Septa

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 tranfer 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 passes 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]

Concerned riders quizzed SEPTA officials Monday about proposed fare hikes and a new fare-payment system in the first of a series of hearings around the region. The hikes, if approved by the SEPTA board, would be the first in three years and would boost cash fares to $2.25 on July 1 and $2.50 a year later. The new $200 million electronic "smart card" payment system will replace tokens, passes, transfers, and tickets on subways, buses, trolleys, and trains. "You're going to find out you have a lot of people angry at you," said Douglas Diehl of Drexel Hill.

I was 13 years old when my family moved from Wilmington to the Main Line - 13 when I began riding the Main Line rails. That first overheated summer I boarded at Bryn Mawr to make my way (eventually) to the Wissahickon Skating Club, dressed (preposterously) in turtlenecks, nubby tights, skating skirts, and sweatpants - enough polyester to keep my pigtails damp as I later practiced axels and scratch spins at the rink. After that I rode the rails for the sake of city adventures, or rode them as a University of Pennsylvania student, or rode them home for holidays from a succession of city apartments.

There are lots of surprises tucked in the fine print of SEPTA's plans for fare increases and a new smart-card fare system. Like, if you don't register your "smart" credit card with SEPTA, you will be charged the full $2.50 cash fare for each bus or subway ride, plus an "unregistered account fee" of up to 50 cents. Users of SEPTA's own smart cards will pay $1.80. Or this: You will no longer get an unlimited number of trips on a weekly or monthly pass. And senior citizens from any state in the country will be able to ride free, with photo ID. Public hearings start Monday on fare increases scheduled to take effect July 1 and on a complex new electronic fare-payment system that is to begin its rollout in the fall.

A veteran Philadelphia police officer has been named to a top job in the SEPTA police force. E. Teresa Peay-Clark, 49, of Northeast Philadelphia, will assume the newly created position of inspector of special operations. She will be one of two inspectors, who serve as the top deputies to recently hired Police Chief Thomas Nestel III. Peay-Clark, who will be paid $102,336 a year, will be in charge of investigations, SWAT teams, canine operations, and training. - Paul Nussbaum  

ON MAY 1, hundreds of SEPTA staffers will conduct a systemwide "safety blitz" at stations where people are known to trespass on the rails. Here's what SEPTA wants people to know: *  All train tracks are private property. Never walk on the tracks - doing so is illegal and dangerous. * Always expect a train at any time, on any track and in any direction. * Remember to cross train tracks only at designated pedestrian or highway grade crossings. * Stay alert around railroad tracks.

BURNETT "Bernie" Jones, a first responder to dozens of rail deaths since he became SEPTA's chief accident investigator in 2004, has learned to deal with the blood splatter and the body parts. "The deaths that are the most heartbreaking to me are the ones where a person intentionally beheaded themselves, where a person was so distraught that they actually put their head on the rail and waited for the train," Jones said. "The body is more intact in those cases, but just knowing that in their mind they had to do that . . . " Of the accidental deaths, Jones said, "What's heavy on my heart is when they're a child in their teenage years and they make a mistake that costs their lives.

Full service on SEPTA's Manayunk-Norristown regional rail line was restored at about 2:30 p.m. after telephone lines fell and damaged the rods on top of a train in Norristown that help power the train earlier. Thirty SEPTA passengers were stuck on that disabled train for about 45 minutes, said SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch. No one was hurt, but authorities kept passengers on the train as a precaution until all power was turned off and the riders could safely be let off the train and taken to shuttle buses.

ONE MIGHT think Joseph C. Byrd would be flying high right about now, given that he was one of 48 SEPTA employees who won a $172.7 million Powerball jackpot last April. Think again. Byrd, 44, of West Philadelphia, allegedly ran amok at SEPTA's Market Street headquarters Feb. 18, shouting obscenities, leading cops on a foot chase into Market Street traffic and telling SEPTA Police Chief Thomas Nestel III, "I'm going to f------ shoot you in the face," according to an arrest affidavit obtained Monday by the Daily News . The bizarre episode concluded with four or five SEPTA cops taking Byrd into custody and involuntarily committing him to a mental-health facility, the affidavit said.

WE WISH to thank Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell for her unwavering support of Philadelphia's labor unions. We believe the Nutter administration's unwillingness to host AVI community meetings in Councilwoman Blackwell's district has nothing to do with angry residents - they can be found in every district - and everything to do with Nutter's vindictiveness over the councilwoman's pointed criticisms of his insulting handling of labor negotiations with our...