Phila., SEPTA seek better relationship

The city and SEPTA, long trapped in a loveless marriage, are embarking on a second honeymoon.

Rina Cutler, the deputy mayor for transportation and utilities, said she was "very optimistic" about SEPTA's new emphasis on consumer relations under new general manager Joseph Casey.

Improved SEPTA operations and a more cooperative relationship between the city and transit agency will boost economic development and tourism in Philadelphia, Cutler said in an interview.

"If we can successfully have a vibrant, clean, safe and efficient transit system, that starts to address a lot of things in the city," said Cutler, a former transit official in Boston and San Francisco and the deputy secretary of administration for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. "Joe Casey's success and SEPTA's success ensures the mayor's success."

That's a new approach for two entities that have long been at odds. The city - which provides most of SEPTA's riders and most of its local funding - has long argued it deserves more voice in SEPTA affairs. It has two members on the 15-member SEPTA board of directors.

Last year, the city sued SEPTA to block the agency's effort to get rid of paper transfers for bus and subway riders. And the city last year suggested it might take back the Broad Street subway and half of the Market-Frankford Subway-Elevated line - both of which it leased to SEPTA in 1968 - when the current lease expires next year.

Now, with a new mayor, a new SEPTA general manager, and new dedicated state funding for transit, things will be more amicable, said Cutler, who fills a transportation position left vacant under Mayor John F. Street.

"We're conscious of being in the right place at the right time. We don't want to miss the opportunity to ride that wave of enthusiasm," she said.

She acknowledged that she and Casey "both have cultures to change that are going to be difficult to change." But she said the days of viewing each other as enemies were over.

"We're going to disagree on some issues. But we won't be fighting in the newspapers."

And Cutler said she wanted to bring peace to the city-vs.-suburbs battleground. Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties have eight seats on the SEPTA board, and Philadelphia politicians and riders have long complained that SEPTA management was more concerned about suburban rail commuters than city bus and subway riders.

"We have more in common than we do disagreement. We need to figure out our mutual interests and pursue those," she said, citing "stations that are clean, trains that are uncrowded, schedules for people who don't go to bed at 6 p.m."

She is an outspoken advocate for a single electronic fare card that would work with SEPTA, PATCO, NJ Transit, and the Philadelphia Parking Authority.

"I don't want to have to have four cards," she said. "That will drive me and the other citizens crazy.

"I care very much about that. . . . We need to have an electronic card system that is seamless."

Cutler said that in Boston and San Francisco, transit riders were proud of their systems, and "they were not viewed as second-class citizens." The same can't be said of Philadelphia, she said, and that needs to change.

On other issues:

Philadelphia International Airport. Cutler said she would advocate more parking; restroom attendants; refurbished passenger waiting areas; improved relations with airlines, Tinicum Township, and other airport neighbors; and a new long-term plan for the airport's future.

Cutler has already done away with signs that welcomed arriving passengers to baggage-claim areas by warning them not to accept rides from unlicensed limo drivers. "I don't want the first thing that you see is that you're likely to get robbed or ripped off," she said.

Roads and bridges. The city has about 90 "structurally deficient" bridges, and it needs a timetable for repairing them, Cutler said. And the region needs to come up with new local funding for bridge and highway repairs, she said.

She said she would seek a three-to-five-year plan for paving city streets and publicize it, so residents know what to expect. And she said newly paved roads should be off-limits to utility work or other digging for five years.

Cutler said she was streamlining the way the city plans road and bridge projects to provide more accurate time and cost projections.

Parking. Cutler, who was executive director of the Philadelphia Parking Authority under Mayor Ed Rendell, said she might urge higher rates at parking meters and lower short-term rates at parking garages, to encourage drivers to use garages for short-term visits rather than driving for blocks looking for a meter.

Interstate 95. Cutler dashed the hopes of planners and residents who want to bury I-95 and reconnect Philadelphia to its Delaware River waterfront: "It's a wonderful dream, but it's not a reality I think is going to occur."

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