With a growing prospect of a SEPTA Regional Rail strike,
commuters and employers are scrambling to make other plans for getting to work.
About 60,000 people in the region make 126,000 train trips a
day, on average. Many of those riders are likely to take cars onto already
crowded rush-hour highways or squeeze aboard packed buses and subways.
Some major Center City employers are encouraging employees
to work flexible hours or from home, if their jobs permit.
Carpooling, employer shuttle buses from distant parking
lots, and temporary work from remote office branches are other stopgap plans.
Amanda Stokes, 23, of Abington, said she takes the train
every day to get to her job at the Anthropologie clothing store in Center City.
Her shift starts at 10 a.m. Saturday, so if the trains are
not running, she said, "I don't know, I guess I'll have to figure out a
ride. There's no other way from the suburbs all the way up here."
That means asking a friend or a relative, since "I
don't even have a license myself," Stokes said. "I lived in the city
for years, so I didn't need it."
Big health-care organizations in Philadelphia, such as
Jefferson Health System, Temple University, and the University of Pennsylvania
Health System, lack the option of allowing employees to work at home. Patients
need to be attended at bedside.
The health systems are encouraging lots of carpooling and,
in some cases, making arrangements for additional parking.
Penn has "plans in place for extra car commuters, car
pooling, and shuttle buses for remote parking lots," spokeswoman Susan
Phillip said.
At Dechert L.L.P., one of the city's largest law firms, some
employees have been given laptops to work from home, and others will switch to
flexible hours to avoid peak travel times, spokeswoman Beth Huffman said.
Employees will be rewarded for carpooling with parking reimbursements, she
said.
At Comcast, whose Center City office tower was built above
Suburban Station to make rail commuting easy, employees are being encouraged
"to work with their managers on alternative arrangements in the event a
strike occurs," spokesman John Demming said Friday.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation maintains 14
park-and-ride lots in Southeastern Pennsylvania (locations at
www.pacommutes.com) for commuters, and will only allow maintenance and cleaning
crews to close lanes between 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. to ease rush-hour jams,
said spokesman Eugene Blaum.
PennDot district traffic engineer Lou Belmonte encouraged
motorists to check traffic conditions by calling 511 or visiting www.511PA.com
on the Web or 511PAPhilly on Twitter.
"That's a good resource for people used to taking
transit who now have to switch," Belmonte said.
SEPTA said it planned to increase bus, subway, trolley, and
Norristown High-Speed Line service during the off-peak period between 9 a.m.
and 3 p.m. But during rush hours, the transit system is already at peak
capacity, spokeswoman Jerri Williams said.
Lots at Regional Rail stations will offer free parking.
Joseph Bellinger, 32, of Upper Darby, said Friday he was not
looking forward to crowded platforms and cars on the Norristown High-Speed Line
if there is a Regional Rail strike, as displaced rail commuters are likely to
use the line.
"It is definitely going to affect me coming home,"
he said while waiting at the Gulph Mills station. Bellinger, who works for an
engineering company in Conshohocken, takes buses and the Norristown line to work
and was worried his routine would be disrupted. "I might have to get the
early train to be safe."
At the Villanova station, Lucia Herrmann, 20, of Bryn Mawr,
was waiting to catch a train on her way to visit friends in New York City. She
planned to return Sunday night, but had no idea how she would get home from
Philadelphia.
"I don't want to take a cab," she said before
jumping on the inbound train.
Katie Bern, 23, of Philadelphia, a student at Villanova
University, uses Regional Rail to commute to her classes during the week.
"This stuff happens all the time, I'll figure something
out," she said.
The University of Pennsylvania sent an e-mail to staff on
Friday that read:
"Penn offers flexible work option guidelines to help
staff and supervisors determine how to propose and consider flexible work
schedules, including earlier or later arrival and departure times, working from
home, or compressed schedules that involve longer but fewer days at work."
Temple, expecting that many of its employees will drive in,
will offer reduced-rate parking at its Liacouras Garage and several lots.
Employees will be expected to report to work on time, the university said.
Benita Cotton, 19, lives in an apartment in West
Philadelphia and works at a Wendy's restaurant in Norristown.
She has her driver's permit, but no license, and relies on
the train to get to work.
"I don't have a backup plan, so I'd have to call
out," she said, noting that many of her coworkers also commute from
Philadelphia.
"I'd have to take, like, four buses to get up
here," she said, which would take longer and cost more. "It would
hurt me. I don't want it to happen."
A strike "definitely will affect business," said
Fabio Bevilacqua, who runs Fabio and Danny's Station Café at the Wayne station
and the Bryn Mawr station café with his parents.
On Friday afternoon, Bob and Marie Even of Willow Grove were
taking the train to a medical appointment in Center City.
They are not regular SEPTA riders, so they had not been
following the details of the labor dispute. When Bob Even learned that rail
engineers and electrical workers were seeking retroactive raises, he said,
"Wow! Can I ask my boss for that?"
Bucks County Commissioner Charles H. Martin, who serves on
SEPTA's board of directors, said he was not aware of any plans by Bucks
officials to handle potential traffic headaches.
"Frankly, I don't know what we could do," he said.
He said most people employed by the county and working in
the county seat of Doylestown already drive to work, and would be unaffected by
a Regional Rail strike.
For those who use the train to commute elsewhere, he advised
them to pay attention to SEPTA's alerts and the media for the latest
developments.
Source: Philly.com
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