SEPTA eyes storm and will warn of transit delays

Mass transit officials are keeping an eye on snowfall totals from the storm that’s slapping the region.

Mass transit officials are keeping an eye on snowfall totals from the storm that’s slapping the region. [audio:100225SBSEPTA.mp3]

They say they’ll try to give riders as much warning as possible before shutting down service, if it comes to that.

During the major snowstorm several weeks ago, SEPTA adopted a wait and see policy. That means they tried to alert passengers one hour before canceling routes due to the snow. But SEPTA’s information system wasn’t without problems during that storm.

Commuters on several train lines reported glitches on SEPTA’s online monitoring system. The system, known as Trainview gives passengers updates on train delays. They said while some lines showed only modest delays, riders reported trains up to an hour late that were so full they stranded passengers at some stations.

SEPTA Spokeswoman Sylvana Hoyos says those problems do crop up from time to time.

Hoyos: There’s always certain glitches, certain issues that are faced, but at this point, we can only take it day by day, and we anticipate anything like that, we would try to get the word out that that’s incorrect.

In addition, not every train appears on Trainview, forcing some riders to simply hope their trains come on time.