afternoon rush hour resulting in a sea of humanity at Suburban and Market East stations…. [...]
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:39 pm
That’s CRAP. why was my mother at Morton Station at 1045 when announcements came over the PA system that the service was suspended? Waaaayyyy before the 1 pm time this letter states?
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Despite the complaints, and let’s face it - complainers are almost exclusively much “louder” and “more attention-getting” than satisfied customers…
…expecting Septa to handle the anticipated flood of people was a bit much to ask.
Could some things have been handled better? I’m sure of that, but I think given somewhere in the neighborhood of 2-million people expected to descend upon the City… Septa had no prayer.
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:55 pm
I didnt even read through the whole article because I just couldnt! SEPTA had problems from the minute the day started. I was in work 30 minutes late and that was at 8am! The service is poor and that is all there is too it. If a normal day of commuting is your “capacity” then you really have a lot of work ahead of you. Maybe you shouldnt be trying to encourage more people to ride SEPTA if you cant handle it.
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:57 pm
This letter is crap. My mom called me way before 1pm saying all inbound service was suspended and that the Broad Street Line would be suspended, so you couldn’t get down to South Philly.
Also maybe if they knew they couldn’t handle it they shouldn’t have touted it as the main way to get into and out of the City.
Yes I’ll give them the fact they were working their butts off, but when most SEPTA workers didn’t have a clue as to anything that was going on it was little disheartening.
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:06 pm
here is my take -
I heard Rendell urging everyone to take Septa, as it was the most convenient and sober way to get to the parade. Next, at 9 am , I went to the train to hope on the R1 to the airport (I actually missed the parade). What I saw was appalling - 1,000 fans on the train platform. This was before the news was broken, so I got front row seats to the first wave of upsets and anger.
The train came into view - cheers ERUPTED from the crowd, as they believed they were going downtown - and it passed them.
Repeat - it passed them. The cheers quickly turned to hateful jeers, followed by the a**hole chant.
I have never seen such a spectacle in my life, and I just want to thank Septa for being the most unreliable service in Philadelphia.
November 4th, 2008 at 9:08 am
In situations like this, it’s generally good to drive to the beginning of the line so you can get in before the rush.
The train I was on for my morning commute skipped some stops because it was already packed before we hit those stops.
I took a R5 train into the city at morning rush hour, out of the city in the afternoon rush hour, and a subway ride from Spring Garden to 13th Street at noon. My wait was the same as usual for all rides, though the trains were very crowded.
November 4th, 2008 at 9:19 am
I think the mistake that was made was that the mayor and governor over estimated SEPTA’s capability to handle the record number of riders. Note that I am using the word capability, as in number of trains to passengers. I don’t think anyone so far, is saying that SEPTA’s front line workers did a bad job given the circumstances. So when the mayor said everybody take the train, many people did and it overloaded the system.
May 21st, 2010 at 11:07 pm
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