A Tale of Two Buses, or What's a Transpass Anyway?

SEPTA: SouthEastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. According to wikipedia, it is the 7th-largest rapid transit system in the US by ridership. SEPTA operates the city's buses, subways, trolleys on tracks, regional rail (sort of a Amtrak lite), etc. Us AmeriCorps volunteers are given a monthly transpass which allows us unlimited access to the buses, subways and trolleys. Over half of my group (probably 3/4) use theirs to get to work in the morning on a regular basis. I'm currently in a state of off-and-on use, mainly because I have to take 3 different buses just to get to my site. Or a 15-20 minute drive. As the weather warms, I may be more willing to stand on street corners in unsavory parts of town, waiting for the bus. But I've had enough bad bus moments (falling into the lap of an unfortunate 4th-grader, getting sexually harassed by a drunk sipping his 40, etc.) that I will probably battle with the whole "I got up half an hour earlier for this?" question every morning. The bus, however, is not my main issue. I actually have much worse luck with the subways.

The subway system consists of only two lines, the Broad Street Line (orange line) and the Market-Frankford line (the blue line or the El). You New Yorkers and Washingtonians may scoff at this lack of criss-crossing colors, letters, and numbers, but the sheer volume of buses in this town more than makes up for it. I am a once-weekly subway user, particularly when I have taken a single bus from my place to Center City and then need to reach my office, a short walk from a far North stop on the Orange Line. But every single time that I step underground, bad luck strikes. I have just missed the train and the next one is late. The Broad-Ridge Spur comes before the regular. The Local arrives before the Express. Last week brought a tragic event that totally shut the subway down and forced a mass exodus to the surface, where we all waited for shuttle buses that never came. As hundreds of people crowded the intersection of Broad St. and Girard, our complaining (and pushing and shoving onto the few shuttles that did eventually appear) brought us together. Today I helped a client to the hospital by carrying her enormous stroller up several flights of stairs, because all subway stations don't have elevators and are thus not handicapped-accessible. WTF?

Public transportation in this city is certainly different than Washington DC (and NYC if I remember; I'll give an update when I visit there this weekend). Litter exists. There is an unscrubbable layer of grime on all surfaces. People publicly comment on the racial and economic class divisions between who takes the subways vs. regional rail. Accidents happen (actual collisions, not just small children using the bathroom). But hey, it all gets me to where I need to go with the swipe of a card. Though it did take me 4 months to learn how to exit the trolley.