Wednesday, March 31, 2004

SEPTA sucks. Of all the loathesome things about Philadelphia, and there are plenty of loathesome things about this place, SEPTA is the absolute worst. Until New York went up to $2.00 a ride, we had the highest rates in the country, which they're thinking of hiking again; the ontime percentage SUCKS; SEPTA's transit maps as posted in the stations, unlike those offered in New York, Montreal, and just about every other city in the world (do the google search yourself), provide no details of the surrounding neighborhoods and are useless for out of towners (more detail is provided on the paper timetables, but these are only available on the trolley itself -- and you'll notice that you can't find a copy of SEPTA's route maps on their site); the stations themselves are filthy (can't find a link, but believe me, the Broad Street line is disgusting and dank, while the El stations always seem to smell like a wet dog). The booth operators don't give change, and half the token machines don't accept bills! Not only that, but most stops don't even have token machines available to begin with. The token system is obsolete anyway: in New York, Chicago, and I believe Boston, they use some variety of the Metrocard system. Speaking of, in NY transfers are freee between bus and subway within a certain time frame (smart cards), and the subways run all night long. SEPTA charges 60 cents for a transfer, and most lines shut down between 12:30 and 1:00, including many of the buses.

By the way, upon inspection, Boston's T seems to be as much a mess as SEPTA, except it only costs a $1.25 to ride and it serves a far broader area. So that's STILL better than SEPTA.

I went to dinner with my folks last night and got into 30th Street Station around 10:00 on New Jersey transit. I headed up to SEPTA's regional rail concourse to buy tokens, but god forbid that SEPTA's regional rail have any convenient overlap with the subway surface lines. That would make people's lives a little easier. So I walked out of the station and across the street in the rain (there was once an underground concourse betweem 30th Street Station and it's associated trolley/EL stop, but SEPTA shut that down years ago). I went down three flights of stairs (pity the fellow in a wheelchair; the elevator, installed over the past month or two, was out of order) and bought my tokens. No sooner had I put the token in the stile than I saw the familiar blue flashing light: SEPTA trolleys weren't running underground tonight. Diversion route 10 blocks away; take the El. Damn problem was I wanted to go to the White Dog, which has a late night happy hour, with $2.00 pints. Their beer selection is really good too, and I was hoping to grab a trolley for three blocks.
So I sacrificed my token, and walked out of the station grumbling. Walked through the rain to the White Dog, where as usual the woman behind the bar was somewhat of a cunt making me question (again) what's the point of bad service and a surly attitude? I sucked down 2 pints, and vowed to get on the trolley for free at the 40th Street diversion stop. That's actually not that tough of a vow to meet, because when the trolley is on diversion, they don't ask for far at 40th Street. So I stomped up the street in the rain, which was comign down harder, bitching about SEPTA all the way.

It wasn't even my trolley. I just wanted to get close to home. The guy sitting next to me was telling me about his job doing security for the Electric factory, a local venue. "I mean, I expect a degree of bullshit like drunk people or fighting at most of the shows we do, like Limp Bizkit and shit like that. But man, this was a Bob Dylan show, and there were people acting up like they all bad. Some dude tried to get in a fight wit me, and accused me of attacking him. Dumbass frat boy muthafucker..."