15

[reldnahkram]

The 15 returned to Girard Ave. today. I was there with camera.


PCC-II goodness



Eastbound Signboard



Westbound Signboard



Car Interior



Control Panel



Brookville Retrofit Panel



Two Shots From Westmoreland Loop





New Platform Structure



Discontinued Stop Notification



15 Stop Sign





This was preceeded by 15 innings of softball at Penn Charter where I, for once, played well in the field. It was followed by ccommack and random railfan (actually, trolleybusfan primarily), who we picked up at Westmorland loop, having dinner at Penang and talking transit for a while. It was a very good day.

X-Post to septa, minus the details about my day.

Comments

[wayman.livejournal.com]

About a week ago, trolley traffic coming out of the tunnel was delayed one afternoon as three consecutive 34 trolleys slowly emerged, all with "Student Driver, No Passengers" signs. I'm guessing these events were connected. I wonder, does that indicate that the 15 drivers are generally experienced and the new drivers are being brought in for the older routes (which actually go through the tunnel)?

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

My experience, and what I've heard, leads me to believe that the 15 drivers are all pretty inexperienced. New picks (driver assignments) went into effect today, it's possible that some of the other trolley routes got fresh blood as well.

[wayman.livejournal.com]

... it's possible that some of the other trolley routes got fresh blood as well.

I hope West Philly's crosswalks don't also get fresh blood as a result :-)

(Said entirely in jest: the trolleys are by far the safest things on the roads out here. The drivers are largely danger-seeking idiots, and while half the cyclists are good, the other half are worse than the drivers when it comes to flagrant disobedience of all traffic laws....)

Relatedly, do you know anything about the status of funding and potential fare increases? I saw a "notice of public hearing" posted on a 13 recently, but the car was too crowded to read it. And how directly will the gas hikes affect token prices? I guess since tokens work on buses too, the subways and trolleys would still see equal fare increases even if their power is ultimately derived from coal instead of oil (is it?) and thus their operating costs not increased. Feh.

I'll be driving across Girard a couple times this afternoon; I hope I see a new trolley!

[uncleamos]

DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLS!