Procurement News Notice |
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| PNN | 2561 |
| Work Detail | As summer winds down, SEPTA is preparing to compensate for its diminished rail service with express bus service for some Regional Rail lines. Starting Sept. 6, express buses will operate from 6:30 to 8:30 a.m. and again from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday on nine of SEPTA’s 13 rail lines, and will replicate the service riders get from the train. Regular transit fares will work on the express bus service, but SEPTA encouraged customers to buy their fares in advance. Bus service will be available to supplement the Chestnut Hill East, Chestnut Hill West, Fox Chase, Airport, Warminster, West Trenton, Lansdale/Doylestown, Manayunk/Norristown, and Media/Elwyn lines. A full description of the bus service available is included below. The buses are expected to provide links to transit hubs for outlying stations on busy lines, officials said. The bus service should coincide with the end of summer vacations and the start of school semesters, which SEPTA expects will bring additional riders to a system taxed by the loss of 120 rail cars. Structural flaws forced SEPTA’s Silverliner V’s, the newest cars in the fleet, to be pulled from service the first week of July. For the last two months, SEPTA has worked to replace the flawed parts, equalizer beams that transfer a car’s weight to the axles. SEPTA had planned to begin installing replacement beams on cars beginning this week, but that work has been pushed back by about a week, said Jeff Knueppel, SEPTA’s general manager. SEPTA is still testing the beams and expects to conduct test runs of a car this weekend, he said. SEPTA had planned to repair 10 Silverliner V’s a week, and Knueppel said they will likely be able to do better than that once the installation process begins. “Once we get into a groove, we would move,” he said. “The projected finish of the program is sooner than what I said before.” Hundreds of replacement beams are being manufactured, Knueppel said, and he anticipated that the work should be completed in October. He also noted that SEPTA has leased 48 rail cars, including 16 cars from the Maryland Area Commuter Service expected to be available shortly after Sept. 1, that will help mitigate the delays and crowded trains riders have been coping with. SEPTA expects to conduct a news conference next week to share details on its progress repairing the damaged cars. Chestnut Hill East and West Lines: Busing to and from the Fern Rock Transportation Center - Morning buses departing from the Chestnut Hill East, with stops at Chestnut Hill West, Wyndmoor/St. Martins and Sedgwick. - Afternoon buses departing from Fern Rock, with stops at the same stations Fox Chase Line: Busing between Fox Chase Station and the Fern Rock Transportation Center - Morning buses departing Fox Chase - Afternoon buses departing Fern Rock Airport, Warminster, West Trenton and Lansdale/Doylestown Lines: Busing between the Jenkintown-Wyncote and Elkins Park stations and the Fern Rock Transportation Center - Morning buses departing from Jenkintown-Wyncote, with a stop at Elkins Park - Afternoon buses departing from Fern Rock to the same stations Manayunk/Norristown Line: Busing to and from Suburban Station - Morning buses departing from Ivy Ridge, with stops at the Manayunk and Wissahickon stations - Afternoon buses departing from 17th Street and JFK Boulevard to the same stations Media/Elwyn Line: Busing between Swarthmore Station and AT&T Station - Morning buses departing from Swarthmore - Afternoon buses departing from AT&T Station |
| Country | United States , Northern America |
| Industry | Railways |
| Entry Date | 03 Sep 2016 |
| Source | http://www.philly.com/philly/business/SEPTA-to-launch-express-bus-service-for-some-Regional-Rail-lines.html |
