SEPTA Phillies Parade Suburban Station Meltdown

With 2 million people descended on Philadelphia for the 2008 Phillies Championship Parade SEPTA, the creeky local transit agency completely melted down. There were numerous problems getting people into the city and after the parade things got worse trying to get them home. Suburban station became so jammed passengers were facing multi-hour waits before they could board a train. The R5 Paoli was being advertised with a 5 hour wait. I walked through Suburban Station and took this video of what was going on.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• SEPTA
• Phillies
• Parade
• Meltdown
• Suburban
• Station

[Acela1a]

I wish someone from the MTA could of controlled the plainning of the Philies Parade with all transit since the MTA could handle when the Yannkes won the World series with a parade, I'm sure they could handle the Philies Parade.

[sturmovikdragon]

@Acela1a Um, the Yankees win all the time. This was Philly's first championship in 25 years. Over 2 million people showed up and completely swamped our mass transit system.

[cutmymoviecom]

You gotta put things into perspective. While Septa isn't the greatest public transit service, they did move hundreds of thousands of people more than they normally do on their normal busiest day. Even Patco couldn't handle the amount of people, but also carried way more people than they normally do. Even if they added all the trains they had it still wouldn't have been enough to handle the amount of people that day.

[sturmovikdragon]

But you could tell that SEPTA totally lacked a coherent plan. Its the difference between a retreat and a rout. Failing with grace and falling into utter confusion.

[Ashburnalley5]

patco did it right. They only let a limited number of people on at each stop so that the trains wouldn't fill up before making it to the next stops

[FrankG5874]

SEPTA should of asked AMTRAK, and NJ Transit if they could of borrowed extra equipment that day!

[56yuoi]

i know i was going to work and when I got on the EL it was crowded as shit going back i went a different way home.

[naturevalleysteve]

I was there we had to take a cab home and all i did was hang out in the dunkin donuts

[KOBECHEAPSKATEBRYANT]

I think this whole thing is funny.I'm glad I didn't have to deal with this shit! Wanna know what I did.I drove down,parked my car at the Four Seasons Hotel,walked three blocks to Market,watched the fellas go by,went back to the hotel,got my car and drove home to Haverford Township.I went through Fairmount Park as I always do and the total ride was 20 minutes.Septa? Are you kidding me???

[galacticinternatal]

Whenever i go to philly, I use Patco from Lindenwold station. I also think the grand idea of 8th and Market is a mess! Trains Evrywhere you look! I mean, Come on , why can't you re-route SEPTA or Patco to 7th or 10th?

[naes101010]

BTW: it was an estimated 3 million in the city that day....and SEPTA sucks

[eertrallod]

I KNOW! It was like ten minutes of police before and after the phils passed