Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority

Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority

Basic information
Company headquarters	Philadelphia
Web presence	septa.org
Reference year	2007
Operations management	Joseph M. Casey (General Manager)
Employee	9000
sales	443.7 million US dollars
Lines
Gauge	1,435 and 1,581 mm
railroad	7 or 13 regional trains
Subway	2
tram	3 (including 2 out of service)
bus	76 (city bus) 42 (regional bus)
Other lines	5 underground tram lines, 2 interurban trams, 1 interurban 5 trolleybus lines
number of vehicles
Railcar	349
Subway car	343
Tram cars	185 in total
Omnibuses	1371
statistics
Passengers	301 million per year
Mileage	149.8 million km per year
Stops	15,663
Catchment area	5.7 km²
Residents in the catchment area	3.9 million
Length of line network
Railway lines	280 km
Subway lines	25 km
Tram lines	68 km
Bus routes	1 447 km
Operating facilities
Other operating facilities	138 parking spaces with 21,830 spaces

Rail network plan

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority , abbreviated to SEPTA, is the construction and operating company for most of the local passenger transport in the Philadelphia , Pennsylvania area . The transport include with regional trains , two high- and subways , underground trams , trams , intercity trams , trolley buses and diesel buses in urban and regional transport and future light-rail -lines an extremely wide range.

SEPTA is the fifth largest public transport company in the United States and a major employer in the region with 9,000 employees.

background

In the first two decades after World War II , public transportation in the metropolitan areas of the United States became increasingly a grant business. Since the mostly private operating companies would not have been willing to accept the permanent losses, state-owned companies were founded in many places that subsidized the operation or took it over entirely.

Against this background, the Pennsylvania General Assembly , the parliament of the state of Pennsylvania, brought the SEPTA into being on February 18, 1964 . It was supposed to ensure the continued existence of local public transport in Counties Bucks , Chester , Delaware , Montgomery and the city of Philadelphia itself.

The following companies were taken over over the years:

1968 the Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC), the operator of most of Philadelphia's inner city transportation,
1969 The Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company, also known as the Red Arrow , which operated the interurban trams to the southwestern suburbs of Media , Sharon Hill and West Chester ,
1976 the Schuylkill Valley Lines .
In 1983 the regional railways were taken over by the Conrail .

structure

The company is presided over by a board of 15 members . Members are dispatched from participating counties and the state. Each of the four counties and the city of Philadelphia, which is also a county, each have two members, the Senate and the State House of Representatives each send two further members; one is elected by the majority party, the other by the minority party. Finally, the fifteenth member is appointed by the governor.

The operative business is subject to an employed managing director. The best-known among them was David L. Gunn from 1979 to 1984 , who renovated the New York subway in the 1980s .

A total of three departments are responsible for driving and maintaining the respective vehicles:

The City Transit Division includes most of the inner-city means of transport, namely bus lines, trams , underground trams and the two rapid transit lines, the Market – Frankford Line and Broad Street Line .
The Suburban Division is responsible for the regional buses, the interurban trams of the Media – Sharon Hill Line and the Norristown High-Speed Line .
The Regional Rail Division operates the seven regional rail lines.