Message from the General Manager

Joseph M. Casey General Manager

Route service, vehicles, and transit facilities are three of the four key elements of the public transit business and summer 2008 was a very busy time for SEPTA as we completed work on important projects on all of these fronts.

The season began with our plans to implement 65 initiatives to expand and enhance route services effective with the fall schedule changes; continued with the delivery of new hybrid buses, trackless trolleys, and additional rail cars; and concluded with the final two extended Market Street El outages and successful replacement of the last sections of old overhead track.

SEPTA’s fall timetable change marks an important milestone for our customers with Annual Service Plan enhancements as well as the expansion of Peak and Off-Peak service, and schedule improvements to help alleviate overcrowding on some of our most popular bus and rail lines serving area businesses and residential centers going into effect.  Our region has also become known as one of the great destinations for weekend dining and entertainment and I am pleased that with dedicated funding securing our financial future, we can now offer extended late night rail service on Friday and Saturday nights on our Paoli/Malvern, Norristown, and Trenton rail lines.

With ridership reaching record breaking levels we are supporting our efforts to expand service by expanding customer capacity with the delivery of new hybrid buses, the return of trackless trolleys for route service from Frankford Transportation Center, and the addition of refurbished rail cars from New Jersey Transit.  As SEPTA moves closer to celebrating its 40th birthday we are preparing to preview the future of SEPTA rail service with a display of the new Silverliner V car later this fall.

While prices at the fuel pumps look just a little less heart-stopping these day I want to urge everyone who discovered or rediscovered the convenience and benefits of public transit to continue to travel green by taking SEPTA.  Traveling using any of our vehicles can help you to play a part to reduce energy consumption, alleviate roadway congestion, and improve air quality.

Of course, our customers are the fourth and most important component of our business and we’ve launched a number of programs including the SEPTA Customer Connection and an Online Survey that gives us the opportunity to talk to riders, listening to comments and suggestions, and incorporate these ideas into our plans for the future.

Part of our future is the completion of the Market Street Elevated Project and I would like to thank all of our customers and our neighbors for their patience and cooperation during the summer construction season.  With all new guideway in place and 5 of the 6 station reconstructions completed we are moving towards our goal of a new EL in West Philadelphia and Eastern Delaware County.  We’re close, but we’re not quite done yet, so please keep alert for signs announcing weekend shuttle substitutions and for construction activity.

I would like to thank all of our customers for your support and patronage and I hope that our service improvements and enhanced capacity will make it easier for you to travel and will attract new riders to SEPTA.