Surprised commuters complain, cope and worry

All around the city, some mass transit commuters awoke this morning and went to their usual bus stops or subway stations like any other day.

But unknown to them - even in this age of instant information - SEPTA workers had gone on strike during the night without warning.

They greeted the news with a mix of surprise, anger, resignation and grit, trying to figure other ways to get around and calling on past experience from earlier strikes.

At SEPTA's Olney station on the Broad Street Line in North Philadelphia, the benches were vacant, except for a cold chicken finger in a McDonald's box. Stranded riders went through their contacts on their cell phones, trying to reach family members and friends to ask for a lift.

There was little sympathy for striking workers.

"This is a bit much," said Marquita Powell, who had earlier been venting her frustration to a friend, but toned down her reaction for publication. "SEPTA doesn't care about working people, all they care about is the game."

Like many working people who rely on the buses and subways to get to work, Powell said, she resented SEPTA strikers delaying their walkout out of respect for the World Series, then sticking it to commuters at 3 a.m. on a weekday.

"They know it's a recession! People might lose their jobs. They don't have the money to get cabs."

Powell, 32, works the night shift as a nursing assistant at Greenleaf Nursing Home in Doylestown. She had to ask a co-worker for a ride home this morning. As they were getting ready to leave, Powell said, the ran into a colleague who was just arriving in a cab from Philadelphia.

"She said it cost her $75. It's not fair. I only make $105 a shift. That's taking food off my table."

Powell said that because of the strike, her daughter, a 10th grader at West Catholic High School, was unable to get to school today.

In the economic yin-yang, however, one group's losses are another's gain. Gypsy cab drivers have more business than they can handle.

"This afternoon is going to be great," said one cabbie, George, who declined to give his last name.

A woman talking anxiously on a cell phone walked past.

"Need a ride?" he asked her.

"I'm trying to get one," she said.

The strike even caught some members of the striking union unaware.

Sly Wagner, a train operator for 17 years, showed up at the Fern Rock station ready to go to work.

"I'm like everybody else," he said. "The only way I found out was when I went to the station and the gates were locked."

Other workers who showed up to go to work complained that the union made no effort to notify them.

"No texts, no tweets," said one.

Walter Gordon, 45, of South Philadelphia, hoped to catch a final bus to work early this morning before the drivers went on strike. But at 3 a.m. at the Frankford Transportation Center, Gordon found himself staring at idle buses with no way to get to his Bucks County building maintenance job - "which is going to go down the tubes now," he said.

"What about us little guys who barely, barely make it?" he asked, resigned to the fact that he was going to have to figure out how to get back home.

"I think there's going to be an uproar in the city," said Frank Colsher, 20, who missed the last bus to take him home to Levittown.

"I don't know what I am going to do," said Colsher, who uses SEPTA to get to odd jobs performing home maintenance. "It's my only means of making any kind of money."

At Suburban Station, Kelly, who would not give her last name but calls herself "The Ghetto Girl Scout," described how she reluctantly accepted a ride from a stranger in a van in West Philadelphia.

She got in because she thought, "She doesn't look like a killer," and because she heard the spirit of her mother, who recently died, saying, "Get in the van!"

The driver, a foster mother named Sharon, drove Kelly, who normally takes a trolley, about four blocks to the train station, where she caught a ride to her job in Center City.

Some commuters were upset over passes not being honored - and worried about winding up with expensive passes they couldn't use.

TransPasses - good for buses, trolleys and subways - are accepted only for trips within city limits, but not for trips that include a suburban stop, according to SEPTA.

"I am hot!" said Cynthia Reid, 55, who has a TransPass but had to pay the full fare - "No discount!" - to take the train into Center City from Sadsbury, where she was helping care for a sick sister.

The collector told her how to request a refund by mail, but Reid doubted she'd ever see the money.

"They should have honored all TransPasses," the administrative assistant said while waiting in line for the ticket window at Suburban Station.

"They just don't care," she said of SEPTA.

Bill Fritsch, 50, of Center City worried about his TransPass, too, while waiting in the growing ticket line.

His warehouse job is in East Oak Lane, so his trip, entirely within in the city, should be covered by his pass.

But he raised a fear shared by others. He just bought a monthly pass and used it. If the strike lasts a month, the consumer could be out money for passes that aren't honored.

Indeed, SEPTA's website does say that used passes will not be eligible for any refunds after the strike is over.

New Regional Rail riders faced a similar dilemma: It saves money to buy a weekly or monthly pass, but that pass could suddenly become worthless if the strike is settled soon.

The cost ranges from $22 for the cheapest weekly TrailPass to $181 for the most expensive monthly one.

Unused passes will be eligible for a refund, so hold onto them, SEPTA advises. Instructions for obtaining refunds will be issued after the strike is over.

Mary Beaman, 23, was on her way to field hockey practice at St. Joseph's University. Taking a train from Suburban Station was only a little less convenient than a bus, but "a lot more expensive," the senior special ed major said.

Apparently expecting a deluge of unauthorized parking, Suburban Square shopping mall in Ardmore this morning posted fire-engine red posters at the entrance to the the parking lot on Anderson Avenue near Montgomery.

"No SEPTA parking," the signs said in black letters. "This vehicle is parked illegally and is hereby subject to towings and impoundment. Your license plate was recorded."

Drew Simonetti, office manager for Kimco Realty, which owns and operated Suburban Square, said that as of midday no one had been towed.

"A lot of people are off today, and are shopping, and we need that lot for them," Simonetti said.

She said three maintenance workers, one from West Philadelphia, had trouble getting to work at Suburban Square because the buses weren't running.

One man she identified only as "Larry A" walked for an hour and 10 minutes before boarding a bus near 54th Street and City Line Avenue, Simonetti said.

"He was a couple of hours late," Simonetti said, but no one minded, instead applauding him for making the effort to get to work.

She said the three maintenance workers were already planning how to get home after their shifts end this afternoon. "I'm going to take one home today and pick one up tomorrow," Simonetti said. "They're getting rides with friends and coworkers, taking taxis or the R5, whatever they can."

Rider traffic was "up significantly," said the ticket sellers at the R5 Ardmore rail station which is located near the mall parking lot. The two women, who would not give their names, said there had been a few complaints from riders who felt inconvenienced by the strike, "but not many."

By 10 a.m. the station platforms were clear except for Villanova students making routine trips to class.

At King of Prussia Mall, the East Coast's largest shopping mall, they avoided hitting the panic button today, because all 400 stores managed to open on time, despite the transit strike. Up to a quarter of all 6,000 mall employees use public transportation to report to work, said general manager Bob Hart, but many were apparently able to make do with regional rail and suburban trolley lines.

"It's going to take employees and customers longer to get to the mall, but it can still happen," said Hart.

Mall officials issued employees and customers a memo outlining public transportation alternatives. Those living in Philadelphia were encouraged to hop onto SEPTA's R6 regional rail line, while others were urged to make their way to Upper Darby Township on the West Philadelphia border and use SEPTA's Norristown High Speed Line trolleys, which are still operating, Hart said.

Mall officials were relieved that bus service from Gulph Mills remained in effect, Hart said. During the last strike, the 125 bus was off-line.