SEPTA has e tickets on phones now: https://www.masstransitmag.com/technology/fare-collection/mobile-applications/press-release/21290298/southeastern-pennsylvania-transportation-authority-septa-septa-launching-septa-key-tix-mobile-ticketing-pilot-program

Any they'll eventually give you the ability to pay with credit/debit cards, like new york city does already.

Free transit service works in cities where the RR is in the single digits, as is the modal share. KCATA is not useful service, it’s welfare for the destitute, who are the only people would take a bus that comes every two hours, because they have no choice otherwise. SEPTA is currently making ~280 million a year from fare revenue, and need to be going after riders who choose to use it because it’s convenient.

There’s a mental exercise I like to do that helps me illustrate this point. It’s called years of free transit instead of “X”, where x is the thing you want to build.

Would you rather have 4 years of free transit, or a fully ADA accessible regional rail with high level platforms.

Would you rather have 4 years of free transit, or a fully ADA accessible trolley system with new low platform cars, fully replacing the Kawasaki LRVa from the 80s.

Would you rather have 7 years of free transit, or an extension of the Broad street line up Roosevelt boulevard, serving roughly an extra 100k people per day

4 years of free transit, or new rail cars on el or the subway

Both of my grandparents live in New York City and are completely dependent on the subway and buses for travel. The MTA is already reducing service on the lines they live on due to budget issues, impart due to a massive increase in fare evasion. Fare dodging has real material effects on people’s lives. Making Septa free would completely annihilate their budget and mostly act as a massive subsidy for wealthy 9-5 commuters in the suburbs. Harrisburg has little interest in supporting septa and it has historically been one of the most underfunded transit agencies in the country, with a massive backlog of repairs and worthwhile expansions that have been on the back burner since the 60s. Any dollar you can get from Harrisburg should be dumped into increasing service before making fares free.

Non profits must not be given public funds

Are you or any members of your family dependent on septa for transportation. As in don’t own or have access to a car.

Nah man, the old machines were great. Get you a job, build a subway, might even get you a job building the subway. Now we don’t get any of the patronage, but we still have all the corruption. Sure, a bunch of guys named Mikey O’Donnelly are in city payroll, but if you’ve got a problem you call up your ward leader and Mikey takes care of it

Political corruption is abstract and doesn’t effect people’s day to day life very much. If someone can get the abandoned cars off the streets and sweep them idgaf if their dumbest cousins on payroll.

They improve the rider experience a lot. It feels a lot better to know when your train is arriving.

I’ll believe it when I’m literally seeing the clock.

The city gives very little money to septa and only has two seats on the board, which means they don't have the ability to council it up like they normally do.

Unfortunately this is also reflected in septa's capital and operating budget, so we kind of get screwed anyway.

I hadn't heard anything about fixing the place up, so I assumed they were just cooling their heels until they could sell the place. I hope they fix it up - I'm a big diner guy, and its been pretty sad to see the destruction of diner culture over the last few years.

They pulled demo permits, its not long for this world. I'd guess same with the melrose.

Having no high school degree or equivalent is basically a guarantee of a lifetime of poverty. It’s not good that they pass kids who aren’t qualified, but dumping them on the street with no degree isn’t a great solution either.

They were planning on a running shuttles between Jamaica and Grand Central to have it technically open, but they’re not allowed to do that now.

I generally agree with this, purely on the basis that people are bailing here cause they can’t afford nyc/dc anymore. Crime is a problem but pretty orthogonal to growth. Plenty of high crime cities are are also high growth.

The lower northeast has much higher poverty rates than it used to.

And also in the city itself. Looking at you, Forest Hills.

I grew up with my parents and brother in a variety of 2BR apartments in buildings with no parking ranging from 8-14 stories and no one has been able to give me a good answer why that kind of building shouldn't be allowed to be built anywhere in the city.

I am begging you people to put up wire and run trolley buses

It’s not policy, it a constitutional right in the state of New York

Can’t run a good a good business district without solid data.

I saw an estimate for ~30 million a year. On Twitter, so grain of salt, but that doesn’t seem wholly unreasonable.

City ticket should be 2.75 and transfer with the buses/subway. City could just subsidize it as a line item in the budget.

This project is a lot simpler than east side access. The only actual changes they need to make are building these stations, the rest of the stuff they’re doing is just so Amtrak will give them trackage rights.

A negligible amount of people use Airbnb as housing, it’s almost all tourists who we can and should soak for as much as we can.