I emailed PATCO a while ago asking them why the speedline didn't go to UPenn. Their response was interesting:

I also asked whether or not they'd consider reopening the Franklin Square station because of new development and they sent back:

Just thought I'd share some info I got from them about possible future PATCO projects.

Thanks for posting these replies. Good to know that somebody in the region is taking transit seriously.

Maybe you should e-mail them and ask what the chances are of them taking over the system Septa currently runs.

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Eh, not even the entire system
- just see if PATCO could take over the Broad Ridge Spur.

PATCO could give customers service to the Amtrack stop at North Broad.

They could also have cross platform transfers to Regional Rail at Fern Rock to the R3, R5, R8 in North Philly/Southern Bucks & Montgomery County. That rail service would provide an alternate for NJ comuters coming into PA along the Betsy Ross and Tacony-Palmyra bridges.

Hal

yeah really

I've often had that same thought myself; after all, they've exhibited marvelous competence in running their system for as long as I can remember. But we have to keep in mind the differences in scale and nature between Patco and Septa. Running a single line of only 100-some rail cars is a whole lot different than operating a multi-modal system of Septa's size.

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I'm impressed you got such a detailed answer back from them. Try getting anything even remotely like that from SEPTA.

Not only is Patco's system smaller, they have dedicated funding via the bridge tolls.

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All comments made by me on his board are given freely and probably worth what you paid for them.

PATCO riders already have relatively easy access to all those lines via a3 block walk to regional rail. it is also easy to catch the MFL to 30th for amtrak but th eidea is a good one. Better service along the spur would be nice.

I think that this took a long time coming to actually make any extensions for the PATCO system in South Jersey. South Jersey is one of the most popolous parts in the state, with over a million people, and yet there isn't any mass transportation system in that area. You contrast South Jersey to North Jersey, and North Jersey seems to have everything, from a commuter rail system reaching just about all the parts of North Jersey, to a local bus system serving the cities of Newark, Jersey City, the Oranges, Elizabeth, and Paterson, a bi-state subway serving NYC with Jersey City, Hoboken, and Newark, and a express bus system. There's even a trolley subway in Newark. As for South Jersey, we're not as large as North Jersey, with almost 2 million people in our side of Jersey against 5 million in North Jersey, so we might not need the trolley subway in Camden, but we do need a better bus system in SJ, and we especially need a commuter rail system in SJ, with commuter trains from Camden to Trenton, Mount Holly and Ocean County, Millville, Vineland, Bridgeton, Pennsville, Salem, Cape May, Ocean City, as well as teh Atlantic City Line from Phila, but the lines were scrapped in favor of highways. You travel through either Routes 38, 55, 70, and 73, and you'll see what I mean. Bumper-to-bumper traffic everywhere. I bet that half that traffic would be using that commuter rail system and travel from Camden to lets say Vineland at 40 minutes rather than spend almost 2 hours on Route 55 just to get home. As for the PATCO system, I don't really think the system should be ehtended to Glassboro and Vineland, because that's what the commuter rail system is for. I believe the PATCO system should be at least a 10-mile radius, from 30th St and University City in Phila to Camden and Woodbury, Deptford, Cherry Hill, and Maple Shade. There should also build an express tunnel underneath the Delaware just for smooth service, and maybe rebuild the existing Broadway station into a two-level, four track subway station a la Lexington Ave IRT in NYC, which will also serve as a transfer point between PATCO and the NJT commuter rail, with a rail station in Camden. That should've been a reality for us, but currently, our mass transit system is pretty messed up right now, on both sides of the river.

The problem is the politics of the DRPA. And that will probably exclude doing anything for Philadelphia transit.

Let's face it, most of the money coming into the DRPA comes from New Jersey folks - toll money on the bridges, fares on PATCO, rentals and fees on the Jersey side docks.

Philadelphia has jealously guarded its own port facilities and kept most of them out from under DRPA's control.

http://www.philaport.com/index.html

One of the reason that DRPA started giving marketing grants to city institutions was that it wanted to put some of the money back into the city. But, for the most part, this has been thwarted by the pro-jersey faction on the board combined with the fact that Jersey's governor always gets to appoint the Executive Director (power, power, power).

They make nice - I will agree. When we were negotiating for under the bridge parking (Ben Franklin bridge), they couldn't have been nicer. But, without warning or explanation, they simply killed the project, even though Parkway Corp. was willing to license the lots from them.

The eventual explanation - they were worried about terrorists. But they continued to allow under the bridge parking on the Jersey side.

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