Septa

Four people died and at least 165 people were treated for injuries in the March 7 Market-Frankford El train derailment. As of last week, SEPTA lawyers had received notice of 267 claims from people who allegedly were aboard the six-car train when it careened off the rails and was flayed open by tunnel support pillars as it crashed beneath 30th Street Station. That's far more people than SEPTA believes were aboard at the time of the crash, a SEPTA spokeswoman said. The six-car train could carry 312 people seated, and many more standing, SEPTA officials said.

You couldn't call me a gym rat, but for the past several decades, I've frequented fitness centers enough to stay in decent shape. Now in my early 60s, I don't have a stomach that suggests I'm in my second trimester, and I can take a flight of stairs without bursting a blood vessel or huffing like a SEPTA train squatting at the station. I can even outdo guys half my age, provided they've just had ACL surgery. For me, working out had always been as automatic as brushing my teeth.

While rail commuters eagerly await new SEPTA railcars, a skirmish is going on at the front of the train. Train engineers, unhappy with the subway-style operating compartments planned for the new cars, have asked for cabs that extend the full width of the cars, like those in current SEPTA trains. They say it's a matter of safety, security and privacy. SEPTA officials, who met again this week with engineers, say the new, smaller compartments will be safer than current ones and will make room for more passenger seats.

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.

A WOMAN with her 2-year-old child spat on a SEPTA bus driver and beat him with her umbrella Sunday after he asked her to quiet the screaming toddler, according to police. It marked at least the second assault on a bus driver in the past two weeks. The 50-year-old driver asked Tiffany Alexander, 25, to calm her child down soon after she boarded the Route 7 bus about 3 p.m., a police spokeswoman said. Alexander argued with the driver and swung the umbrella as if to hit him, but she sat back down, police said.

SEPTA will spend $171 million on 245 new buses, under a plan sent to the SEPTA board Thursday. Most of the buses are to be built with hybrid electric-diesel engines, though 85 are set to be cheaper diesel-powered buses. Hybrid buses are more fuel-efficient and less polluting but cost about 34 percent more than diesel buses. If the SEPTA board approves next Thursday, the contract will be awarded to NOVA Bus, a Canadian subsidiary of Swedish manufacturer Volvo Bus Corp. The buses are to be built in NOVA's Plattsburgh, N.Y., plant.

A Philadelphia police officer broke his leg while running after a suspect Friday night in the Point Breeze section of South Philadelphia. The injured officer alerted a radio operator at 8:21 p.m. that he was down in the area of 22d and Mountain Streets. An "assist officer" alert was declared and police rushed to the officer's aid. The fleeing suspect was apprehended. It was not immediately known why the suspect was being pursued. A medic unit took the injured officer to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Unhappy with the pace of contract negotiations, SEPTA police are warning of a possible strike. SEPTA officials have drawn up contingency plans for protecting passengers and SEPTA property in case of a strike, a spokeswoman said Monday. The Fraternal Order of Transit Police, which represents about 220 SEPTA officers, had a one-day walkout in 2008, the first ever by the police force. No new strike is imminent yet, as the police and SEPTA have agreed to talk again in March.

Everybody's hoping for another Phillies parade next year, but fans shouldn't expect SEPTA to do the impossible - that is, carry hundreds of thousands of riders beyond its normal capacity. The disappointed baseball fans who were delayed and stranded on crowded train platforms last week were understandably frustrated and angry. But they really shouldn't have been surprised that a commuter rail system sized for 135,000 could not handle several times the ridership. No question, thousands tried to do the right thing by taking a train or bus to Center City and the stadium complex.

Thanks to a lucky lunch break — or was it the power of prayer? — the four dozen happiest people in Philadelphia were introduced to an envious public today as they claimed a Powerball jackpot worth $107,533,238.27 in cash. They filled rows of chairs at a late morning news conference, telecast live from SEPTA headquarters, where most of them have worked for tenures of less than a year to 42 years. Ranging in age from 26 to 69, including some who were already retired, they vowed no further media meet and greets would be granted.

A financial storm is coming, and SEPTA's umbrella just broke. The SEPTA board Thursday dug deep into its rainy-day fund in adopting a $1.28 billion operating budget for the next 12 months. That left the transit agency without enough reserves to cover an anticipated $38 million deficit starting the middle of next year and much bigger deficits every year after that. SEPTA officials say they're still hopeful that Gov. Corbett and state lawmakers will ride to the rescue, with a long-awaited boost in state aid for transit and highways.

A man apparently trying to catch a departing SEPTA train in Lansdale was struck by the train and injured Wednesday morning. The man, described as a regular SEPTA rider in his 60s, was "conscious and talking" as he was taken to a nearby hospital by ambulance, SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said. The accident happened at about 9:53 a.m. near Main Street in Lansdale as the man attempted to catch a train bound for Philadelphia on the Lansdale-Doylestown line, Williams said.

"WALKING ON Sunshine," the newest SEPTA Art in Transit piece on the platforms of the rehabbed Spring Garden station, is unexpectedly cheery and colorful. With its snappy, patent-leather shine, it gives the underground station "soul," as one appreciative rider put it. This creation of Philadelphia artist Margery Amdur is one of 21 art projects SEPTA has created systemwide since 1998, when Art in Transit began at the behest of then-new SEPTA general director Jack Leary. Leary came from Boston, which had an art program in its MTA; he wanted art for Philadelphia, too. Everybody up and down the SEPTA line embraced the idea, according to Elizabeth Mintz, who came on board at the same time as Leary and is the authority's director of communications and manager of the Art in Transit program.

IT TOOK SEVEN punches on a SEPTA eight-ride One Day Convenience Pass ($7) to see 10 Art in Transit projects — a three-hour journey on the Market-Frankford and Broad Street lines, with a stop at Suburban Station. Many of the projects are beyond the ticket gates and thus viewable for paying riders only. The projects vary widely and although they all succeed as public art, some can't compete with SEPTA's overwhelming infrastructure of walls, exposed beams, platforms, stairways and gates.

A Philadelphia police officer broke his leg while running after a suspect Friday night in the Point Breeze section of South Philadelphia. The injured officer alerted a radio operator at 8:21 p.m. that he was down in the area of 22d and Mountain Streets. An "assist officer" alert was declared and police rushed to the officer's aid. The fleeing suspect was apprehended. It was not immediately known why the suspect was being pursued. A medic unit took the injured officer to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

You couldn't call me a gym rat, but for the past several decades, I've frequented fitness centers enough to stay in decent shape. Now in my early 60s, I don't have a stomach that suggests I'm in my second trimester, and I can take a flight of stairs without bursting a blood vessel or huffing like a SEPTA train squatting at the station. I can even outdo guys half my age, provided they've just had ACL surgery. For me, working out had always been as automatic as brushing my teeth.

SEPTA has signed a three-year $316,560 contract with a Boston company to provide energy consulting services to the regional transit agency. SourceOne , a subsidiary of Veolia Energy North America , will advise SEPTA on strategies for the purchase and management of all SEPTA utilities, including natural gas, water and sewer, electricity, heating oil, and propane, said Frank Gormley, SEPTA's operating budget director. SourceOne will also evaluate the viability of alternative energy projects.

IN THE REGION Region's economy growing slowly The Philadelphia regional economy is growing slowly with employment levels not expected to return to prerecession levels until the second half of 2013, according to the latest quarterly indicators released by Select Greater Philadelphia, the economic development arm of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. A comparison of regional and national leading indicators shows the national economy continuing to recover more quickly than the Philadelphia area, the organization said.

SEPTA buses were involved in two separate accidents Monday afternoon, officials said. In the first, a Route 64 bus was traveling on Grays Ferry Avenue near Ellsworth Street, in Grays Ferry, around 4:15 p.m. when it collided with a van at the intersection, SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch said. Six people suffered minor injuries in the accident and were being taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for treatment. Busch said the left front side of the bus was damaged in that accident.

Drivers will encounter a few disruptions because of major events today and over the weekend. Today and tomorrow, part of Kelly Drive will be closed for the Dad Vail Regatta. This evening, the Phillies, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and any after-dinner Shore traffic might mean delays around the South Philadelphia sports complex. Sundaymorning, the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure will tie up streets and detour SEPTA buses as runners and walkers proceed from the Art Museum down the Parkway to Love Park, then on to Drexel University and back to the Art Museum, where Eakins Oval will still be off-limits in earlyafternoon.