🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4r39bn$753@netnews.upenn.edu>,
smiths@pobox.upenn.edu (Exile on Market Street) wrote:

>You've lived around here long enough to know that it's not the staff
>and management of SEPTA (taken as a whole) that need sense knocked
>into them, it's the politicians, and the political culture that makes
>politicians of this stripe possible.  Better legislation?  Maybe in
>another state.

Sure the political culture is such that everyone thinks SEPTA is hurting
"us" and helping "them", but there's plenty of SEPTA staff which needs the
two by four treatment, some of it at the AGM level, some of it immediately
supervising the line personnel.  

To keep this on topic, it's the same as the difference between WMATA
Metrorail (a well-run (except maybe for this Bassily character) and
efficient system which attracts middle- and upper-middle class riders as
well as the transit dependent) and Metrobus (the worst surface transit
system I've ever used)  The difference is in expectations.  

WMATA has zero tolerance for sewage in the stations like the TA and SEPTA
has zero tolerance for graffiti.  Compare a SEPTA cashier hiding in her
booth with her microphone/speaker turned off (even if she handles no cash)
to a WMATA station agent who will come out of the booth to help a customer.

WMATA had some trouble with its machines, but made a committment to ticket
vending machines and made sure there were enough at each station for
redundancy.  SEPTA (RRD) failed to maintain its machines, accumulated the
worst bill acceptance record of any vending or change machines I have ever
used, and then blamed the passengers.  Not only did the machines not save
SEPTA any money, it put a big dent in the budget.

WMATA has announcement boards and PA announcements in each station saying
where access elevators are closed, and provides a shuttle bus or van for
the disabled to the nearest available station.  The escalator outside
SEPTA's 8th St. station was out of service for more than three years, was 
repaired, and then failed again almost immediately.

I rode Metrorail a modest amount while I was in exile.  I've never seen
their budget so I can't speak to that aspect of management; but in terms of
the service, they know that giving passengers one or two rotten experiences
not only will drive those passengers off the system, but those dissatisfied
customers will make sure their friends never ride.  

OTOH, SEPTA management has with few exceptions never acted like they gave a
**** about keeping discretionary ridership and market share.





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