What about SEPTA? Last of Train Station meeting 01/29/2015 & why it took so long.

Train Station Meeting - Ending - January 29, 2015

What about SEPTA?  

Why it took so long.  

And how Congress has and is still is causing the delay (6 years of doing nothing). 

I thought we would hear how SEPTA would proceed bringing service to Coatesville, Parkesburg and Atglen a few days after the January meeting.  So I waited to put this last post up.

Since nothing has happened since about the middle of February, I tried to find out why. 

WWCD?

What I found is that SEPTA and everyone else nationwide is waiting to see what Congress will do, before they fund anything to do with transportation.  

On May 31st. the Highway Fund, which includes SEPTA funding, runs out of money. Unless Congress does something and funds it. Good luck with that.  


"Bridges and roads take years to build, but too often states and communities haven’t known if funding would be there for them more than a few months at a time. 

So they stop planning and slowed building."
-Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx - AUGUST 8, 2014

At the Methodist Church January 29, 2015:

Senator Dinniman, "One more question, then we'll finish. 

Yes, Jim?

Me, "What about SEPTA?  

SEPTA put a turnaround in and is supposed to be building more cars."

Senator Dinniman, "Ahh, Jenn and I have a meeting with SEPTA coming up in about two weeks. Basically around some issues in the Exton Station. And why we're having trouble getting the bus into the station. Why people have to go across Rt. 100 to go to "Main Street". Try it and see if you survive."

Me, “No, I mean it's supposed to go to Atglen.”

Senator Dinniman, “I know, I know but at that meeting, we will bring that up.  We've had discussions with people in both political parties onto how their representatives on the SEPTA Board, including ours can help us achieve that. 

Stewart Greenleaf, Senator Greenleaf, on the SEPTA Board for Montgomery County is going to work on that. As well as our own representatives from Chester County. As well as some people in Philadelphia. 

So the aim is, for the new station is to have that train stop here, not end it’s route in Caln, in Thorndale. And of course Parkesburg will have a stop. 

And SEPTA knows that the population is increasing. 

At the Exton Station, did you ever try to get a parking spot there? The Exton Station is now as I told you, the busiest station. In fact Whitford is in operation, in part because people can't find parking in Exton. 

If that is occurring then that means that they have more and more coming from the west. With what we do then people will get on and off the train here. 

So it all ties together, Jim. We want that SEPTA service back. Excellent question. 

Again, You know we'll never get 100% of all our aims, but Harry will tell me in sports, what’s a good percentage to get, right?

Representative Harry Lewis, “That’s absolutely right.”

Senator Dinniman, “I can see why you are a good coach. 

That’s our goal. We appreciate everyone being here. And we're going to do this together, am I right?

Audience, “Right.”

Senator Dinniman, “Thank you so much."

"With the release his FY 2016 budget proposal, President Obama has put forth a plan to stabilize the Highway Trust Fund and reauthorize the federal surface transportation programs. Now the ball is in Congress’s court."  

MORE AT: 

Analysis of the Obama Administration’s FY 2016 Budget Proposal for Transportation 

PLAN PHILLY
Regional Congressmen divided over highway funding, despite apparent accord

Friday, April 10, 2015 By Jim Saksa

Republicans are fighting between common sense and the insane, Tea Party inspired, "Transportation Empowerment Act": 

Northern Kentucky Tea Party

May 3, 2014 

Support the Transportation Empowerment Act. 

Secretary Foxx Hosts Transportation Town Hall 

YouTube Video

US Department of Transportation

NOTE THE DATE:

Published on August 8, 2014.

Secretary Foxx,

“Thank you Sarah, And thanks everyone for joining us today. 

I know we have everyone from contractors to commuters tuning in today. 

So all of you know that in America our transportation problems are easy to see. But often difficult to explain. We have signs that warn you when traffic is ahead, but those signs don't always tell you why the traffic exists or why rush hour seems to keep getting longer and longer. 

Well this is what we're charged with figuring out here at USDOT. 

What would those signs tell us if we had them and where have our problems originated from and how do we fix them?

We know that over the last 6 years Congress has funded transportation with 27 short term measures and last Thursday as you just heard Sarah say, they passed a 28th. 

Bridges and roads take years to build, but too often states and communities haven’t known if funding would be there for them more than a few months at a time. 

So they stop planning and slowed building.

This is part of the problem. Maybe even the worst part, but it’s far from the only part of our challenge. 

There is another.  At DOT we already know by 2050, we'll have to move almost twice the amount of freight in our country.

We also know we won't be able to do it with our current freight system. Why? Because our freight system isn’t much of a system. Our roads and rails and ports aren't always well connected. And in many cases pieces of that system are deteriorating. 

But that’s not the only problem we face across the country. We also have a challenge with making sure that infrastructure does not go from blueprints to gathering dust. And one of the challenges there is that the permitting process, that in many cases could have taken months at a time has taken years. 

We see people who are locked out of economic opportunity in addition to that. And they're locked out not because they can’t get a job but because they can't get to a job. 

All of these issues are ones that can be confronted squarely if we just look at those problems face them down and solve them as a country. 

That’s why we're holding this town hall today. Because I want to talk to you about our ideas to make them change. 

The only way we're going to change this broken record is to engage the American people, to share the facts as we know them and that’s why before this year is out, one of the things we're going to do at the Department of Transportation to release a 30-year transportation report to help us prepare for the future and to level -set on the problems that are coming around the corner in our country.

But in the mean time, we've put forward ideas that will help prepare us for today.

The table stakes are a long - term build that not only boost funding, more than a ten - month patch, but we're also endeavoring to see the kind of policies that are needed in the 21st Century. Not just more funding but better policy must be part of our solution. 

Policies that let us integrate our freight network so that cargo can come right off of ships and be loaded on to trains or trucks. Policies that allow us to invest in transit, both in towns, small towns as well as big cities. 

Policies that help us streamline the permitting process so projects to go from lines on a blueprint to a part of a real map much faster.

Policies that give communities a greater say in what they build. 

And policies that train workers with the skills to build the system we need in the 21st. Century.

These are the policies we recommended to congress last spring when we sent them a bill called the “Grow America Act””.

The Grow America Act” is a long - term bill and I'll share more details about it as I answer some of your questions, but the important thing to understand is this.

The country can't afford to wait ten months just to get another stop - gap measure. 

Congress has bought itself a little time.  

Now we all need to help Congress use that time effectively to solve this crisis. 

They need to craft legislation that brings more certainty and better ideas to how we invest in transportation, and they should do so before their term expires in January, it at all possible. 

I can't stress enough how important this is and how important the urgency is to America’s transportation system. And I agree wholeheartedly that they should use Grow America as their guide. 

That’s an important part of what I'll be talking about today, and with that, I'm looking forward to your questions.”

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