In preparation of this post, I learned several things this week.
Firstly, Philadelphia’s transit system is ridiculously confusing for someone who doesn’t live in the city. Two different transit systems operate within the city: The SEPTA, which operates mostly within the city, and the PATCO, which connects Philadelphia to New Jersey. On top of that, SEPTA itself runs a variety of different services, incorporating basically every method of transit available today: —bus, subway and elevated rail, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolley bus. Holy crap, how do you keep track? And because commuter rail is integrated into the overall system, hours of operation vary wildly between lines, not to mention the PATCO line which is 24hrs.
So, all this being said, I have unfortunately abandoned Philadelphia for the time being. If someone can give me a tutorial, I’m all ears, but for now I am overwhelmed.
Secondly, it is really hard to make any sort of attractive chart or infograph using only excel, paint, and word… especially when you have limited design skills to begin with. So forgive me the rudimentary design elements, hopefully they will improve as these posts continue.
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OK. So, this week I examined transit from an hours of operation perspective…and service varies widely. From Chicago and New York who operate 24hr systems to the majority of other systems that only operate from around 5 am til midnight. As much as every transit user craves a 24hr system, it’s good to keep it in perspective that it’s an outlier at this juncture in the US and Canada.
Though service hours vary in many cities based on specific transit line and day of the week (i.e. not included in the chart is the fact that Toronto’s subway doesn’t open until 9 am on Sundays), Washington is the only city who has extended weekend hours, staying open on Friday and Saturday nights until 3 am.
Am I missing any? Are there any systems in North America with extremely short hours, or other 24 hr systems or extended hours? Did I misrepresent your city? Let me know!
Footnote:
This graph also doesn’t take into consideration 24hr or late night bus service. As routes and times vary greatly, this chart only focuses on subway and rail hours.
**This is the second post in a series of posts on North American Public Transit systems**
Ink & Compass 