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“It’s not a big deal to me,” Joe Morrell said. “I like a little extra exercise anyway.”
The resident of the 2400 block of South Franklin Street offered his indifferent stance April 21 while traveling southbound on Route 47, SEPTA’s second busiest bus line. His ride came on the fourth day of the Route 47 Service Enhancement Pilot, a six-month plan to diminish dilemmas for a service that conveys 134,000 passengers weekly.
The project, a partnership between the transit agency and the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities, seeks to decrease delays and passups — those occasions when drivers whiz packed vehicles by would-be boarders. To lessen inconveniences, the entities agreed to consolidate stops, offer rear-door boarding at a northbound and southbound location, introduce far-side stops to keep buses from missing green lights, alter trash collection times and increase deployment frequency.
Covering more than 10 miles, the 47 begins its northbound trek at Whitman Plaza, Oregon Avenue and South Randolph Street, and ventures through Center City before terminating in North Philadelphia. The stop consolidation ranks as the chief element of the pilot and though Morrell deems it bearable, others find it foolish.
“Most riders seem informed and accepting, but some have mentioned the consolidation is odd,” Joseph Pickett, a driver who has manned the 47 for 13 years, said as he began his first northbound commute.
Pickett welcomed his first fares at Pathmark, 330 Oregon Ave., before beginning the bulk of his course, which mostly covers Seventh Street. The route needed only a minute to encounter its first change, skipping Sixth Street and Oregon Avenue’s intersection. Once on Seventh, Pickett made his usual right-hand turn.
“We heard we should give passengers a week to adjust,” he said of the consolidation, which calls for stopping at every other block until Walnut Street, where buses will begin to open its doors at each block.
The plan means those coveting pickup on Shunk Street have to walk to Oregon Avenue or Porter Street, patrons at Ritner Street have to move to Porter or Wolf Street and so on.
“We decided to consolidate stops with low ridership and ones that lack connecting routes,” Andrew Busch, a SEPTA spokesman, said of the project, which will include the periodic collection and evaluation of data on customer feedback and timeliness of arrivals.
Arming workers with GPS devices, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission studied the route last year to determine the causes of delays. SEPTA classifies a bus or train as “on-time” if it is less than six minutes late. The 47’s rate hovers at 75 percent, one of SEPTA’s lowest and below the 89.4 percent systemwide figure revealed in December. The City surveyed riders and teamed with SEPTA to make the 47 “a model for routes traveling to and from Center City,” Andrew Stober, the City’s Transportation and Utilities Office chief of staff, said.
As the majority of the changes affect South Philadelphia, bigwigs last month met with community groups and businesses east of Broad Street to clarify how to alert riders of the adjustments.
Three weeks ago, SEPTA placed signs bearing text in English, Cambodian, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese to announce the pilot, slated to run through Oct. 20, at the consolidated stops.
“We wanted to ensure people would not have to walk a block more than usual,” Busch said.
The project will not pass over stops near medical facilities or senior centers, but last month’s powwows included complaints concerning the safety of elderly. Passenger Terry Venier, who assisted an elderly woman on and off the bus, offered his misgivings on his northbound voyage.
“It’s too hard on senior citizens,” the resident of the 500 block of Wharton Street said after Pickett’s disclosure the bus will discontinue stops at Seventh and Moore streets. “I will be fine, but what about them?”
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Trailing only the 23, which tackles 11th and 12th streets, for riders, the 47 transports 23,000 passengers on weekdays and 19,000 on weekends. Operating the popular route costs SEPTA $9.8 million, with the agency recouping half of that total in passenger revenue, Busch said. Once a trolley line serving Eighth and Ninth streets, the bus has a notorious reputation for slowness that Busch and Stober hope to reverse.
Passengers have encountered changes other routes have used for some time — rear-door and far-side boarding. The former, applied for buses stopping in front of Center City’s Municipal Services Building, allows for holders to flash their TransPasses to loaders, which will speed up entry during the morning peak period at Seventh Street and Washington Avenue and the evening rush at Eighth and Market streets.
“Those are our heaviest boarding locations,” Busch said.
Whereas that move looks to prevent crowding in the front, the far-side boarding seeks to lessen complaining throughout the vehicle. Using a method their C-bus-driving brethren rely on at Broad Street and Oregon Avenue, drivers will retrieve and unload boarders after passing through northbound green lights on Washington Avenue and South Street. The southbound trip will follow the same procedure at Eighth and Walnut streets.
Most affected stops target South Philadelphia because of its narrow, tight streets. Spacious openings greet drivers beyond Market Street, so that fact and numerous gripes prompted the City and SEPTA not to consolidate the entire course.
“Our objective is to provide reliability,” Stober, who encourages riders to offer feedback by calling 311 or SEPTA or by visiting www.septa.org/47pilot , said.
With room as a commodity, SEPTA and the City’s Streets Department worked to adjust garbage and recycling pickup to avoid conflicts during peak-hour traffic.
“The 47 will be a measuring stick for other possibilities,” Busch, who lauded the likely benefits of having the pilot include portions of two school years and the whole summer, added of the line.
SEPTA’s headway system promises to curtail anger, too, as more frequent deployments will give drivers a chance to reduce the northbound route’s typical five-minute tardiness in reaching North Philadelphia. Buses will leave Whitman Plaza every six to 20 minutes on weekdays, and parties will wait no longer that 23 minutes on weekends, which are notorious for bus infrequency.
“I take the bus at different times, but they get me both ways,” Morrell, who has had to traipse to either Porter or Wolf Street minus his Ritner Street stop and has needed to return home by beginning at South instead of Lombard Street, said. “I know people are split, but I think it will work.” SPR
Contact Staff Writer Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
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