Time for a long-overdue meta post, as I have been quite rare over the past few months. Without getting into too many personal details, I had my fair share of commitments to attend to during that time, but I always expected that I would eventually get back to updating this site and advocating for the [...]

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A treat makes its way to us this morning via SEPTA Watch: a set of photos from the floor of a factory in Korea, where the new Silverliner V train cars for SEPTA are being built. Previously, we’ve seen only diagrams and sketches of the new cars - here’s the first one, currently under construction:

More [...]

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From the Inquirer:
To help ease overcrowding on Regional Rail lines, SEPTA plans to lease eight used railcars from NJ Transit.
The cars, to augment SEPTA’s existing fleet of 348 cars until new Silverliner V cars begin arriving in 2009, are to be put into service next month if the $10,000-a-month lease is approved by the SEPTA [...]

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This has more to do with the R5 than anything else, but increased rail ridership in Chester County is important news for those hoping for a rejuvenated R3 line. While Amtrak had the best year in their 37-year history last month, they are still struggling to pay for crucial repairs to the Northeast Corridor tracks they [...]

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We link to SEPTA Watch quite a bit here at R3WestChester, and with good reason: they have a lot of great information. For example, this story at the top of the site today goes into SEPTA’s latest failure in getting Smart Fare cards, like the ones NYC Transit uses. Boo.
Oh, and hey - look who [...]

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Another resolution of support, this time from WCU’s outgoing president, Dr. Madeleine Wing Adler:
On behalf of West Chester University of Pennsylvania, I am submitting this letter in support of extending SEPTA’s R3 train link to West Chester.
At present, West Chester University is served by SEPTA Bus #104 from the 69th Street terminal. However, the addition [...]

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Our own John McKinstry gets a shout-out in a short piece in today’s Delco Times:
SWARTHMORE – Council approved a resolution supporting the extension of the SEPTA R3 regional rail service to West Chester.
The resolution will now go to local and state-level officials.
The Chester County and Delaware Valley Regional planning commissions are spearheading the effort.
Borough resident [...]

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We’ve mentioned the theft of the copper catenary along the abandoned West Chester Line before, but this morning we found some decent photos of the SEPTA cleanup job that followed in 2006. Check out this link from the Philly chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. (Bonus cool points for the shot of the old [...]

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When gas prices reach new record levels, apparently the trendy thing to do is to write articles that remind your readers about exactly how high those prices are. Every day. Throwing in a bunch of anecdotes about how folks are dealing with those prices - that’s the new black.
Today, Joseph Gambardello rehashes last week’s statistical [...]

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Hey gang,
We just changed the default feed for the site. We’re now using Feedburner, which is an excellent service, in lieu of the Wordpress-generated feed. If you’re getting these posts in your email inbox, you’re using the new feed already. Otherwise, please check and switch if you need to.
Thanks,
TJ

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