SEPTA has proposed big changes to bus routes and schedules

Buses that come more often throughout the day, serve crosstown and intra-neighborhood routes, and connect better to SEPTA’s rail-transit lines.

Those are three of the key features in a proposed reconfiguration of the authority’s bus network, unveiled Monday night in a virtual public meeting after more than a year of data analysis and conversations with riders.

In the draft, there are 44 high-frequency routes, defined as having scheduled wait times of 15 minutes or less between buses from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week. Currently, there are 33.

“This was an opportunity for us to really think about how the network functions as a whole, not as a set of individual bus routes with random start and end points,” Dan Nemiroff, a planner and the project manager for SEPTA’s Bus Revolution, said in an interview.

“We’ve been running a bus network that had changed very little over 60-plus years,” he said.

» READ MORE: SEPTA wants to redesign its bus services from scratch. What should that look like?

SEPTA would operate 99 bus routes under the draft redesign, down from 125 currently. Routes were drawn to use fewer streets, keeping buses on arterial roads as much as possible, and many routes were straightened — to reduce turns and potential blockages.

As it is now, buses travel an average 8 mph in the city, said Bethany Whitaker, a principal at the transportation consultancy Nelson/Nygaard, which is working with SEPTA on a $3 million contract.

The redesign also includes 10 “microtransit” zones in parts of the suburbs, mostly in areas with 60-minute schedule gaps between fixed-route buses and lower ridership. People could schedule trips on demand, à la ride-share services.

SEPTA sought to strike a balance between a potential network with faster service, but longer walks between stops and more transfers for some riders; and another option that had more stops and fewer transfers but slower service overall, Nemiroff said.

Riders and potential riders said they valued frequency of service the most but many also said they did not want stops spaced too far apart, he said.

Longer walks “may not be a big deal for an able-bodied person but could be for a person with an oxygen tank, a walker, or a wheelchair,” said Nat Lownes of the Transit Riders Union.

SEPTA launched bus redesign efforts after ridership declined 13% from 2013 to 2019, a change attributed to slow speeds, problems with reliability, and competition from ride-sharing companies. And that was before COVID-19.

The bus network has rebounded more quickly than other travel modes the authority operates — with daily ridership on buses at about 68% of 2019 levels.

SEPTA and its consultants heard from about 20,000 people in person, during virtual talks, and in online surveys. Transit advocates criticized the agency for not advertising enough.

“We found we got a lot of really good, detailed feedback, but there was a lack of general awareness about the project,” Nemiroff said.

The authority plans intensive advertising aboard buses and at bus shelters, and has scheduled 15 open houses and several more virtual meetings to hear from riders in the next 2½ months and consider changes. Implementation of a final plan could begin in fall 2023, officials said.