Sandy, it's R8 Chestnut Hill West.

priorities are set by others. I know, for whatever reason, they don't like the routing. perhaps they don't like paying access fees for a lightly used line. it didn't escape me that during the last "crisis" the whole route was on the chopping block. It remains to be seen what the "new SEPTA's" priorities are. If what you say is true, I don't see why a zoo stop wasn't added long ago.

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I agree that Old City is really different from how it was in 1977, but PATCO still doesn't go anywhere many Old City residents would want to go. Are they going to take the subway to 16th and Locust? Hardly seems worth it. And only a handful would be going to NJ on a regular basis. So unless PATCO is better integrated with SEPTA, what would be the point?

All the Jersey kids going to Old City would use it.

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The problem with separating the regional rail from the city division is political, I think. SEPTA already has a hard enough time getting the regional and state support that it needs. If the regional rail were separate from the city division, then all of the political and economic power that rests in the PA suburbs would have even less reason to care about city transit than they do now. At least now they're forced to support SEPTA because it runs their regional rail. If the fates of the two systems weren't politically linked, I think the city division would be even more screwed than it is now.

The problem with separating the regional rail from the city division is political, I think. SEPTA already has a hard enough time getting the regional and state support that it needs. If the regional rail were separate from the city division, then all of the political and economic power that rests in the PA suburbs would have even less reason to care about city transit than they do now. At least now they're forced to support SEPTA because it runs their regional rail. If the fates of the two systems weren't politically linked, I think the city division would be even more screwed than it is now.

Some might. Most would probably still drive. Either way, that's not enough regular traffic to justify reopening the bridge station. You need regular commuter traffic to make it worth it. Which would be possible if that line actually went somewhere that people wanted to go, or connected easily (i.e. with no extra fare) with other lines that did.

they seem to do alright with 8th and market, which is probably a better stop for them anyways. no highway ramps to cross.

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MarketStEl can correct me if I'm wrong, but in Chicago, I believe that all public transit is organized under the RTA (Regional Transportation Authority) which is the parent of the CTA (city transit), Metra (commuter rail), and Pace (suburban bus). This could potentially be a model, whereby SEPTA's transit services and commuter services are separated administratively but still controlled by the same umbrella organization.

That structure doesn't seem that different from SEPTA's structure, in which SEPTA is the parent organization over three separate operating divisions: the City Division (subway, El, S-S, city buses), the Suburban Divisions (suburban buses and light rail), and the Regional Rail. It's more or less the same divisions of power and of labor; the only difference is that in Chicago the divisions have different names and thus more distinct identities than SEPTA's operating divisions.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septa#SEPTA_divisions