A few weeks ago, during one of the few days in August that had tolerable temperatures, I spent a day in Philly, partly as an excuse to ride the train, and partly as an exercise in flânerie, that fancy French term for bumming around (but making acute observations of modern urban life.) As with all flânerie, I didn't start out with any objectives in mind, but as a ascended from the bowels of SEPTA at Jefferson Station, I started walking through my old neighborhood, where I lived while I was in High School, and my first 3 years of college, from 1966 to 1975. This was mainly the area south of Market Street, north of South Street, west of Second Street and east of 10th Street. We moved to the area just after I finished 7th grade because my Dad, who worked at a hospital nearby, was sick of his commute on Pennsylvania's Longest Parking Lot, aka, I-76, aka the Schuylkill Expressway, aka, the "Sure-Kill" Crawlway. The neighborhood started gentrifying at that time, but housing prices were still reasonable, so my parents though, "why not?"
I booked myself up on business class on the Vermonter. Leaves Baltimore at about 8:45 AM, gets into Philly a little before 10. I booked a somewhat overpriced business class in order to take advantage of the 2x1 seating and didn't mind paying a bit more, as I have TQP to buy if I want to make Select Plus this year, and I don't think any Long-distance trips are on the Horizon before the end of December. I was impressed by how full the train was. I think I snagged one of the last seats left in the business class section. The other thing to realize is that they haven't restored all of the North East Regional service, and before Covid, there was a NY-WAS Northeast Regional that ran right before or after the Vermonter. Now the Vermonter serves both people going to Vermont and also people going up to New York. However, it's consist is only 5 coaches and the half café-half business class car. A normal Northeast Regional consist is 5 coaches, a full café, and a full business class car. This, I think it's a lot easier to fill up the train. I may have had one of the last seats, but not the last, as the seat next to me remained open the whole trip. It was the last row in the car, and I was worried I might have a problem with the recline, but it turns out that there's lost of space behind the last row, so there's full recline.
I had eaten breakfast before I left, but I did try out a "Sweet Sam's" Coffee Streusel Cake from the new café menu in addition to my free cup of Business Class coffee. It was pretty good, but very sweet.
We got up to 30th St. at about 10 AM, more or less on schedule. I did a quick run around the food court, mainly to see what was open. The Pret a Manger and the Au Bon Pain have reopened, in addition to Wendy's and Jersey Mike's Subs, plus Dunkin Donuts. I think there was one other place open, but many of the stalls are still empty.
30th Street was the same as always. It would be nice if they could get the Solari Board back, but I guess time marches on.
They were having some kind of track work on the SEPTA lines heading south. It made boarding the SEPTA trains a little confusing. Passengers going to the Airport or Wilmongton/Newark from Center City had to change trains at 30th St., transferring from the upper SEPTA level to the lower Amtrak level.
So "people aren't using paper timetables" anymore, eh? The message doesn't seem to have reached SEPTA.
In the Metropolitan Lounge they have a picture of the ticket counter at 30th St. as it was back in the day. I remember this from my riding the rails in the late 1960s right up until Amtrak Day. I'm not sure when Amtrak renovated the station and replaced this ticket counter. I remember it was all manual, no computers. They had sort of a pre-made plate for each destination served from 30th St., which they pulled out of the racks pictured behind the ticket agent and then printed your ticket. It was $4.50 to Baltimore and $4.25 to New York in coach. I think that's somewhere between $30 and $40 in today's money.
I went upstairs and had to wait about 15 minutes before a Center-City bound train passed through. I had no problem with the faregates because I have a SEPTA Senior Key Card, so I didn't bother with trying to scan my Amtrak ticket. I got off at Jefferson Station and was pleased to see that he old Gallery Mall had reopened under a different name ("Fashion Center," I believe). I went up the stairs and started walking.
As I was walking down 10th St., I made my decision to walk through my old neighborhood, but I was still several blocks away. My first "acute observation of modern urban life" was of the nurses at Jefferson Hospital, obviously on break, treating themselves to ice cream from an ice cream truck. As this was still in the middle of t5he morning, this seemed odd, but then I figured that hospital shifts are so weird that, who know, maybe for these nurses, it was like an afternoon break. I turned down Spruce Street and passed by Pennsylvania Hospital, founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1751 and now part of the University of Pennsylvania medical system (as opposed to the Jefferson University system). Given that there are 5 medical schools in Philadelphia, I guess it's a good place to get sick. A little farther on, I passed by Mikve Israel Cemetery (1740), one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in the US where many notable Jews from the Colonia era are buried. Then I turned down 6th Street and headed toward my old house.
--to be continued
I booked myself up on business class on the Vermonter. Leaves Baltimore at about 8:45 AM, gets into Philly a little before 10. I booked a somewhat overpriced business class in order to take advantage of the 2x1 seating and didn't mind paying a bit more, as I have TQP to buy if I want to make Select Plus this year, and I don't think any Long-distance trips are on the Horizon before the end of December. I was impressed by how full the train was. I think I snagged one of the last seats left in the business class section. The other thing to realize is that they haven't restored all of the North East Regional service, and before Covid, there was a NY-WAS Northeast Regional that ran right before or after the Vermonter. Now the Vermonter serves both people going to Vermont and also people going up to New York. However, it's consist is only 5 coaches and the half café-half business class car. A normal Northeast Regional consist is 5 coaches, a full café, and a full business class car. This, I think it's a lot easier to fill up the train. I may have had one of the last seats, but not the last, as the seat next to me remained open the whole trip. It was the last row in the car, and I was worried I might have a problem with the recline, but it turns out that there's lost of space behind the last row, so there's full recline.
I had eaten breakfast before I left, but I did try out a "Sweet Sam's" Coffee Streusel Cake from the new café menu in addition to my free cup of Business Class coffee. It was pretty good, but very sweet.
We got up to 30th St. at about 10 AM, more or less on schedule. I did a quick run around the food court, mainly to see what was open. The Pret a Manger and the Au Bon Pain have reopened, in addition to Wendy's and Jersey Mike's Subs, plus Dunkin Donuts. I think there was one other place open, but many of the stalls are still empty.
30th Street was the same as always. It would be nice if they could get the Solari Board back, but I guess time marches on.
They were having some kind of track work on the SEPTA lines heading south. It made boarding the SEPTA trains a little confusing. Passengers going to the Airport or Wilmongton/Newark from Center City had to change trains at 30th St., transferring from the upper SEPTA level to the lower Amtrak level.
So "people aren't using paper timetables" anymore, eh? The message doesn't seem to have reached SEPTA.
In the Metropolitan Lounge they have a picture of the ticket counter at 30th St. as it was back in the day. I remember this from my riding the rails in the late 1960s right up until Amtrak Day. I'm not sure when Amtrak renovated the station and replaced this ticket counter. I remember it was all manual, no computers. They had sort of a pre-made plate for each destination served from 30th St., which they pulled out of the racks pictured behind the ticket agent and then printed your ticket. It was $4.50 to Baltimore and $4.25 to New York in coach. I think that's somewhere between $30 and $40 in today's money.
I went upstairs and had to wait about 15 minutes before a Center-City bound train passed through. I had no problem with the faregates because I have a SEPTA Senior Key Card, so I didn't bother with trying to scan my Amtrak ticket. I got off at Jefferson Station and was pleased to see that he old Gallery Mall had reopened under a different name ("Fashion Center," I believe). I went up the stairs and started walking.
As I was walking down 10th St., I made my decision to walk through my old neighborhood, but I was still several blocks away. My first "acute observation of modern urban life" was of the nurses at Jefferson Hospital, obviously on break, treating themselves to ice cream from an ice cream truck. As this was still in the middle of t5he morning, this seemed odd, but then I figured that hospital shifts are so weird that, who know, maybe for these nurses, it was like an afternoon break. I turned down Spruce Street and passed by Pennsylvania Hospital, founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1751 and now part of the University of Pennsylvania medical system (as opposed to the Jefferson University system). Given that there are 5 medical schools in Philadelphia, I guess it's a good place to get sick. A little farther on, I passed by Mikve Israel Cemetery (1740), one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in the US where many notable Jews from the Colonia era are buried. Then I turned down 6th Street and headed toward my old house.
--to be continued