by KYW's Mike Dunn
With some buses and trains bursting at their seams, SEPTA officials are expected to announce what they say will be the transit agency's biggest expansion of service, to begin this fall.
A confluence of events have led to SEPTA this decision: rising gas prices are prompting more people to ride SEPTA, and Harrisburg last year approved some stable predictable funding the transit agency.
This paves the way for SEPTA General Manager Joe Casey to roll out expansions to service for buses and the regional rails:
"We have about 65 initiatives that will expand service in the region. We've been unable to do this in past due to funding. But now we're able to address the overcrowded conditions on our system."
The overcrowding is the result of a five-percent increase in SEPTA ridership overall in the past year, including a 12-percent jump in regional rail ridership.
Most of the changes involve additional service on a wide range of bus routes, mainly in peak hours. The changes include 100 new hybrid buses added to ten routes that are now overcrowded in peak hours. "Of our heaviest routes, the Route 17, 47, 26 and 70, will all be increasing their frequency. So what people will be seeing is more buses out there more often," says Casey.
On the regional rails, the R5 Paoli, R6 Norristown and R7 Trenton lines will offer, for the first time, service after midnight on Friday and Saturday nights.
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