The SEPTA Situation May Be Bad, But It Could Be Worse
by Lynne Adkins
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The SEPTA rail commute has become a nightmare. The trains are packed, late, and at times not even picking up passengers.
But things could be worse.
It's July, a lot of passengers are on vacation, and fewer college students are riding the rails onto campus. Septa Spokeswoman Carla Showell-Lee says the timing of this crisis is a huge plus.
"If there was anytime that I could have picked to have something like this happen to a public transportation system, it would be between July 4th and August. Only because we know that when you look at the numbers of riders that come through, we don't have as many. Many people are on vacation," said Showell-Lee.
In fact if this happened in October, figures show there would be 500,000 more monthly riders shoe-horned onto those trains.
Most importantly, the stress cracks on the Silverliner 5 rail cars were found on inspection, there was no accident and no one was injured.