SEPTA opens center at Suburban Station to teach handicapped to ride

SEPTA opened a new "accessible travel center" in Suburban Station on Thursday to make it easier for commuters with handicaps to learn to use buses, subways, and trains.

The center has a full-size replica of the front third of a SEPTA bus and mock subway and rail platforms, as well as training videos and piped-in street and train sounds.

"It was really real. It was like sitting on a real bus," said Roderick Powell of Chester, a blind man who chairs SEPTA's advisory committee for accessible transportation. "Folks will profit by learning how to travel here first."

Thaddeus Robinson of West Philadelphia navigated his wheelchair over a "bridge plate" covering the gap between a mock subway platform and a regulation-size subway door opening.

"It's an exact copy," he said.

SEPTA employees built the center, in the concourse beneath 16th Street and JFK Boulevard next to the Au Bon Pain store, with the help of a $140,000 grant from the Federal Transit Administration.

"Riding the bus can be scary when you don't know what you're doing," said Patricia Russell of Germantown, who is blind. "This way, I can see how high I need to step, and where to pay my fare and where to take a seat."

The center is open by appointment only. Appointments can be made by phone (215-580-7145) or on the Web (www.septa.org/access)

"If we can help people get to work easier and with more confidence, that's the key," said Cynthia Lister, SEPTA's coordinator for the Americans With Disabilities Act. "The ability to travel independently can be critical in holding a job."

About 8,000 of SEPTA's nearly one million daily riders are handicapped, said spokeswoman Jerria Williams.

Contact staff writer Paul Nussbaum at 215-854-4587 or pnussbaum@phillynews.com.