I love riding the trains in Philadelphia. I love how fast the Market Frankford can take me from 45th Street to Spring Garden to drop off my bass for repairs. The blue decor is soothing, and though loud, the whoosh of the wheels on the rails is smoother than you'd expect. The same is true for the trolleys. I live near the number 13, which goes up and down Chester Avenue, straddling the line between the treelined streets of University City on the north and the hard-edged meaner streets of Southwest Philly to the south. I even like the Broad Street subway, even if it is old and dirty. As the Philadelphia Weekly pointed out in their March 26th issue "The List: 103 Things We Love About Philly," the old and dirty are part of what gives the city I've called home for the past 4 years (and now that I'm a homeowner, for the discernible future) it's special charm and flavor.
Yes, I love the trains in Philadelphia from the trolley to the El to the regional lines.
But if there is one thing I hate, it is SEPTA.

One of the wonderful things about this city is the infrastructure surrounding its subway and trolley system, and the most maddening thing about it is the way said system is wholly mismanaged by the agency that runs it.
{history of Philly RR, includign when it got bad}
{septa, fair hike/ service}
{inability to get tokens by machine or from booth (verify); no change given}
{ways to improve serivice; even little moves, low cost moves}
as you can see, this article has yet to be finished. that's because SEPTA may soon be cuttin glines and jacking prices. I do love the trains in Philly, but they're in greater danger than ever before. More on this as I finish the article, which will take some time.