Regional Rail

SEPTA's new electronic fare-payment system may herald the biggest change for local rail commuters since the Center City tunnel was built 30 years ago. SEPTA expects to award a contract this month for its long-delayed "smart card" fare system, which will allow bus, subway, trolley, and train passengers to pay for their trips by tapping any "contactless" bank card on an electronic reader. Riders can use credit or debit cards they already own or get smart cards from SEPTA. The system is also being designed to eventually accept payment from smartphones.

SEPTA workers who maintain Regional Rail signals will get an 11.5 percent wage increase over five years under a deal approved Thursday by the SEPTA board. The terms of the new contract, which affects about 75 employees represented by the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, are similar to those negotiated by other unions in contracts with SEPTA over the last two years. The workers, whose wages have not increased since 2008, currently are paid from $26.55 to $28.85 an hour.

SEPTA has rediscovered its color palette. Last summer, SEPTA abandoned its R designations for Regional Rail lines and got rid of the color associated with each line. The red for the R7, the blue for the R5, and the other colors were replaced with a uniform blue-gray tint for all lines. Riders complained that without letters or colors, schedules for the different lines were hard to tell apart and hard to find in the station racks. So, with the release of spring rail schedules next month, SEPTA will have colored bars across the top of the timetables.

A passengerless SEPTA regional rail train was halted dead in its tracks this week when one of its steel wheels split in half. The unusual accident crippled the 14-year-old train as it traveled to the transit agency's newest station in Chester County. Neither the train operator nor the conductor was hurt. "It was a stress crack that began from the inside of the wheel," said Tom Dorricott, an official with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. He added that a broken wheel could have caused a catastrophic derailment.

If the Transport Workers Union, Local 234, goes on strike this week, SEPTA passengers may flock to Regional Rail trains and suburban bus routes. SEPTA's City Transit Division, which carries 875,000 one-way riders a day, would be shut down by a Local 234 strike. That is 84 percent of SEPTA's daily business. Regional Rail trains, which carry 103,000 one-way passengers daily, would continue to run from the suburbs into Center City. SEPTA has 35 to 40 Regional Rail stations in the city, according to Bernard Cohen, the agency's chief operations officer.

Starting Sunday and continuing until Oct. 3, most Bucks County riders of SEPTA's regional rail lines will be taking a different route to Center City. Commuters who usually take the R2 Warminster, R3 West Trenton and R5 Lansdale-Doylestown train lines will be diverted onto the Broad Street subway line. Riders of the R8 Fox Chase line will be bused to the Market Frankford subway line. With more than 10,000 commuters to be affected by the diversions in Bucks County, reaction has been varied.

City Councilwoman Happy Fernandez is asking SEPTA to reopen hearings on its recently announced service cutbacks, saying the transit authority is trying to eliminate some lines in secret. In a letter to SEPTA general manager Louis J. Gambaccini, Fernandez said the proposed cuts "fly in the face of common sense" and deserve closer scrutiny. She said SEPTA's presentation in public hearings earlier this month on proposed cutbacks in the Regional Rail division "did not clearly inform me and other concerned citizens on the extent of these additional cuts.

Facing a projected $55 million deficit created in part by state budget-cutting, SEPTA announced a plan yesterday to raise fares and severely reduce service, including discontinuing four Regional Rail lines and shutting down or merging dozens of bus routes. An estimated 50,000 passengers - 12 percent of the transit agency's 430,000 daily riders - would be affected by the service cutbacks, set for October. "This is big; this is bad," SEPTA general manager Faye Moore said before a news conference.

Less than a year after a weeklong strike stilled buses, subways and trolleys, SEPTA once again faces the threat of a shutdown - this time, regional commuter trains. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), whose 195 local members run SEPTA regional-rail trains, have worked without a contract for almost a year. Union leaders and SEPTA are at odds over wages. In November, the transit authority gave its largest union - Transport Workers Union Local 234 - a four-year deal with annual 3 percent raises.

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.

PHILADELPHIA No rape charges A police spokesman said yesterday that no sex-assault charges were filed against a man accused of a Nov. 12 rape at the Occupy Philly encampment at City Hall. Lt. Ray Evers said the District Attorney's Office declined to file charges. He would not comment further. A 25-year-old Atlantic City woman had called 9-1-1 about 7:45 p.m. on Nov. 12, claiming she had been raped in a tent. Police later arrested a 50-year-old man with addresses in Michigan and Philadelphia.

SEPTA workers who maintain Regional Rail signals will get an 11.5 percent wage increase over five years under a deal approved Thursday by the SEPTA board. The terms of the new contract, which affects about 75 employees represented by the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, are similar to those negotiated by other unions in contracts with SEPTA over the last two years. The workers, whose wages have not increased since 2008, currently are paid from $26.55 to $28.85 an hour.

SEPTA awarded a Maryland company a $129.5 million contract Thursday for the long-awaited "smart card" fare system to allow bus, subway, trolley and rail passengers to pay for their trips by tapping a card on an electronic reader. The contract awarded to ACS Transport Solutions Group of Columbia, Md., will enable riders to use credit or debit cards they already own or get smart cards from SEPTA. The system is also being designed to eventually accept payment from smartphones. SEPTA's board of directors unanimously approved ACS at the recommendation of staff over two other bidders, Cubic Transportation Systems Inc. of San Diego and Scheidt & Bachmann of Germany.

SEPTA awarded a Maryland company a $129.5 million contract Thursdayfor the long-awaited "smart card" fare system to allow bus, subway, trolley and rail passengers to pay for their trips by tapping a card on an electronic reader. The contract awarded to ACS Transport Solutions Group of Columbia, Md., will enable riders to use credit or debit cards they already own or get smart cards from SEPTA. The system is also being designed to eventually accept payment from smartphones. SEPTA's board of directors unanimously approved ACS, at the recommendation of staff, over two other bidders, Cubic Transportation Systems Inc. of San Diego and Scheidt & Bachmann of Germany.

A lawyer for Delaware County says she was thrown beneath a moving SEPTA train Monday when it pulled out of the Eddystone station before she had fully gotten off. Patricia Biswanger, 55, of Bryn Mawr, said two cars of the train passed over her as she lay in the gravel train bed between the platform and the rails. "It was terrifying. All I'm thinking is, 'What is it going to feel like when this train hits me? When is the pain going to start?' " Biswanger said Wednesday. Biswanger called a friend, Francie Howat, the Eddystone borough manager, who notified local police.

An attorney for Delaware County says she was thrown beneath a moving SEPTA train on Monday when the train pulled out of the Eddystone station before she had fully disembarked. Patricia Biswanger, 55, of Bryn Mawr, said two cars of the train passed over her as she lay in the gravel trainbed between the platform and the rails. "It was terrifying. All I'm thinking is, 'what is it going to feel like when this train hits me? When is the pain going to start?'" Biswanger said Wednesday.

The contract for SEPTA's new "smart card" fare-payment system may not be awarded until next month. A SEPTA board committee was expected to review the bids Thursday and send a recommendation to the full board, but SEPTA board chairman Pasquale T. "Pat" Deon said the $120 million contract may be awarded next Thursday or may wait for the board's Nov. 10 meeting. SEPTA has fallen far behind schedule in picking a company to install an electronic fare-payment system that would allow bus, subway, trolley, and train passengers to pay for their trips by tapping any "contactless" bank card on an electronic reader.

SEPTA's new electronic fare-payment system may herald the biggest change for local rail commuters since the Center City tunnel was built 30 years ago. SEPTA expects to award a contract this month for its long-delayed "smart card" fare system, which will allow bus, subway, trolley, and train passengers to pay for their trips by tapping any "contactless" bank card on an electronic reader. Riders can use credit or debit cards they already own or get smart cards from SEPTA. The system is also being designed to eventually accept payment from smartphones.