Septa Issues - Trains Magazine
Every rail transit system has its strengths and weaknesses.
Say I arrive at Penn Station on NJT or Amtrak or the LIRR and want to make a close connection at Grand Central for a Metro North train to Westchester or Connecticut. Lots of people are in that position. So what choice do I have? I go up to the center express platform and two locals go north to the connection with the 42nd St. Shuttle at Time Square before an express comes and so I have to take a later Metro North Train. And if I go to the local platform, the reverse happens! You would think by now the TA would have lighting NEXT TRAIN NORTH sign at the foot of each stairway in the passegway from Penn Station, but do they? (But maybe they will read this and they will!)
Boston and Philadelphia kept the most important of their streetcar lines that ran into their respective trolley subways and got new quipment. The first major Manhattan streetcar line that was replaced by buses was by then owned by GM and used the streetcar subway that had started out as the New York and Harlem's line south of Grand Central, from 41st Street down to 33rd Street, and it became a private car and taxi tunnel. Similarly all streetcar PRW on the East River Bridges, Brooklyn, Manhattam Willliamsburgh, and 59th Street, which were performing a very useful mass transportation function, are now vehicular lanes.
The Tax base of NY is far greater than either Philadelphia or Boston, and so there is more money both for commuter rail and the local transit system.
Philadelphia's Media, Sharon Hill, and Norristown lines are more fun for railfans or anyone to ride than anything in NY.
Why isn't Staten Island and its third rail compatible rapid transit system connected directly to the subway system? The B&O electrified with equpment and electrification compatible completely with the BMT system expecting the city to build the connection. But you get to Staten Island by ferry boat or bus via New Jersey!
Compare that with PATCO system across the Ben Franklin Bridge.
The George Washington Bridge was built with provisions for a two-track rapid transit line feeding the Washington Heights IND (8th Avenue) Subway. Never done. Vehicular lanes.
PHiladlephia was the first city to buy stainless steel air-conditioned electric commuter cars, and the old "Almond Joyes" were the first or second mass order of stainless steel rapid transit cars, now replaced. Their delivery was about the same time as New York's R-32's, now the oldest of the New York cars in service, having had air-conditioning installed after about 12-15 years of use.
To run express service on any line, you need the traffic density to make it worthwhile.
And with all that in mind, I'd say all three cities have well-run systems. Just different striengths and weaknesses.
