26.2: Running the Marathon Route… on Public Transit!

Today, I embarked on a journey tens of thousands of people make every year, all on the same day… and I live-tweeted it. Apparently, my attempt at making my tweets public didn't take, so I tweeted anyway. I started on the route at 14:34:24 when the S53 bus left Lily Pond & McClean Avenues on Staten Island.

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!

My Latest Video, and My Latest Trip

Where can you find a trip to Utah, a 12 train, footage of the South Brooklyn Railway, and a few pics of a train called the Cannonball, and an R train above ground, with footage set to the music of Daft Punk, all in one place? In my latest video, of course.



On Friday, I took a little trip. Here's my trip report as it appeared on SubChat (Or rather, as I intended it to appear on SubChat, since there was a word that was way out of place on the post, and since you can't edit your posts on SubChat, you need to make a new post to make any corrections. Anyway, here goes).

Yesterday, I took a little trip, with three phases.

Phase 1: Broadway Junction.
I had heard something about an interesting G/O where L trains from Canarsie would terminate at the Eastern Parkway J platform. I missed a southbound Q39 and eventually caught a northbound Q39 which I took to the G train. After sprinting to catch an L train of R160 cars, I discovered that the G/O must have finished early since it was after 11 AM, and the train was going to Canarsie. So Phase 1 was abandoned, and I immediately moved on to Phase 2.

Phase 2: Coney Island.
Having not visited Coney Island all summer, I decided to take a trip down there and take a few pics of the 'hood before the summer ends. On the journey, I took the C to the FAS, and transferred to a southbound Brighton Line train.

Was it an N or a B?

As part of my trip yesterday, I made a transfer from the Franklin Avenue Shuttle to the southbound Brighton Line. As I'm crossing over the tracks, I notice a train of R68 cars pulling in on the southbound express track and immediately proceed to board the train. A quick glance of the signs told me that this train was either lost, confused, or rerouted. The signs in the car I boarded showed (N)|Astoria|Coney Island. "An N on the Brighton? Weird," I thought, but since I was going to Coney Island anyway, I figured I'd go along for the ride. It continued down the express tracks and called at Church Avenue. That's when I moved into the next car forward, and to my surprise, one sign showed (N)|Astoria|Coney Island, but exhibited a case of Upside-down Letter Syndrome, since an upside-down <Q> was peeking through on the exterior side of the sign. The other sign showed (B)|Astoria|Coney Island. The train continued on to Newkirk Avenue. I moved to the next car and discovered another car that appeared to be confused. This time, both signs were showing (B)|Bedford Park Bl|Brighton Beach, but the sign nearest the corner cab was showing 6th Avenue B, and the sign nearest the full-width cab was showing Broadway B! The train called next at Kings Highway, where I had to bypass the next car forward due to the fact that all its doors were closed, and go into the next car forward of the closed car. This car was properly signed for N service as well. Now, I'm thinking, "This train is either going to Coney Island, or Brighton Beach. If the train doesn't know where it's going, how should I?" Since we didn't pass any Q trains going southbound, they probably should fill the gap by sending this BeN down to Coney. We get to Sheepshead Bay and I go to the front car, which is properly signed for B service. Then came the moment of truth: the interlocking north of Brighton Beach. If we go to the local track, we're going to Coney. If not, our best bet is this being a Brighton Beach B. Sure enough, we pull in on 3 track at Brighton Beach, and get the last stop call. Since there wasn't a Q in sight, I went through the train, taking some pics and taking notes on this confused consist.

From the north end:
Car 2814 was properly signed for B service.
Car 2815 had both signs reading (B)|Astoria|Coney Island.
Car 2813 was properly signed for N service.
Car 2812's 1 sign was set (B)|Astoria|Coney Island, while the 2 sign's ULS notwithstanding, was properly signed for (N) service.
Car 2856 was almost properly signed for B service. The only deviation being the route sign on the 1 side was showing Broadway (yellow) B.
Car 2857 was properly signed for N service.
Car 2859 also.
Car 2858 was properly signed for B service.

When my Q train finally arrived, I got on and looked at this confused train as we left. The front sign (which I never saw until this point, since the front of the train had already entered the station as I crossed over the tracks) said B. I guess it was a B train after all.

After taking the pics and grabbing some lunch at Popeye's, I headed over to the N train and boarded car 8850 (W00T! the Siemens set). Another interesting thing, it was signed up as an N via the West End line. For a moment the FIND went blank, and came back up, showing Bay Parkway was the next stop, and the local stations were Will Not Stop'd (W00T²! West End Express). I got off at 9th Avenue and photographed the next two N trains as they went around the curve. The second N train was an R160 set, and a moment later, a D train showed up. The C/R of the N announced that the D would leave first, so I got on the D. I went from 9th Avenue to 7th Avenue, and it took 30 minutes. At 7th Avenue, I hopped on the E train to proceed to Phase 3.

Phase 3: Cannonball East of Jamaica.
Up until yesterday, all of my photos of the Cannonball (The Long Island Rail Road's special express train to Montauk, which leaves from Hunterspoint Avenue at 4:06 PM, then stops at the following stations: Jamaica, Westhampton, Southampton, Bridgehampton, East Hampton, Montauk) were at locations west of Jamaica (HPA, Woodside, 60th Road). I wanted to take a stab of getting one pic of it from a location east of Jamaica. I had taken trains to Freeport before, and as I pass by the Laurelton and Rosedale stations, I was interested in the fact the latter has a TTTPT track/platform configuration, so I figure that would be the optimum choice for the purpose. Before the trip, I had planned to take either the Q5 or Q85 to the Rosedale station to get there just about when the Cannonball was scheduled to leave Jamaica. I got to the surface just in time to see the Q5 (which was the later of my two target buses) pulling away. All was not lost, though. I walked a bit past the other bus stops along Archer Avenue, when I see something on the ground that saved the trip. An unused Long Island Rail Road ticket which was printed almost two hours before I found it. I went over to the Jamaica station to get a refund (which I may not have needed, since the ticket as printed was Jamaica to Nostrand Avenue, but since I wanted to go Rosedale to Woodside, I didn't want any conductors telling me that I was on the wrong train). I photgraphed the Cannonball as well as a few other trains, and got on the train that would take me back to Jamaica, where I would catch the train to Woodside. The latter train had come from Ronkonkoma, so it was über-crowded. It was making all stops between Jamaica and Penn Station. Apparently one guy didn't get the clue that at Forest Hills, you need to be in one of the first 4 cars (I was in the 5th). The train stopped at FH just off the platform, and I told him that he needed to be in the next car forward, and he rushed out. I got to Woodside and took the 7 train home.

Pics have been uploaded, and have been posted on SubChat and OTChat.

Here are the links to what I posted on SubChat and OTChat:
Was it an N or a B?
West 8th Street
Coney Island
(N) West End Express
This station is… Rosedale.
Other Stuff