Septa

The atmosphere is thick with the aroma of pasta sauce and lasagna from the Italian buffet, and across the room, a guitar player and an aspiring opera singer are performing. It's evocative of the Billy Joel song "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant," but the venue in this case is SEPTA's Wayne Station in Radnor Township, for many years little more than a prosaic commuter shelter bracketing a ticket window. Fabio & Danny's Station Cafe, on the Philadelphia-bound side of the Main Line tracks, now hosts Friday-night BYOB dinners with free music.

More money or less service. That was the familiar essence of SEPTA's capital-budget presentation Tuesday, as the agency noted how little $308 million will buy these days. In two hearings at its Center City headquarters, SEPTA officials outlined what they described as a bare-bones spending plan for construction, new vehicles, and growing debt service. Cuts in state funding have reduced SEPTA's capital budget 25 percent since 2010, and if Harrisburg doesn't come up with more money, the transit future is grim, said Catherine Popp-McDonough, SEPTA's director of capital budgets.

SEPTA conductors and assistant conductors have rejected a tentative contract. SEPTA's board was scheduled to approve the contract Thursday, if the members of United Transportation Union Local 61 had ratified it. Now, the two sides will resume negotiations. The union represents 396 conductors and assistant conductors, whose last contract expired on Oct. 17, 2009. Two other of SEPTA's 17 bargaining units also remain without contracts: the unions representing locomotive engineers and electrical workers.

In the Region Conductors reject SEPTA contract   SEPTA conductors and assistant conductors have rejected a tentative contract. SEPTA's board was scheduled to approve the contract Thursday, if the members of United Transportation Union Local 61 had ratified it. Now, the two sides will resume negotiations. The union represents 396 conductors and assistant conductors, whose last contract expired on Oct. 17, 2009. Two other of SEPTA's 17 bargaining units also remain without contracts: the unions representing locomotive engineers and electrical workers.

SEPTA has reached a tentative contract with the labor union representing Regional Rail conductors and assistant conductors. The agreement calls for raises totaling 11.5 percent over the five-year life of the contract, similar to the pattern established by a 2009 contract with SEPTA's largest union, Transport Workers Union Local 234, which represents bus and subway operators and mechanics. The tentative agreement with 390 conductors and assistant conductors must still be ratified by the members of United Transportation Union Local 61 and the SEPTA board.

THREE WEEKS AGO, awaiting trial on vehicular-homicide charges, Wade Lohse walked out of a separate trial on gun charges in Lafayette, La., setting off a courtroom drama. Two weeks after that, while still on the run, Lohse made a shaky conspiracy video in a wooded area, "Blair Witch" style, in which he railed against authorities and the justice system. Then, he posted it to YouTube. "They're lying to you," he says in the video, referring to the government. "They've been lying to you all along.

WILLIE POLLINS called it "crazy. " Judy Mackey called it "dangerous. " Dozens of their fellow riders packing SEPTA's public hearings Wednesday agreed that the transit agency's New Payment Technology fare-collection system, debuting in 2014, could leave a lot of people feeling dumbfounded about smart cards. Pollins imagined a rush-hour smart card-mageddon as thousands of desperate regional-rail riders tried to get through the proposed card-reading turnstiles in time to catch their trains.

A standing-room-only crowd packed SEPTA's boardroom Wednesday to criticize plans for a new electronic fare-collection system and proposed fare hikes. Especially unpopular were planned transfer charges, senior-citizen identification requirements, turnstiles for Regional Rail stations, trip limits on weekly and monthly passes, cost increases for paratransit services, and the elimination of bus and subway pass use on weekday trains to the airport. The Nutter administration, which has two seats on the 15-member SEPTA board, said it "has a number of serious concerns with how the [new payment technology]

WOMEN, AREN'T you tired of having men holler at you out of car windows as you walk down the street? Or maybe you find yourself frightened by male passengers on SEPTA who compliment you on your appearance and then proceed to follow you off of your bus when you get off. My own personal pet peeve is when passers-by notice that you're deep in thought and then walk up to you and say, "smile. " Most of us fume over this type of unwanted attention. But a group called HollabackPhilly has taken to calling it what it is - street harasssment.