by Lisa Fagan

Created on: November 16, 2008

Being a Philadelphia-area native and resident, our area has been blessed with SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority). Without it, I wouldn't be able to get around; especially since I don't have a car.

Taking SEPTA has saved me thousands of dollars in expensive car payments, insurance, and upkeep (and besides; I'm afraid to drive. If I ever did, I probably would kill somebody). I am one of 250,000 daily SEPTA riders who depend on it to get to work, to go shopping, to get to doctors' appointments, to get to Mass, and so forth.

Yes, people have complained about the SEPTA service: high fares, late buses, trains, and trolleys; lousy service; rude drivers and employees, and so forth. But sometimes things happen beyond SEPTA's control such as the weather, signal problems, construction, and so forth.

For the last several years, there has been construction on the Market-Frankford Elevated line. On the weekends, SEPTA shuts down the El (as we native Philadelphians call it) in order to work on repairing it. This past summer alone, SEPTA shut down the service for two weeks, and I used alternate routes in order for me to get to work on time.

Although SEPTA has adequate bus service in the city of Philadelphia, bus, train, and trolley routes in the suburbs are limited at night and on the weekends. Check SEPTA's website at www.septa.org for further information and schedules to plan your trip accordingly.

SEPTA had a record ridership day, on Halloween (Friday, October 31) when thousands of people thronged the system's trolley and train lines to get into downtown Philadelphia to see the Phillies' World Series victoryparade. Going into work myself that morning, I saw crowds of people, especially a lot of kids who took off from school that day, waiting at two of the local train statons just to get into town. In the afternoon, SEPTA had suspended service along the train lines because they didn't have enough cars to accomodate the crowds there, and some people had to wait several hours just to get a train out of downtown Philadelphia after the parade. I did the right thing and avoided downtown Philadelphia completely on that day.

Over the years, SEPTA has had its share of transit strikes. I remember the ones in 1975, 1977, 1981, 1986, 1995, 1998, and 2005. in 1975, my grandmother wanted the strike to be over soon so that she could go into downtown. In 1977, SEPTA was on strike for a record 44 days. I had just started work as a dietary aide, and I had to walk to catch

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