Why does the Roosevelt Subway need to be septa

Submitted by mustang__1 t3_y46wy0 in philadelphia

Why couldn't Philly create its own Subway? With blackjack and hookers? Or Petco? Obviously SEPTA has no intentions of investing, since it doesn't benefit any of the other counties to any sizeable degree. And while we're at it will cure world hunger and drug dependency. Fuck I really just don't want to spend another day fighting this fucking 95 bullshit all the way home. oh well.

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sailbag36 t1_iscimoi wrote

I mean you could start a private subway company

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Scumandvillany t1_isckr9v wrote

Just need 5 billion dollars or thereabouts

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IvanStarokapustin t1_iscnli9 wrote

Sorry, we missed our chance to cash out the city‘s strategic reserve of crypto and monkey JPEGs before the crash. We’re down to raising taxes, selling all the seized drugs on the streets of Europe, or sending all 18-25 year olds to Ukraine as paid mercenaries.

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Zestyclose-Plate-106 t1_isct103 wrote

MFL absolutely already has hookers, maybe not blackjack but definitely dice.

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Unfamiliar_Word t1_iscwsvq wrote

Philadelphia built and owns the Broad Street Subway, which is why the trains bear both the SEPTA logo and city seal. SEPTA leases and operates it from the city. I don't know the terms of the agreements that arrangement, but I suppose that the city could theoretically retake control and operation of the system as well as any extensions thereto. It would presumably be bureaucratically complicated. The city would need to establish a relationship with FTA to receive formula grant funding, establish a bureaucracy to operate and maintain the system and mercy knows what else.

It might be worth noting that even when the city envisioned building a system of municipal lines, it never really expected to operate them. Many of the old reports of the Commissioner of City Transit deal at length with establishing the legality and negotiating the terms of an agreement with the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company to operate the lines built by the city. Indeed, when the Broad Street Subway at last entered service, the PRT, then its success the Philadelphia Transportation Company, operated the service.

Even if Philadelphia were to do this, they would still need to cooperate with SEPTA, because of the Broad Street Subway's transfer points with the Market-Frankford Subway-Elevated. Assigning operations to PATCO is an amusing proposition, but I doubt that the Port Authority would want to assume control of a line that is entirely in Pennsylvania. (N.b. The city also built the 8th-Locust subway, originally as part of a never-built line that would have crossed the river and run over Woodland Avenue to the city line; PATCO uses that segment under lease.)

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smoking40s t1_isd0chg wrote

Roosevelt Ave Subway - where the pets go

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ScottishCalvin t1_isddodz wrote

Septa's job is to run without making a loss. Good luck with that.

Subways are insanely expensive, requiring vast public subsidy. Most of the old public transit systems were built by private companies that went bankrupt when the profits didn't match the expectations

Any new subway line is going to be build off the business case that a huge wedge of public money will a financially viable investment due to increased tax revenue from the development it will encourage. I'm sure a Roosevelt Subway would make your life easier, but development is happening anyway, so the money would be better spent elsewhere.

An example of something that *might* make sense is a trolley from Fishtown to the Stadiums. $40bn in new waterfront development, apartments and commerce, all paying taxes to a city that issued the bonds to pay for it

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mustang__1 OP t1_isdod79 wrote

Replying to ScottishCalvin (#107,339)

I dunno. While it would be a benefit to me, I think at some point 95 and the Blvd are going to run out of capacity. It'll be a godsend if they ever open the 4 lanes all the way down..... But what happens when we need a fifth lane?

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