- While riding on the El, Casey preferred to stand in the first car to watch the train pass through the West Philadelphia neighborhoods
- Showing that he's a hands-on GM, Casey picked up a couple pieces of debris at the newer stations.
- He admired a mural at the Millbourne station created by CityYear members.
- Standing in the overpass at the 63rd Street station, Casey showed off a beautiful view of the city skyline and El reconstruction.
- Touting not only the new infrastructure, Casey pointed out new sidewalks completed all along the El reconstruction.
Published 19:37, September the 14th, 2009
Ride with transit boss
- GM wants to bring back 'lost generation' of riders
- Insists SEPTA will continue aggressive capital efforts
- Says agency currently has no plans for expanded service
SEPTA General Manager Joe Casey is a customer of the very operation he runs, so Metro rode along with Casey on the Market-Frankford Line to look at the some of the improvements and discuss a few other issues.
Q: What's your biggest ambition for SEPTA?
A: You remember the 30s and 40s where everyone grew up on taking public transportation? My biggest dream is to get people back to that standpoint, so it’s not foreign for them to take the system, everyone knows how to take the system, and they utilize the system everyday. We seem to have a generation that sort of forgot transit for a while. They fell in love with the car. I need to bring those people back.
Q: How do you do that?
A: I think [by] providing quality product out there. We mentioned the new [stations on the Market-Frankford Line] and we’re working on doing the Broad Street Line and some of the other facilities. I think [if] you provide a quality product, clean vehicles, people are going to rediscover it. Also, a part of that is making it easy to use the system and that’s what we’re trying to do with the new fare system.
Q: What about the possibility of service expansion in certain parts of the city?
A: All those are problematic. They all cost a lot of money. When we received dedicated funding we didn’t receive additional money for expansion. We didn’t even really receive money to improve the service; we just got status quo from a funding standpoint. Really all that development of any of those expansions would be tied to federal New Starts, a program in place that allows transit agencies to rebuild and expand.