SEPTA bus sleepover; snow leaves 150 buses stranded

The heavy winter weather took a lot of us by surprise last night, not the least SEPTA passengers who spent the night inside city buses.

“We had 150 buses get stuck last night into this morning,” said Heather Redfern, a spokesperson for SEPTA. Redfern said passengers were let off the buses if they had alternate means of transportation or if they lived very close by.

Otherwise, “We did have some passengers on the buses overnight,” she said.

Redfern wasn’t sure how many passengers participated in the SEPTA bus sleepover, or what neighborhoods were hardest hit. Fox 29 reported some were in West Oak Lane.

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Redfern said city bus service was suspended at 11 p.m. and that SEPTA rescue crews have been working all night to dig those buses out. “Due to the road conditions they’re still getting to some of those buses,” she said.

As of 10 a.m., about 45 buses were still stuck across the city, according to Redfern. SEPTA could not provide location information.

Many of the SEPTA city bus routes are still off line. Below is a list of the bus lines that are still running. The 15 trolly is shut down, also due to snow troubles overnight, and the regional rails are running on a 30 minute delay, give or take, Redfern said.

At the moment SEPTA crews are surveying all the bus routes to determine if they are passable.

Asked if SEPTA was surprised by the snow storm, Redfern said the company was fully prepared, but the nature of the storm was especially difficult to deal with.

“No, we weren’t surprised by the snow, it was just a fast accumulation and it was just a wet heavy snow,” she said.

Redfern said progress on the bus lines is slow but steady, she expects better news as the day goes on.

“We’re getting lines up so hopefully by the afternoon rush we should be good, or better anyway,” she said.

 

 

Let us know if you spent the night on a SEPTA bus: pcobbs@whyy.org

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