Have you ever overheard a conversation at one of our Center City Regional Rail Stations that went something like this...

Customer: Can you tell me where I can find the R2?
Transportation Manager: Where do you want to go?

Or been on your train when the person sitting a few seats away discovers, just a bit too late, that they're on a train heading for West Trenton when they wanted the train to Elwyn?

If so, then you know the confusion and travel inconvenience our current system of duplicate R's and line numbers creates for new riders and visitors and tourists unfamiliar with SEPTA Regional Rail.

For the past two years we've been focusing on customer service as part of a broader effort to encourage people to try public transit and adopt it as their travel option of choice. One of the ways we can attract new riders, while continuing to meet the needs of our regular customers, is by making SEPTA service easy to understand and use.

We are one of the few agencies in the country that operates a multi-modal system with buses, trolleys, trackless trolleys, high speed lines and Regional Rail. While SEPTA has been the region's transit provider for more than 4 decades there are still vestiges of old transit names, line designations, and colors. While these remnants speak of a rich history for transit they are confusing for those who are not regular riders and they make it difficult for SEPTA to create a strong corporate identity for our network of services.

We've already taken a number of small steps to reinforce our service brands - designating all of our trolley routes using green as the Line color; rebranding the Route 100 as the Norristown High Speed Line; and redesigning our transit timetables.

The next change, which will go into effect on July 25th, is eliminating the confusing "R" and numbers and rebranding Regional Rail using the current destination names. This will not change train service - only the way we refer to individual lines on timetables, signs for cars and stations, maps, and customer announcements. Along with the name rebranding we are also adopting a single color designation, blue gray, for all Regional Rail Lines and we will be introducing new train numbers. These numbers will appear in the new timetables and will be displayed on the service monitors in our Center City Stations. At the bottom of this message is a complete list of the new Regional Rail Line names.

On the new Regional Rail timetables, the Line name will be featured prominently at the top of the schedule and station listing will now appear on the front cover so you can see all of the stations served at a glance. Inside, "zebra" striping has been added for easier reading of train times and the station amenity information has been moved so you can see if a location is accessible or has parking at the same time you're selecting which train to take. The new train numbers can be found at the top of each column; connecting service information will appear at the bottom of the column if a train is continuing to another destination once it leaves Center City. These destinations are identified with a 3 letter abbreviation, i.e., DOY for Doylestown and every schedule has a quick reference box with this information.

One last tip - we're changing the display signs on the exterior of the Regional Rail cars to show Center City as the final destination for service coming from outlying locations i.e., Center City Suburban Station; the signs on trains leaving Center City will show the final destination i.e., Glenside via Center City. We are also working to program these messages for the electronic displays and automated announcements for the new Silverliner V cars.

We know that many customers use the shorthand, i.e., R5 to refer to their service but we also know that you will never get on a Doylestown train when you want to go to Bryn Mawr. So we ask that you see this change as an important, customer-friendly effort to promote the use of public transit in our region and that you help us by referring to our Regional Rail Lines by name when offering travel directions to new or occasional riders.