69th Street Terminal

After three long years in limbo, "Go-Go Pizza" is coming back. So promises owner John Karavidas, whose pizza shop was banished from the inside of the 69th Street Terminal while the 81-year-old building underwent a $14.4 million restoration. The restoration was finished six months ago, and SEPTA officials say they hope to have up to 15 retail businesses inside the terminal by October this year. Karavidas and four other retailers displaced by the renovation are guaranteed space inside the newly reconstructed interior.

A dispute over the treatment of homeless people at the 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby flared up again earlier this week with the arrest of a homeless advocate on charges of assault, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, and with allegations of excessive force by police from witnesses to the incident. Leroy Robinson, a resident of the Wesley House homeless shelter in Chester and an organizer for the Delaware County Jobs With Peace organization, was arrested just before midnight on Monday when he tried to intervene with SEPTA police on behalf of a homeless man who had just been arrested near a loading dock on the outside of the terminal.

SEPTA has eased its restrictions on the homeless at the 69th Street Terminal by letting people remain in the building during freezing weather. The transit agency also agreed to hire five homeless people areawide to serve as liaisons between the authority and the homeless in the buildings, said Leona Smith, site manager for Shepherd's Place, an Upper Darby group that provides nightly shelter in churches. Advocates say the moves show a new spirit of cooperation by SEPTA.

SEPTA management said yesterday that it feared a strike as early as Monday on the transit agency's so-called Red Arrow routes operating from 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby. Six months after the systemwide strike that virtually shut SEPTA down for two weeks, there is still no new contract with the United Transportation Union Local 1594, representing about 300 employees. The UTU represents the operators of three light rail lines - the Route 100 Norristown High Speed Line and the Routes 101 and 102 trolleys - and 21 bus routes into Delaware and Montgomery Counties.

If Charles Darwin were to rate commuters, he would probably pick those who trek from Philadelphia to King of Prussia on public transportation as the hardiest of survivors. They trudge and wait through multiple transfers, stand in bus shelters - some of which are inches away from Route 202 - and often wind up getting on crowded buses that creep along in traffic. It is not a trip for the weak. SEPTA hopes a planned new rail line could at least make it easier. A feasibility study has just been completed outlining a possible extension of the Route 100 rail line, which runs from the 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby to Norristown, to the King of Prussia mall.

A NEW WALL marks the spot at the 69th Street Terminal where a Norristown High-Speed Line trolley crashed last Saturday. The trolley smashed through the wall, injuring 42 people, after its brakes apparently failed. Although the wall has been rebuilt, buses are serving the route while federal investigators determine whether the trolleys are safe.

Limited trolley service on SEPTA's Route 100 Norristown High-Speed line will resume Monday, six weeks after a trolley accident halted service on that line. SEPTA spokesman Joaquin Bowman said five trolleys will operate during non- peak hours, and buses will supplement the line during rush hours. Full rail service may be restored within three months, Bowman said. Buses have replaced trolleys on the route since Aug. 23, when an out-of- control trolley rammed a wall at the 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby, injuring 42 people.

The last major road closures and detours for Market-Frankford El construction will begin Friday and last 16 days. The biggest bottleneck will be at the intersection of 63d and Market Streets. The intersection will be closed to all traffic from 7 p.m. Friday until 4 a.m. Aug. 25. As in past closures, shuttle buses will replace Market-Frankford El service between 40th Street Station and 69th Street Terminal. But this time, the buses will take different detour routes, increasing congestion on Haverford Avenue, Lansdowne Avenue, Baltimore Pike, Garrett Road and Marshall Road.

Police have charged on 18-year-old and a 14-year-old in connection with the theft of a SEPTA bus from the 69th Street Terminal area in Upper Darby. Authorities said the suspects stole the bus around 11:30 P.M. Thursday and, while being chased by police, hit a Philadelphia police car (right) at 62nd and Locust streets in west Philadelphia, then crashed into a wall (above) at 62nd and Walton Avenue.

Twice in the past month, I've ridden SEPTA from my home in West Chester into Center City, taking the 104 bus to the 69th Street Terminal and the Blue Line. The buses were prompt, clean, and quiet. The terminal was spotless. The old "El" that used to threateningly clank and sway now moves as if on air, free of graffiti, and every five to seven minutes. The Orange Line has been that way for more than a decade now. I came of age in Boston, where almost everyone takes the "T. " However, by my estimate, nine of 10 passengers on SEPTA are African American, despite the almost 50-50 parity between the races in the city.

A teenager was struck and killed by a SEPTA trolley in Upper Darby about 11:30 p.m. Thursday. The operator of the northbound Route 102 trolley was rounding a curve near the Oakview station when he saw a man sitting on a rail, according to Michael J. Chitwood, superintendent of Upper Darby Police. The operator honked and hit the brakes, but the man did not respond and the train could not stop in time. The victim was identified as Joshua Snyder, 18, of Ballymore Road, Springfield, Delaware County.

Man slain in car in S. Philly Police are seeking the killers after a shooting death early yesterday in South Philadelphia. The victim, 24, whose name wasn't released, was shot twice in the chest and once in the head as he sat in a car on Reed Street near 24th shortly after 1 a.m., police said. Medics declared him dead on the scene at 1:23 a.m., police said. Police reported no suspects or motive. Neighborhood fest today Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Macy Gray will headline the 21st annual Neighborhood-to-Neighborhood Street Festival, which is free and starts today at 11 a.m. on Baltimore Avenue between 49th and 52nd Street.

A young man was struck and killed by a SEPTA trolley in Upper Darby Thursday night. About 11:30 p.m., the operator of a northbound Route 102 trolley was rounding a curve near the Oakview Station when he saw a man sitting on a rail, according to Michael J. Chitwood, superintendant of Upper Darby Police. The operator honked and hit the brakes, but the man failed to respond and the train couldn't stop in time. The victim was identified as Joshua Snyder, 18, of the 200 block of Ballymore Road in Springfield, Delaware County.

SEPTA officials defended a decision not to call for medical help when a bus driver reported that a passenger - who later died on the Nite Owl bus - was unresponsive and drooling and had wet his pants early Sunday. Agency spokesman Richard Maloney said Tuesday that it was "not that unusual" for bus or train operators to encounter passengers who were very intoxicated. In this case, Maloney said, the bus driver and supervisors believed that the man, Leonard Sedden, 68, was drunk and asleep.

A 16-year-old boy playing hooky yesterday made Ferris Bueller look like chopped liver when he stole a SEPTA bus - because he wanted to practice for his driver's test - and ended up crashing into several cars, police said. The boy, a resident of a West Philadelphia halfway house who has the mental intellect of an 8-year-old, Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said, left the facility to attend school, but instead hopped on the El. He got off at the 69th Street Terminal, in Upper Darby, and went around back to the Victory Avenue Depot, where he was able to drive off in an unoccupied SEPTA bus about 11:30 a.m., police said.

The SEPTA board yesterday approved the contract that ended last month's six-day strike by bus drivers, subway and trolley operators and mechanics. The board's approval clears the way for SEPTA to distribute $1,250 "signing bonus" checks to each of the 5,100 workers represented by Transport Workers Union Local 234. The five-year contract provides a 2.5 percent raise in its second year, and a 3 percent raise in each of the final three years. It increases workers' contributions to the pension fund from the current 2 percent to 3 percent, and it increases the maximum pension to $30,000 a year from the current $27,000 a year.

The SEPTA strike didn't just wreak havoc in Philadelphia yesterday. It also stranded and frustrated city residents trying to reach jobs in the suburbs or get back, and worried some businesses that rely on reverse commuters. Marquita Powell, a nursing assistant at Greenleaf Nursing Home in Doylestown, was surprised to discover that the walkout had blocked her route home - and angered to learn that it had been timed to accommodate Phillies fans. "This is a bit much," said Powell, 32. "SEPTA doesn't care about working people.

SEPTA's largest union went on strike early this morning - crippling a transit system that averages more than 928,000 trips every weekday in the city. The strike came after hours of negotiation yesterday that ended when, according to Willie Brown, president of Transport Workers Union Local 234, both sides agreed that they had gone as far as they could go. The strike, Brown said early this morning, would begin at 3 a.m., threatening to cripple this morning's rush hour. Gov. Rendell, who along with Mayor Nutter addressed reporters in the lobby of the Park Hyatt at the Bellevue, where negotiations had been under way since 10 a.m. yesterday, called the decision to strike before dawn "irresponsible.

A 12:01 a.m. strike deadline has passed with SEPTA and its largest union continuing their negotiations early this morning. A strike - which Mayor Nutter had said "was pretty unimaginable" and which the union leadership had presented as very possible - can still be called at any time by Local 234 of the Transport Workers Union. After hours of direct and indirect negotiations that began yesterday evening - mediated by U.S. Rep. Bob Brady (D., Pa.) - there was little indication of what would happen.