Philly Week Wrap-Up

Well, with the close of Philly Week here on the B24 Blog, I've decided to post some videos of my past experiences.

This first video is a montage featuring my first where I took advantage of NJT to go to Philly.

Click the link to see it!


Next, the winter break video of 2007 has a few.


Finally, one that was posted to the blog a while back, from September 2007.

A Railfan's List of Points of Interest: New Jersey North of Trenton

In this post, I will list various points of interest for railfans in the portion of New Jersey north of Trenton. Like in my previous post, I've been to (or through) many of these places, so I know a little bit about them.

Princeton Junction & the "Dinky"

Princeton Junction at West Windsor is an interesting station. Aside from the two platforms on the main line, there's another platform adjacent which is served by the "Dinky," a one-car (and on occasion, two-car) shuttle to Princeton station, located on the campus of Princeton University.

Jersey Avenue (New Brunswick)

Jersey Avenue has got to be the strangest station on the whole Northeast Corridor line. Trains to Trenton can stop there, but trains from Trenton can't. That's because only the southbound platform is on the main line. It's also a low platform station, the only such station until you get into SEPTA territory. The northbound platform is on the other side of a parking lot. Northbound trains leave from this platform and cross THREE tracks to get to the northbound track which platforms at New Brunswick station.

Elizabeth (Broad Street)

While this station is officially called Elizabeth on platform signage and published timetables, it is quite common for conductors to announce this station as "Broad Street, Elizabeth." This so that it's abundantly clear that the station is not North (Avenue) Elizabeth, the next station to the north and rather close to the Broad Street, Elizabeth station. There are two interesting features to this station. First, at the south end of the station, there's a walkway on each side of the tracks, which follow the curve of the right of way. This is actually the old low-level platform which existed before the current high-level platform was built. And, for the interest of railfans, the walkway adjacent to the southbound platform is a great spot for taking photos! From what I understand, so is the adjacent parking lot. The second interesting feature of this station is that there appears to be another railroad station and line which crosses beneath it. This is the former Central Railroad of New Jersey line. The tracks have been abandoned for a while, but it may be just enough to spark a railfan's interest.

Newark's Railroad Stations

Newark Broad Street, while going under extensive renevations, is a good spot to catch a train. Then again, so is Newark's Pennsylvania Station. Lots to see and do, and the PATH train's here, too.

SPOTLIGHT: Newark City Subway and Light Rail

While the PCC's have been withdrawn from service, Newark's subway is still going on strong. The station at Newark Penn is as loop track. If wish to transfer from Subway to Light Rail and vice versa, you're allowed to ride the train around the loop. Newark Light Rail is an extension of the Newark City Subway and connects Newark's two rail stations. While the service is nice, the route is walkable if you have the time and energy to do so. Just follow McCarter Highway until the tracks come out of the tunnel, and then follow the tracks. The Subway has been extended northward recently, and a new maintenance facility is near the northern terminal (with a few PCC cars sitting around, too). If you want to see what the line was like in the time when PCC's ran on the line, check out this YouTube video.

Secaucus Transfer Junction

Secaucus Junction (though the latter word should be "Transfer" because "Junction" implies that trains can change lines here, but actually, only people can. The only problem is that you need a ticket to actually make the transfer, but otherwise, it's pretty good.

Hoboken Terminal

Whenever I get around Hoboken, I think about Bugs Bunny's line in 8 Ball Bunny, when after the penguin revealed that he's not from the South Pole, Bugs replies, "HOBOKEN?!? Ooh, I'm Dyin' again!" Anyway, this is a major hub. You have buses, trains, the PATH system, and the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail.

SPOTLIGHT: Hudson-Bergen Light Rail

New Jersey Transit's other light rail system runs through the waterfront area of Jersey City and down to Bayonne. It also runs up to the northern terminal of Tonnelle Avenue. Starting from the north, here are some points of interest. Tonnelle Avenue has an interesting loop terminal. Bergenline Avenue is the only underground station on the line. Lincoln Harbor is near the Loncoln Tunnel helix. Hoboken Terminal, previously mentioned, is in dire need of some new ticket vending machines, but has a nice view of Lower Manhattan. The line from Pavonia-Newport to Luis Muñoz Marín Boulevard is walkable, and has pedestrian walkways that follow the line. Exchange Place has two platforms on either side of the northbound track, and also offers a nice view of Lower Manhattan. Essex Street features an interesting street-running portion. South of Liberty State Park, the line divides. A branch to West Side Avenue seperates from the line to Bayonne. From a Bayonne line train, you can see other PCC's being stored in the HBLR maintenance facility. Between Liberty State Park and 34th Street is the fastest running portion of the system. The station at 34th Street offers a connection to the S89, which runs to Staten Island. 22nd Street is the current end of the line.

Well, that's about it. Enjoy.

A Railfan's List of Points of Interest: Southwest New Jersey and Philadelphia

In this post, I will list various points of interest for railfans in the southwest New Jersey/Philadelphia area. I've been to (or through) many of these places, so I know a little bit about them.

Trenton Rail Station

At the top of the list is the NJT/SEPTA/Amtrak station in Trenton. This serves as the dividing line between New Jersey Transit and SEPTA on the Northeast Corridor. Many trains pass through here, and if you're lucky, you might even see a Norfolk Southern freight move as well. Good luck trying to catch an Acela Express here in anything but a movie or a photograph. They don't stop here, but they do make for a good photo op if your camera is equipped with some kind of burst mode.

Burlington Town Centre

Further down the RiverLINE is a station called Burlington Town Centre. It's a single track station in the middle of Broad Street in the town of Burlington (hence the name). Burlington has the appearance of a quaint little town, and the RiverLINE cars make for an interesting juxtaposition.

36th Street

In the area of this station, there is a large freight yard, with numerous freight cars and locomotives on the sidings. A good place for your freight shots. Just north of the station is the main RiverLINE maintenance facility (where southbound trains change drivers). Further north is the point where New Jersey Transit Atlantic City Line trains cross the RiverLINE. If you look at the RiverLINE's schedule, you'll notice that there's generally no RiverLINE service between Midnight and 5:30 AM. That's when the freight trains shine the rails. For some reason, you can't have freight trains running on the same tracks as light rail trains. Heads are scratching on that one…

SEPTA Headquarters

The address is 1234 Market Street in Center City Philadelphia. The street level and the lower level are of particular interest because part of that area serves as a transit museum of sorts, including a vintage PCC trolley car. There is also a transit museum gift shop, and a SEPTA sales office, where you can buy all sorts of maps and passes. They don't sell train tickets, but Market East station is nearby, and you can get them there. The SEPTA sales office is a good place to plunk down six bucks for your Inconvenience Pass. It's also a good place to pick up schedules for your SEPTA trips. Schedules for every bus and rail line are available here, but you have to buy the maps.

Girard Avenue

The trolley line that runs down Girard Avenue is different from the others in one particular way. It uses rebuilt and modernized PCC trolley cars in its service. At least, they are when the line is not being attacked by oversized trucks that inadvertently rip down the overhead wire the trolleys use to collect power. If that does happen, say it with me. BUSTITUTION!

Broad Street Subway

No list of Philadelphia area railfan points of interest is complete without the Broad Street subway. The BSS runs from the sports complex at Pattison Avenue all the way up to Fern Rock, basically echoing a large part of bus route C. However, the BSS has something the C bus rarely has: speed. The BSS has an express service which features trains that could make New York City's subway cars eat their proverbial dust. I rode one train on the BSS Express between Girard Avenue and North Philadelphia (Cumberland/Lehigh), which topped out at 61 Miles per hour. While that doesn't beat the 62 mile per hour record of the 60th Street Tunnel, the BSS doesn't need a 4,000 foot long downgrade exceeding 4% to achieve 61 MPH. The northern terminal is also interesting. It's a cross between Coney Island Yard and South Ferry. As you approach the Fern Rock Terminal, you get to see the whole BSS yard. The station itself is built on a loop, but unlike South Ferry, the platform is straight. No gap fillers necessary.

The Darby CSX Crossing.

Take a Route 11 trolley out to Darby and get off near the intersection of 6th and Main Streets, or take an R2 Newark/Wilmington train to Darby station, and walk north for about 10 minutes. You will see something interesting. The two-track trolley line crosses an active CSX freight line at grade here. What makes this even more interesting is that the recent rehabilitation to the crossing (apparently performed by CSX) causes the wheels on the Route 11 cars to ride on their flanges as they cross over the CSX rails. Though it's been worked out so that only one flange is on a CSX rail at any given time. Recent photos of the crossing show the CSX rails marred with flange grooves from all the trolley cars that have crossed them. (About 770 trips per track each week!)

Route 100

The Norristown high speed line from the 69th Street terminal in Upper Darby to the Norristown Transit Center in Norristown is one that shold be done by any railfan at least once.

There you go. It's not an exhaustive list, but it'll do for now. More spots can be found at Railfans Welcome and clicking on the links for NJ and PA.

What's Wrong with the SEPTA Convenience Pass?

The SEPTA Convenience Pass is definitely not worthy of its name. It's a pass issued by SEPTA for rides on SEPTA services, but it is hardly convenient. Many in the transit circle call it, more appropriately, the Inconvenience Pass (I will refer to it by either term during the remainder of the post). Here's how it came to be.

Before last year, SEPTA had a nice little pass called the Day Pass. It cost $5.50, and was good for travel on any SEPTA rail, bus, or trolley service. It was also good for one ride on SEPTA's regional rail system (of which the R7 I mentioned previously is a part, though it could not be applied to trips to or from Trenton). The way it works is somewhat simple. You buy the pass, and it comes in a little folder, with a sticker inside it. When you present it to a bus/trolley operator or booth clerk, (s)he would place the sticker on a dated transfer ticket. You could then show the transfer ticket to subsequent booth clerks or bus/trolley operators, and get an unlimited number of rides for the rest of the day. If the pass was used on the regional rail system, the conductor would punch a hole in a designated section of the sticker. Because of the nature of the day pass, requiring a dated transfer ticket to show validity for a given day, you could use the regional rail portion on one day, and use the rest on another day. It was truly remarkable.

During the middle of last year, SEPTA implemented a fare hike, which not only eliminated the Day Pass, it introduced the (In)Convenience Pass, and eliminated transfers. A court order forced transfers to be reinstated, but it was too late to save the Day Pass. The Convenience Pass was already being sold, and Day Passes were officially discontinued.

Why is the Convenience Pass so inconvenient? First, what it offers is somewhat less than the Day Pass that preceeded it. It is only valid for eight rides in a single day. It is not valid for travel on regional rail. At $6, it costs 50¢ more than the Day Pass. In the restrictive nature of the Convenience Pass compared to the Day Pass, there are already three negative points, which can be summed up by saying that you're paying more to recieve less.

The next thing that's wrong with the Inconvenience Pass is the size of the thing. At 4⅛ × 2⅞", it's larger than a credit card, so it won't fit in most wallets. That means you would have to carry it loose in your pocket while not in use, making it a bit easier to lose.

Next item on the Convenience Pass's naughty list, the way transactions involving the pass are carried out. It requires every bus/trolley operator and booth clerk to have a hole puncher readily available. And Heaven forbid having the pass being first used on a bus in a crowded street, or worse, a group of people who have all bought Inconvenience Passes and have walked from 1234 Market Street to catch the C bus for a ride up Broad Street. On the first use, the operator has to punch out four holes: The current month, the current day of the month (tens digit and ones digit), and the "1" indicating that this is the first trip using the pass. It's very cumbersome. Sometimes, the operator you show it to will just give it a look and wave you through to take a seat. He must have left his hole puncher at home or something. And judging from the size of the holes in each of the subsequent trips I've made with an Inconvenience Pass dated September 18, 2007, it doesn't appear to be a SEPTA-issued hole puncher, either. Apparently, any operator could simply walk into any office supply store and pick up a hole puncher for use on the job. (I took 6 SEPTA trips that day, but only had holes 1 through 5 punched out, because apparently, the trolley operator on an inbound trip from 40th Street didn't have his puncher. He just gave it a look and let me take a seat.) In an experiment, I simulated punching holes into an Inconvenience Pass. It took me about 40 seconds to look at the pass, reach for the puncher, and punch holes in the designated spots. Though with the right sized hole puncher, it could take about 20. But still, the whole ordeal of the first use takes longer than it should.

Finally, if you look at the back of the pass, there's a magnetic strip. What's the big idea of even having a magnetic strip if it's never used? Ideally, it could be used to keep track of the day in which it was used, and the number of trips taken so far, but since it's never swiped through a magnetic card reader, what's the point of having it?

That's what I don't like about the Inconvenience Pass. Other than that, it's a decent thing, but New York's $7 1-day unlimited pwns it.

Intro to Philly Week

It's that time of year again. New Jersey Transit is offering free rides to university students next week (Feb 4 - Feb 10). In preparation for this, I will make a series of blog posts about many things to see and do, from a railfan's perspective, taking advantage of New Jersey Transit's offer. I have entitled this week "Philly Week" after one of the many things that some up here in New York do to take advantage: Ride from New York to Philadelphia for free. Sure, the days are not as long as they are in September, which is the other time of year that NJT does this, but that doesn't mean you still can't take advantage of free rides into and through the Garden State.

Some of the things I have done in the past include complete exploration of the close-to-home light rail systems, the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail and the Newark City Subway. The more extravagant, of course, is traveling from the Big Apple to the City of Brotherly Love without spending a dime. Take that, Greyhound!

To travel to Philadelphia, you must travel to Trenton. There, you have two options, one of which costing significantly more. The costlier option is taking the SEPTA R7 line, which connects with New Jersey Transit trains in an across-the-platform transfer which makes that a bit more convenient, but like I said, it'll cost you. Buying your ticket on the train (the only sane way to do it if you ride free to Trenton) will set you back $9. If you're fortunate enough to buy a ticket in advance, you save *drumroll* one dollar. However, if you exit the station and go across the street, you'll find an option that'll make you spend those nine bucks on something you'll enjoy more…like a philly cheese steak.

The RiverLINE is South Jersey's light rail system, connecting Trenton with Camden, which is to Philadelphia like Jersey City is to New York…except there's bridges connecting the two cities down there, and tunnels up here. Take the RiverLINE to Walter Rand Transportation Center. (Yeah. I don't know who he is, either, but they named the place after him anyway.) Right across from the RiverLINE station is, shock, an entrance to another transit agency's rail station. This time, it's PATCO, a high speed rail line that runs from Lindenwold all the way to Philadelphia. Fortunately, the fare for the ride to Philly on PATCO is significantly less than that of the R7, so you can spend the $1.15 here, and save the rest for a slightly smaller Philly cheese steak.

Then again, if that $9 you have has to last you the whole day, Walk across the street into the Walter Rand Transportation Center, and proceed to Gate Eight. Enough with the Rhyme Time. Just take any bus that pulls up to Gate Eight, where there's a 99.9% chance that it'll pull in and say that it's headed to Philadelphia. Show your "credentials" to the bus driver, take a seat, sit back, and relax as the bus takes you across the Ben Franklin Bridge into Center City Philadelphia. Who knows? You might even see a PATCO train or two.

There you go. How to get to Philadelphia without spending a dime.
1. Be a college student with a valid student ID card.
2. Board a New Jersey Transit train on the Northeast Corridor Line. Take it to Trenton
3. Take RiverLINE to Walter Rand Transportation Center.
4. Board any bus that stops at Gate 8
5. Welcome to Philadelphia! What you do there is none of my business!

Enjoy!