The Down-Lo
As of Tuesday, Nov. 1 the public transportation service that runs through Philadelphia and on the outskirts of Philly went on strike, shutting down all subway lines and bus routes in the city. Few SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) services continue to be running, making commuting around almost impossible.
The only SEPTA services still running are the Regional Rail Train Lines, the Norristown High Speed Line, Suburban buses, though some of the routes have a been altered closer to the city, and Trolley Routes 101 and 102.
Given the limited ways to commute, commuters have had to leave earlier to go to work as well as return. Also, the regional rails have experienced an increase in capacity aboard the trains leading to delays from 20 minutes to an hour as well as cancellations. Thankfully SEPTA has made it easier on commuters who don't normally take regional rail by allowing them to use their Transpasses or Septa keys for regional rail travel, rather than making them pay or get a Trailpass.
SEPTA and the Transportation Workers Union (TWU) have been in talks but have failed to come to a contract agreement thus far, although SEPTA is trying to get an injunction for Election Day that will force workers to return to work for only that day, hearings for that resume on Monday.
Reasons For Striking
TWU decided to go strike due to issues involving Pensions, work rules and health care costs. Many workers are angry because they feel they are going to be paying too much for health care and they feel with the increases they will be bringing home less money than they were originally making.
My Feelings On the Strike
I side with the workers here but at the same time it makes getting around impossible, so it's frustrating. There's no reason SEPTA should be treating their workers unfairly like this. I side with the workers but I can't help but still be annoyed at them from a commuting perspective.
On the first day of the strike everything was crazy, traffic was a mess and regional rails were packed with lots of annoyed commuters. I was thirty minutes late to work and nearly stranded there due to sudden cancellations, especially since picketers were blocking the regional rail trains in certain areas.
I have lucked out at my job but I imagine not a lot of people have had the same luck. I can only hope that this strike comes to an end soon and that SEPTA makes an agreement with TWU that's fair to all parties involved.