Transit First pilot gets some tweaks

City and SEPTA officials have made some tweaks to the Transit First pilot program.

The pilot, which affects the southern portion of the Route 47 bus, aims at improving service reliability and speeding up service by doing things like consolidating stops.

Last month, the city and transit agency decided to eliminate far-side stops at South Street and Washington Avenue, moving the stops to the near side of the street.

A third far-side stop, at Walnut Street, remains.

The two stops “weren’t working the way we had expected,” said Andrew Stober, chief of staff at the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities. “We were getting some backups with traffic, and [they] weren’t providing any time savings.

He said the South Street stop was moved back in mid-May, and the one at Washington was moved toward the end of the month.

However, Stober said “everything else is going well” with the pilot, which started in April.

He expects to have data on any trip time savings by the end of the month.

Contact the reporter at acampisi@planphilly.com