Opinion: SEPTA Buses: The Good, The Bad, The Thoughts.

I recently saw an survey conducted by NBC 10 News regarding SEPTA, SEPTA Key and it's operations. And that got me thinking: It got me thinking about my experiences of using SEPTA right here in Newtown and the experiences using the buses and how they operate and it's perks and the ways it also hurts the daily commute for it's riders. I currently attend Bucks County Community College in Newtown and I do not have a car. Besides my mother dropping me off from time to time, the only other way to get to the college is taking the Route 130 SEPTA bus. I have had many experiences: good ones and bad ones. So, from taking over 350 trips, this is my experience with SEPTA:

Schedule: I have never really had any problems with the schedule although, there was one time in January 2020 where the 8:29AM bus never showed up and I was stuck at the bus stop for over 40 minutes. At 45 minutes, I called SEPTA customer service and they told me that the bus was not running due to "understaffing" so I ended up having to call my mother to take me to school which was a major inconievence to her because she had to take my little brother to school before dropping me off. The only other problem with the schedule is sometimes, the buses I take home from the college are always late with departures by 10-20 minutes because the bus operators are always on their breaks sitting in the cafe and watching TV while me and fellow students stand outside in sometimes 20 degree weather at night.

Bus Cleanliness/Atmosphere: You most likely associate buses as a dirty, uncleaned way of transportation where they don't care at all about cleanliness. From what I have experienced, the buses I take are actually very clean and I could tell that they do take care of them. The only downside to the buses is that the seats are degrading and I think they could use some replacing at least on the older models. The newer models of buses are usually clean with the seats in good condition.

SEPTA Key: In 2016, SEPTA introduced SEPTA Key: An new alternative to tokens and passes. The SEPTA Key allows you to add funds to your "travel wallet" which can be used to pay for bus fare and be used to pay for trail and trans passes for Regional Rail, Trolley, etc... I have used SEPTA Key everytime I use SEPTA and I have never really experienced any problems. The only downside is that you have to keep regularly adding funds if you run out which can be inconvenient to some with low income or no money so I do think that could be updated to accomdate the low income.

So is SEPTA buses really a bad way to travel? In the end, it is ultimately your opinion. But I am curious to what you have to think! I have created a survey that you can answer about your SEPTA experiences if you so choose to see how the people of Newtown and Eastern PA say about SEPTA and it's services.

Check out and fill out the survey here: https://forms.gle/K38wVZUk1Kus...