See What The Future Of SEPTA Could Look Like

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia is planning to reshape its transit system in an effort to become more sustainable, equitable, and reliable for riders in the region.

In a report released recently, the city laid out details of its transportation plan in a document called "The Philadelphia Transit Plan: A Vision For 2045."

The major plan seeks to "create a more equitable, safe, accessible, comfortable, affordable, and sustainable transit system to connection a recovered and reimagined Philadelphia."

A few main points of the plan are establishing trains running every 15 minutes along SEPTA's Regional Rail service, a massive redesign of the bus network, and lower fares for low-income riders.

Regarding the Regional Rail, the plan is to have every line running trains every 15 minutes, 15 hours a day, seven days a week.

The report proposes running two-car trains rather than six-car trains, which would be done via the "Silver Line." The Silver line runs from Fern Rock to University City and back.

With the changes to Regional Rail, the city says rider capacity would increase by more than 200 riders per hour.

While the Regional Rail changes are in the development stages, the bus network overhaul is underway.

Some aspects of the bus network changes include adding bus lanes and other features to speed up service and eliminate delay, improve bus stop infrastructure and features like shelters and lighting, adopting electric-powered buses,

Priority corridors in the overhauled bus plan are East Market Street, Chestnut St / Walnut St Market Street & JFK Boulevard, 20th Street, Erie Avenue, Olney Avenue, Roosevelt Boulevard, 52nd Street, and Lehigh Avenue. Other corridors are targeted in the plan, but are part of a longer term development and include Germantown Avenue, 56th Street, Spruce Street between 40th and 33rd streets, and more.

These two tiers of priority corridors could get improvements such as bus lanes, boarding islands, or transit priority signals.

Trolleys will get modern upgrades, too, under the plan.

A large portion of SEPTA's trolleys had to be removed from service back in early 2020 due to trolleys being in poor condition. With the plan, SEPTA said it hopes to introduce fully accessible, more spacious, and comfortable trolleys. Additional changes to the trolley service include infrastructure improvements such as ADA accessible stations, updated signals, and more.

As for the proposed low-income fares, the plan suggests a similar program for low-income riders to the senior fare program, which allows seniors to ride for free.

Read the city's transit plan here.