SEPTA

One of the biggest local news stories this week is the SEPTA (www.septa.org) strike. I know very little about the details of the labor dispute so I can’t really say if the Unions or if SEPTA is more at fault. However, I do feel bad for all the people that depend on SEPTA to get to work. I feel lucky that I have a reliable car and don't depend on public transportation to get to work.

What I do know is that in my opinion Philly has one of the worst mass transit systems of cities in the country, especially considering that it is one of the biggest cities. I haven’t taken mass transit in that many cities, but the few that I have all seem to have a better system than here.
First downside is that there aren’t that many places in the city where you can get on a subway or regional rail. By comparion, in NYC at pretty much every point in Manhattan you are within 5 blocks of a subway station. Another down side is that regional rail stops running here around midnight (although I know that the subway lines run later than that) while in other large northeast cities like Boston, NYC and DC their systems run later. Another downside is the cleaness of the system. The metro in DC look very clean, sleek and modern while our subway lines seem old and dirty, they look worst than what I saw in NYC and Boston. Another downside is price. Last year I took Atlanta’s light rail/subway from well north of the city to the Airport south of the city and I think it cost like $2. Then this year, when I was in Portand OR I took a 40 minute train/subway ride to the airport and it also cost around $2. Yet in Philly taking a septa train from the airport to center city costs $5.50. Not only that, but in Portland and Atlanta I had friends that lived at least 10 miles from the airport yet they could drop me off at a train station only a couple miles from where the live and I could take a train/subway directly to the airport while in Philly I have to go downtown and then switch trains to go to the airport. So in summary from personal experiences Philly mass transit sucks compared to other cities in different ways. Obviously I don't ride any of these systems often but here are the overall grades I give mass transit in the 6 cities that I have used it based on my impressions.

Atlanta B (easy and cheap access to airport, overall clean, doesn't reach all suburbs)
Boston B (runs late at night, nice looking trolley, somewhat dirty)
New York A (basically go anywhere with subway, runs late at night, relatively a good bargain compared to everything else in NYC)
Washington DC metro A (clean and modern, easy access to main tourist areas)
Portland A (very clean and modern, easy and cheap access to airport)
Philly D (subways dirty, regional rail doesn’t run late at night, seems expensive considering quality)