City officials and SEPTA released Monday a new transit plan for improving public transportation. The long-term ambitious plan, called Philadelphia Transit Plan, a vision for 2045 is focused in three main action lines.
As stated by the official website of the City of Philadelphia, the project will develop a policy platform to make transit more comfortable while developing a solid investment in bus infrastructure and transit infrastructure that will prepare the region to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
According to a Brian X McCrone report for NBC Philadelphia, two of the plan outstanding aspects are a major SEPTA bus network redesign and the beginning of a study into “every 15 minutes” trains along the Regional Rail system, officials said.
The bus network redesign is a short-term project while the Regional Rail expansion of service is planned to enhance mass transit in the future.
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Deputy Managing Director for Infrastructure and Transportation Michael Carroll said the new transit plan should be viewed “as a menu” that includes things that must be done and things that are aspirational in the years to come. “We’re planning for decades to come,” Carroll said. “In some ways we’re playing catchup with other cities which already have transit plans.”
He added that he sees mass transit in the future “as a mesh” over the city that gives every resident more options to “leave their car behind.”
Easy transfers
SEPTA General Manager Leslie Richards said the improvement of the bus network aims to deliver a more efficient service and improve reliability. The new transit plan will include how to best give riders easy transfers between buses where needed as well as faster ride times.
Expansion of SEPTA, like the Norristown High-Speed Line into the King of Prussia mall proximity, is also still a top priority, but remains years away, Richard said.
The $2 billion project still has much design work to go, but Richards said SEPTA is getting closer to reaching a point where the transit agency can ask the federal government to dedicate as much as 50% of the funding. That could eventually mean receiving as much as $1 billion the Federal Transportation Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation.
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