God help Philadelphia if anything horrific should ever happen. The astonishing incompetence of SEPTA will ensure everyone in the city perishes.
Crowds and delays I can understand. The abject failure to plan ahead for a crush of people with more than 24 hours notice though, cannot be excused.
The absence of a show of "force" of agency managers to help manage the crowd cannot be excused, SEPTA.
Placing nothing more than a sign post at the top of a train platform staircase while doing nothing to demarcate where the lines for those trains should go cannot be excused, SEPTA.
Having the monitor system out of operation precisely when it is most needed most certainly cannot be excused, SEPtA.
The failure to tell police anything that would help direct riders or let them know where to go absolutely cannot be excused, SEPTA.
Having police block access to the platforms at 30th Street station and ignore riders' pleas for information cannot be excused, SEpTA.
Yes, crunching a million people into a system not properly funded and built is a recipe for disaster, but SEPTA needs to be accountable for stating why they didn't add service, why shuttle busses were not employed to ferry riders to some of the more popular rail stations and why they provided astonishingly little information to the riders.
And no, General Manager Joseph Casey, dropping a photocopied sheet of paper on the seats in the morning does not do the job.
Adequate staffing would show an effort. All available excess capacity would show an effort. Telling people what the bloody hell is going on would even show some effort.
Don't you dare crow about what a great job you did under extraordinary circumstances. You didn't. If you don't have the funding you need, then own up to the failure and name names about why it was such a debacle. Call the Harrisburg fat cats out and let us know why they're to blame if they are. But don't blow smoke and pretend all was ultimately ok.
The city of Philaelphia doesn't get off the hook either. Where is the oversight of the taxi industry?
Already well-known for thuggery and refusal to accept credit cards in direct violation of the law, the cabs took their theivery to new levels by trying to extort people who wanted to leave the city (Tony Soprano would be proud). Rogue cabbies? Maybe, but I heard three people give similar accounts--that can't be a coincidence. Nor are the reports from bellman that the cab compaines simply took their phones off the hooks. If the city fails to investigate this activity--and hold accountable those who did it AND those who are charged with preventing such gross abuse of the public--the elected officials should be thrown out on their collective ----. That, of course, will not happen, in a city that elected John Street....twice.
I'm sorry, Mayor Nutter....I tried to believe in the city's change, that it could really operate differently. But it failed its first major test so spectacularly that "failure" doesn't do it justice.
Indeed, everyone in the city is doomed in the event of a crisis requiring a mass exodus. Unless the Ride the Ducks operators can get people out of town; they certainly couldn't be any more bungling than SEPTA.
Crowds and delays I can understand. The abject failure to plan ahead for a crush of people with more than 24 hours notice though, cannot be excused.
The absence of a show of "force" of agency managers to help manage the crowd cannot be excused, SEPTA.
Placing nothing more than a sign post at the top of a train platform staircase while doing nothing to demarcate where the lines for those trains should go cannot be excused, SEPTA.
Having the monitor system out of operation precisely when it is most needed most certainly cannot be excused, SEPtA.
The failure to tell police anything that would help direct riders or let them know where to go absolutely cannot be excused, SEPTA.
Having police block access to the platforms at 30th Street station and ignore riders' pleas for information cannot be excused, SEpTA.
Yes, crunching a million people into a system not properly funded and built is a recipe for disaster, but SEPTA needs to be accountable for stating why they didn't add service, why shuttle busses were not employed to ferry riders to some of the more popular rail stations and why they provided astonishingly little information to the riders.
And no, General Manager Joseph Casey, dropping a photocopied sheet of paper on the seats in the morning does not do the job.
Adequate staffing would show an effort. All available excess capacity would show an effort. Telling people what the bloody hell is going on would even show some effort.
Don't you dare crow about what a great job you did under extraordinary circumstances. You didn't. If you don't have the funding you need, then own up to the failure and name names about why it was such a debacle. Call the Harrisburg fat cats out and let us know why they're to blame if they are. But don't blow smoke and pretend all was ultimately ok.
The city of Philaelphia doesn't get off the hook either. Where is the oversight of the taxi industry?
Already well-known for thuggery and refusal to accept credit cards in direct violation of the law, the cabs took their theivery to new levels by trying to extort people who wanted to leave the city (Tony Soprano would be proud). Rogue cabbies? Maybe, but I heard three people give similar accounts--that can't be a coincidence. Nor are the reports from bellman that the cab compaines simply took their phones off the hooks. If the city fails to investigate this activity--and hold accountable those who did it AND those who are charged with preventing such gross abuse of the public--the elected officials should be thrown out on their collective ----. That, of course, will not happen, in a city that elected John Street....twice.
I'm sorry, Mayor Nutter....I tried to believe in the city's change, that it could really operate differently. But it failed its first major test so spectacularly that "failure" doesn't do it justice.
Indeed, everyone in the city is doomed in the event of a crisis requiring a mass exodus. Unless the Ride the Ducks operators can get people out of town; they certainly couldn't be any more bungling than SEPTA.
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