Now everyone can tell where SEPTA trains are going

SEPTA regular Laura Herbine of Lansdale noticed the change on all the electronic boards at Suburban Station Sunday. They named the Regional Rail lines by destination only, without the usual "R" and number, such as R3 or R4.

"For someone like me who's done this all my life, it's not that big of a difference," Herbine, 22, said as she boarded the 12:20 p.m. former R5 train to Lansdale/Doylestown with friends Amy Vinikoor, 40, and Lynette Melrath, 42, after an overnight stay in Center City for girls' night out. "But for someone from out of town, this will definitely help out a lot and get rid of the confusion."

That's SEPTA's idea: to become more user- and tourist-friendly.

"We've simplified the system by taking the numbers out of it," SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said. "Nothing else is changing.

"Now, you know where you want to go," he said, "and you look for a train that will get you to your ultimate destination," be it Norristown, West Trenton or Chestnut Hill East.

Blame it on the R5.

Maloney said that type of train, with its multiple destinations, necessitated the change.

"It's a problem we've had since the opening of the commuter rail tunnel," he said. "What happens is you go down to the station, and if you're working off a numbered system, like the R5, you get down to the platform, and you could either end up in Paoli in the western suburbs or Doylestown in the northern suburbs."

Herbine, who took the R5 daily from Doylestown to Center City and back for years while doing her undergraduate work in radiation therapy at Gywnedd-Mercy College, said she often saw the panic-stricken faces when riders boarded the wrong train.

"They're like, 'Will this take me to Paoli?' " she said. "And I'd have to tell them, 'No, wrong way,' and that they needed to get on the other R5 going the other way. Otherwise, they'd end up in Doylestown."

The name changes will be phased in at the stations and on the trains.

From Friday to early Sunday, all the train names were changed on the electronic boards at 30th Street Station, Suburban Station, and Market East. The changes also were made on all train schedules and on the SEPTA website, spokeswoman Jerri Williams said.

She said SEPTA also has gotten rid of the color codes linked to each line on its maps and schedules. The color of all Regional Rail lines will be bluish-gray.

The second phase, starting next month and continuing through September, entails changing the names on the maps and the signs at stations in the suburs and on all the trains.

That explains why trains in and out of Suburban Station Sunday still had their numbered designations on them.

"We have thousands of signs that need to be changed," Williams said. "We're starting in Center City."

SEPTA said the new, numberless system was particularly geared toward tourists, such as Garrick Freeman of Seattle.

Freeman, 40, was in Wilmington for a month to train as an assistant conductor for Amtrak. He will be based in Seattle in his new job, which starts in the fall.

"It was distracting," he said of the old system. Freeman arrived at 12:30 p.m. at Suburban Station after transferring from 30th Street Station with friends to catch the Broad Street subway to the Phillies game.

When dealing with passengers or customers, "you want to streamline the process as much as possible," Freeman said.

City tourism officials said the change was overdue.

"Dropping the R3, R4, etc. is not a problem, as these designations have no inherent meaning for the visitor," said Meryl Levitz, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. "The end-destination naming is standard on big-city systems, and people expect that.

"It will help because tourists want to park their car and never move it!" Levitz said. "If a public transit system looks easy and safe, people will give it a try. And in some cities – like Paris, Tokyo, London, for example – it can even become part of the must-see, must-do."