SEPTA

Please update your online schedules. Your old online schedule (as of January 22^nd, 2016) says that my train would stop at Elkins Park but the train I was riding passed it. When I looked at the schedule at Jenkintown (NOT my stop but HAD to get off), I see this one is updated. Good work in getting this half of your job done right. How quickly can you update the online one? Or how fast. Maybe HALF FAST? That’s probably right. You’ll do a HALF FAST job. What else would I or anyone else expect? This sucked up and extra hour of my time and I’m standing here for the next train in 25 degree (Fahrenheit) weather (feels like 16 degrees according to
). By the way, for your information, both temperatures are under ZERO degrees in Celcius. Explanation… below FREEZING. Thank you Septa!

I am currently riding on the west Trenton line and every night they shut down half the train, not allowing passengers to sit on them, because they claim they don’t need all the seats. Yet every night I find myself standing along with many other people. Standing every night for a 45 minute ride when there are open carts available that we aren’t allowed to sit in is such an inconvenience and a rude way to treat customers.

I recently came back from trip to S. Korea and was shocked at how their public transportation worked. I won’t get into details, but holy shit! The thing that struck me the most was the differences between crappy drivers in philly versus happy drivers in Korea. Not only is our structure no where near as advance, but ours is so gross and dirty and no one cares.

One question why will they not give you change? This infuriates me, I have never written a review, until today when I had a twenty dollar bill at the Berks stop, there was no token machine, no transpass machine, and I am supposed to pay $ 20 for the foulest subway in America? How do they get away with this nonsense? They are thieves!

Worst ever. Had to change platforms three times and then couldn’t understand the announcer even know that was her only job. The announcer sounded like the slurred voice from the Muppet babies. Pathetic.

Often, when I have a remarkable experience on Our Great Local Public Transit Service, it’s nothing to write about. I was raised to believe that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
However, my last experience on Our Great Local Public Transit Service was the last straw. My annihilated, fractured, and destroyed super ego has left me with no recourse but to turn to the public eye.
The doors of my subway car opened precisely at 8:17, as the schedule had previously foretold. It was almost as if Mussolini himself had choreographed the Orange Line. Alas, upon entering the car, my euphoria quickly faded. As the doors crunched closed behind me, I couldn’t help but notice that every available surface had crusted over with what appeared to be coral. Gross, crusty, LIVING coral!
I naturally avoid touching ANY surface in the subway…
…however I was not prepared to be forced to float! The entire subway care was completely flooded! (I sure picked the wrong day to wear my new Louis Vuitton’s!). I can usually stomach the smell on my daily commute, but having my entire lungs filled with water every time I try to breathe was even too much for me.
And, I’m not racist, but the only other passengers in the whole car were fish. I only mention it because one kept swimming up to me and looking at me sideways. It made me really uncomfortable.
I’ll keep riding, SEPTA. I just wanted you to be aware of a possible lapse in sanitation in the early evening.
You’re getting there!

i really tried to like septa because everyone always complains about how bad it is and I wanted to give it a fair chance. LOL NOPE!!! train conductors are more often than not assholes, and every single train is late. I have never once been on a train that got me home at the scheduled time. why dont they just change the schedules to match the actual times? i haven’t taken the subway but im sure that sucks lol, i cant even figure out where they go because the website sucks so much.
SEPTA IF YOU“RE READING THIS!!! PLEASE PUT BUS SCHEDULES ON THE BUS STOPS!!! i’ve waited 15 minutes for a bus that never came too many times!!! it pisses me the fuck off. I even called customer service to ask and I never even got through to them.

First, I will list the good things about SEPTA. The transit system is robust with connections to New Jersey and Delaware, and you have connections to buses and trains to either at 30^th Street or Jefferson Station. The technology upgrades in the train stations and buses are nice.
Now the bad… the train stations themselves are antiquated and not very modern. Washington, D.C.‘s METRO is far better by bounds. The use of tokens and exact change is very antiquated. Washington, D.C. uses refillable fare cards that are much better.
SEPTA definitely needs an upgrade in terms of equipment, stations and personnel. It’s not the best public transit system by any means. But if you live in Philadelphia, it is what you get.

While Edgar Winter may have done a song about taking a free ride, apparently last Friday our fine friends at SEPTA decided to help me out while doing their version of that fine tune.
So we get to the station in Lansdale and I ask the agent about buying the Family Independence Pass. She very gruffly informs me that she has none and that I would have to buy it onboard from the conductor.
Alllllllllrighty then!
So our train comes a few minutes later and at North Wales the conductor gets to us and I ask him about the Family Independence Pass. He asks me where we’re headed and I said Fern Rock for the subway and tells me that’s not possible as he doesn’t have any passes so we would have to go into Center City to Jefferson and buy it there.
(I’ve done the pass thing in the past several times and the conductor has never had a physical pass. Instead they’ve always collected the appropriate fare, then they gave me a ticket for a receipt and we had to go to Jefferson to exchange the receipt for the actual pass but whatever.)
After redoing our route for the day along with some number crunching I figured out a way to make things work without the pass that actually saved us four dollars over what the pass would have cost.
So I guess I should say thanks angry Lansdale ticket agent and lazy conductor for making me think a bit because by you guys not doing your jobs you helped me save a few dollars while cheating your employer out of money that I was more than willing to pay.
Thanks guys, can’t wait until next time!

I can never get use to SEPTA… maybe because i was spoiled with NYC’s Metro and NJ’s PATCO?
Where to start… The subway stations are so outdated, even the main hubs!!! This is a major city where tourists «might» take the subway but will probably think twice after seeing how dingy they are.
They are still using coins for subway rides! WTF… you can literally drop the coin and it roll off and you lose $ 2.50 right there. Machines don’t even take credit cards which is another negative. Did I mention that its dark and dingy??? Not a great place off-​peak hours as you run the risk of getting mugged and tossed into the puddle of piss by the stairwells.
Market L — Morning rush hour is annoying as they are late and trick you, «there is another car behind this car»…right behind means 5+ minutes. The commuters are sketchy as hell. People playing loud ass music, talking on phone loudly, just overly rude. One time, a guy started to roll a blunt with a packed train. He unwrapped a cigar or whatever and dumped all the tobacco on the floor. At least he was kind enough to ensure that the trains are consistent in décor — basically dirty as !@#!
The stops don’t have the best signs so you have to pay attention to the announcement as to which stop it is… OVER the loud ass patrons and music. I’m fortunate to not take the EL when school lets out. If you are unlucky enough to be on during these times, pray you don’t get robbed or a flash mob forms.
The Broad Street line. I took this a few times out of desperation. Again, dingy, dark, smells of urine, and almost zero security. It wouldn’t be a problem if there were many other riders around, but the times i used it, there weren’t that many. How does a main gate (Spring garden) not open until 11am? I dont’ get that… it’s a waste of time walking to 1 entrance across a busy ass street.
I took the bus once as a teen, and that would be last time i’ll take it for the rest of my life.
I think the biggest grip, I never feel safe riding SEPTA (the trains are fairly safe i guess). There is an absence of security.

Septa is one the best municipal transit systems in the country. Throughout Philadelphia’s troubled economic history Septa has remained a reliable and affordable service to city dwellers.
I don’t know where all this hate comes from with these other reviews. Yes, sometimes bus service can be a little less than perfect on the weekends, but when it comes to rush hour all septa services run very efficiently.
Plus, its slogan (now no longer used), we’re getting there, is very humble and charming.

SEPTA, up to their old tricks again — closure of trolleys for 17 days (!) so they can fix infrastructure in the tunnel. SEPTA’s infrastructure needs a total overhaul, for sure — but it’s the administration, not the tunnel.

Oh SEPTA, how I wanted to love you. I’ve riden airport rail lines in quite a few other cities, but Philly, your airport line is the worst.
First, have you heard of keeping schedule? Your train at the airport arrived 11 minutes late, let passengers off, and then waited 6 more minutes to let more passengers on.
Second, you can’t buy tickets ahead of time. No big deal, but once you’re on the train, and they come to sell you a ticket, you find out they don’t accept credit cards. Wait, wha??? It’s 2015
Third, $ 8 to go 6.1 miles to center city? Whoa!
And last, over the course of 6 miles, your train completely stopped 3 times, each time for over 5 minutes. Complete stop. Why? Who knows. Also, not sure this train ever broke 15MPH. Slowest train ever.
All in all, it took 45 minutes to get downtown from the airport.
I’ll take the airport shuttle next time. Sad Philly, sad. o

SEPTA is like a living public transit museum from the 1930s. Pay for subway rides with coins. No train arrival information at stations. Confusing as hell platform signs. PATCO is a completely different subway system that isn’t integrated with the El?!
But get excited! They’re starting to accept credit cards! You’re about 15 years late to the party SEPTA.

I am sorry it is 2015.
How do you people not accept credit cards to purchase fares?
I love taking public transit, unfortunately I had to take über six times while on vacation here because the subway did not accept credit cards.
And people wonder why ridership is down?
Boom. 1 star.

I come from a city that doesn’t us public transportation so I was a tad nervous using SEPTA for the first time. Thankfully I found it easy enough to go from the airport to Center City. It was also pretty inexpensive ($ 8) in comparison to cabs and Über, etc. No one bothered me. The conductor was sweet. Overall, less terrifying than I had anticipated.

Having lived around Philly for 8 years, I had every chance to use SEPTA. It worked, but just.
From Upper Darby, the Market-​Frankford El worked well enough. Even though there was a derailment one day between 34^th and 30^th Streets, they had shuttle buses available quickly. Getting around West Philly was often quicker using the route 10 trolley.
From Audubon/​Trooper, the route 98 bus was fairly reliable, and the route 100 «high speed» line, although it seemed a bicycle going backwards was faster.
From Torresdale station, the R6 was always late. Every morning, they would announce that the train was approximately 10 minutes late, and wouldn’t be able to arrive at Trenton station in time to meet the train to NYC. Could they have started 10 minutes early, and arrived when they should have, in order to not make riders wait 45 minutes for another NJT train? When I was last looked at Regional Rail monitors, only the R6 was late.
As well, getting to Bucks County was expensive, and leaving in the evening turned a 45 minute trip into 4 hours on the return trip.
The most frustrating thing about SEPTA was sitting on a bus listening to the driver talk about their plans to strike the next spring, no matter what was offered. It wasn’t about what was offered but showing that they could disrupt everyone’s lives. When they hired a new president from BART to take over, he left quickly after receiving death threats. It’s sad that the workers weren’t willing to make things better.
It was rather lousy that the stations never seemed to be cleaned, anywhere. Having the homeless sleeping all over obviously didn’t help.
There are wore transportation systems but SEPTA should be looking to the future, not just the weekend.

I’ve used SEPTA several times to get from 30^th St. Station to Reading Terminal Market (subway) and from Jefferson Station to DE (regional rail). Although I don’t usually use this format, I think a pro-​con review is called for in this case:
Pros:
1. Regional rail trains run more-​or-​less on time (within a 1 – 3 min. window)
2. I never have to wait long for the subway from 30^th-​11^th
3. Accepts credit cards for regional rail tix, and usually has change for the subway
4. Goes where I need it to go
Cons:
1. Dirty stations and cars (the 30^th St. subway station smells like pee/​garbage)
2. Pricey (subway tix: $ 2.25; rail tix: $ 6)
3. Cramped, outdated equipment (though there are some newer regional rail trains)
4. Unsmiling, sometimes surly employees
I think Brian S. put it well in his review: It isn’t pretty but it gets you there (usually). Although the subway-​trolley-​regional rail interface can be confusing, it’s better than the laughable transit system we have in Pittsburgh, as well as some other major cities (e.g., Atlanta). On the other hand, it’s no DC.

Seems very quick but not very clean. They have cameras everywhere so it feels safe but I haven’t seen any policeman down here like they did in the subway in New York. Overall it was ok but not as clean and safe as the one in New York, I really don’t have anything else to compare it to.

Prior to arriving in Philly, my friend had found the train goes from the airport to downtown by our hotel. This was perfect and a cheap way to get there.
From the airport, we didn’t see any place to purchase train tickets or tokens. Luckily we found out you pay once on board.
Like us, most of the people were airport passengers. Everyone had suitcases and bags. There are convenient luggage shelves above the seating.
They do need to have a speaker announce which location you are pulling into. That would be very helpful. We had to ask another passenger about the station names.
There are various stops throughout the city and this makes it convenient to get there.