SEPTA officials have announced that they are considering extending subway service past midnight on the weekends. This proposed change is in response to an online petition that had over 2,000 supporters.
“We have been looking into this for a while, we’ve had a lot of people, elected officials, community activists, coming to us and asking us about restarting the 24/7 service on the Broad Street Line and the Market-Frankford line” said Jerri Williams, SEPTA Director of Media Relations.
Overnight subway service was done away with in the early ‘90s due to security and budgetary concerns. Today, things have changed. Philadelphia now has a robust transportation police force, as well as access to more security technology. The city has changed as well as more and more people enjoy the nightlife that Philly has to offer. In light of these changes septa has decided to launch a pilot program to begin in June that keeps above ground services running until at least 3 am.
Currently, the subway stops running around 12:30 pm and the Night Owl bus operates along the subways route above ground. If SEPTA decides to make these changes permanent, the Owl Bus will be retired and all service will direct to the subway.
“It would be great for me, I sometimes find at night that I need to do lots of big print jobs so it would be really nice to go from my apartment back to campus” said graduate student Katie Beardsley.
If SEPTA does chose to reinstate 24 hour service, that will mean the city will be more accessible not only for Temple students, but for all residents.
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