Snow-filled streets still stymie efforts to get buses rolling
Almost two days after the last snowflakes fell, about one-fifth of Philadelphia's 122 bus routes remained suspended. By Monday afternoon, 26 routes were still out of service, largely due to unplowed streets, SEPTA officials said.
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Update Tuesday 8 a.m.: 18 SEPTA bus routes remain out of service.
Almost two days after the last snowflakes fell, about one-fifth of Philadelphia's 122 bus routes remained suspended.
By Monday afternoon, 26 routes were still out of service, largely due to unplowed streets, SEPTA officials said.
"These operate in neighborhood areas, and to be able to bring a 40-foot bus down a street requires the street to be relatively cleared," said Manuel Smith, spokesman for the transportation authority.
SEPTA is coordinating with the city, and it made progress Monday. When the day began, 66 bus routes were suspended. The agency expected some would still not be running Tuesday morning, though.
"We're bringing back routes as soon as we can," Smith said.
About 1,800 miles of Philadelphia streets had been plowed by midafternoon Monday, city officials said. They hoped to have all roads, other than alleys and dead-end streets, cleared by the end of Wednesday.
Information on which bus routes are running will continue to be updated on septa.org.
Other public-transportation services saw partial activation Monday. Regional Rail ran, though, on delays of up to 45 minutes, officials said. By Monday night, 20 trains on the Regional Rail were canceled due to lack of staffing, SEPTA reported.
A major problem area remained the Paoli Line between Malvern and Thorndale, which was still closed to rail traffic Monday night. The problem: A switch near Thorndale on track owned by Amtrak had frozen.
Switches, which allow trains to move from one track to another, need to be cleaned out individually when they freeze, said Mike Tolbert, an Amtrak spokesman.
"Switch heaters can help prevent that, but even that technology is susceptible to large amounts of snow," he said in an email.
The trouble can be exacerbated when passing trains blow snow back onto switches that have been cleared.
Along with blocking SEPTA service, the switch near Thorndale caused delays on Amtrak's Keystone Service to Harrisburg, Tolbert said.
The Norristown High Speed Line remained off-line between Bryn Mawr and Norristown Monday night. Unlike Regional Rail, the High Speed Line uses a third rail for power, and snow covering that rail was making conductivity difficult. A jet engine was slowly clearing the track, but SEPTA was not certain when service would be restored.
"People have to continue to watch whether we'll be able to completely restore service by tomorrow [Tuesday] morning," said Jeff Knueppel, SEPTA's general manager.
Perhaps the most visible transportation disaster caused by the storm was hundreds of people trapped on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Somerset and Bedford Counties because of the backup that resulted when several tractor-trailers jackknifed Friday night.
Among those trapped were members of Temple University's women's gymnastics squad and the Duquesne University men's basketball team.
"Given the magnitude of this event, we unquestionably need to examine the response and decision-making process undertaken," said Sean Logan, the Turnpike Authority's chairman.
The authority began a review of its response Monday that is expected to be complete in three to five weeks.
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Staff writer Julia Terruso contributed to this article.