Commentary

Philadelphia transit tour: 14 rail lines in 10 hours

As I write this, it’s been just a week since I returned from the recent annual Rail Transit Conference sponsored the first week of June by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) in Philadelphia. It was an interesting event, with a lot I could report about, including my own presentation at the “Current Technology and Trends” session. But by far my most memorable experience was completing (or should I say “surviving”?) another of Tom Hickey’s legendary multimode, multi-system rail-hopping tours — this one sampling 14 different transit modes or lines in the Philadelphia region, operated by three different agencies, in the course of 10 hours.

SEPTA receives Ritron digital locomotive radios

Carmel, Ind.-based Ritron, Inc. said Tuesday, June 11, 2013 it has delivered an order for 350 pieces of the Ritron NXDN digital locomotive radios to the Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA).

Engineer shortage hampers SEPTA operations

A shortage of qualified engineers is causing annulments of SEPTA regional rail service trains, with some SEPTA employees predicting the problem will become more acute.