November 1: Regional rail worst performers | $85k in Seattle ads | Wolf, state budget

Regional rail lines that share routes with Amtrak are the worst performers in the SEPTA system, write Justine McDaniel, Jason Laughlin, and Dylan Purcell. SEPTA general manager Jeff Knueppel says that problems and construction projects along the Northeast Corridor can cause ripple effects in service in Philadelphia. Amtrak spends about $300 million annually on repairs on the corridor, but about $700 million and $900 million of work is still needed on the century-old signaling systems and catenary wires alone.

Governor Tom Wolf has approved the majority of the state revenue plan, Keystone Crossroads’ Katie Meyer reports. Wolf has not signed off on the public school code bill, which has things that the governor says “not real comfortable with.”

Visit Philadelphia spent $85,000 on bus wraps in Seattle to woo Amazon, writes Inga Saffron. 238 cities submitted bids for HQ2 (imagine a map of America, with 238 icons of bright orange and Amazon logos), and are taking ‘novel’ approaches to present and promote themselves including littering giant Amazon boxes downtown and offering to rename a section of town after the company.  

Between 2009 and 2015, the number of baby boomer renters increased by 22 percent, according the real estate website Rent Café. The report, which uses census data, credits the trend primarily to empty nesters downsizing from spacious suburban homes.

In national news: a deadly truck attack killed eight people on a bike path in Manhattan Tuesday. NPR reports that after striking pedestrians and bicyclists, the truck crashed into a school bus. The suspect was then shot by police and is currently hospitalized and receiving medical treatment.

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