SEPTA fare hikes

They are pitching the recent fare hike on SEPTA as "only 11%." I'm still trying to figure out that math behind that statement.

Under the old fare scheme, I could hop aboard an R6 train at Miquon (zone 2) during peak hours and ride into the Center City Philadelphia for $3.75, or a $7.50 round trip fare. There was never a surcharge for purchasing a ticket on the train since there are no ticket machines at Miquon. An off-peak fare was only $3 with no buy-onboard surcharge, yielding a $6 round trip fare.

According to the fare page on SEPTA's Web site, a rail ticket from a zone 2 station without a ticket machine or ticket window will cost the consumer $5 each way, or $10 round trip. I'm not mathematician, but that represents an increase of $2.50 (compared to the old $7.50 fare), or 33%. The increase is even worse if you ride at a non-peak hour. Instead of a $6 round trip, it will now cost $10 to purchase a buy-onboard off-peak round trip. According to my calculation, that is a 66% increase in fare.

For a rail fare from the Philadelphia airport to Center City Philadelphia that formerly cost $5.50 each way, the fare is now $7. While that still doesn't come close to the $25 taxi fare, it is a whole lot more than Boston's "T" system, which is only $2 from Logan airport to anywhere the subway runs.

Here are my issues with the fare increase:

1) Since there are no ticket offices in the vicinity of the Miquon station to pre-purchase a zone 2 rail ticket. When I step on the train and pay the new "buy-onboard" surcharge, I am effectively being taxed for SEPTA's lack of customer service. Other mass transit systems around the country have well-functioning automatic ticket machines. Just across the river, NJ Transit has them in "hostile" places such as Camden.

2) This fare increase will encourage more people to drive into Center City instead of take mass transit. Isn't this the opposite effect of what our government is supposed to be doing? If Kate and I were contemplating coming into the city after work or on a weekend, we would formerly really consider taking the train. Now it's nearly a no-brainer to drive. Round trip rail fare of $10 each equals $20. We could pay for gas (15 miles each way, or about $3 in gas) and parking in Center City for less than $20.


I don't have any complaints about a price increase if I actually get something for the additional money. In this case I cannot see the value provided by this "11%" fare increase. If someone could explain it to me, I would be grateful.

Another Comcastic story

The other day Comcast made us an offer that was too good to pass up. They offered their upgraded high-speed internet service (up to 16 Mbps) for no additional cost for 6 months. Pretty good, eh? It was enough to make me call customer service and ask for it.

At first, the customer service rep didn't even know what I was talking about even though I was reading the words directly from the mailer. He eventually figured out what I was asking for and told me that he had made the change to my account. A modem reboot was all I needed to get the speed boost.

No such luck. Prior to the reboot I was getting 4 Mbps download and 750 Kpbs upload (not bad on the upload!). After the reboot, the speed actually slowed slightly to 3 Mbps, while the upload was untouched.

Was it my cable modem? Did I not leave the modem off long enough when I rebooted? I did find that my D-Link DCM-202 cable modem isn't totally compatible with Comcast. However, after downloading and applying a firmware upgrade from the D-Link Web site, I managed to get 6 Mbps from the modem. That's still a far cry from the 16 Mbps promised, and I'll be trying to determine why the speed is hobbled.

If you are wondering about my testing methods, I have checked the speed using www.dslreports.com, www.speedtest.net, and speedtest.vonage.com. I performed my tests with my laptop connected directly to the cable modem without an intermediate router or switch.
I also tweaked my network settings according to DSLReports' recommendations.


To be continued.... once I learn more from Comcast.

Canon S400 in the balance...

The fate of my Canon PowerShot S400 should be known shortly. After battling with sporadic memory card errors, I learned that there is a consumer notice available on Canon's Web site discussing the problem. Based on the information on the notice, I phoned Canon at 800-828-4040, which sent me a free UPS return-mail label to send the camera back to them for evaluation. They should be receiving the camera on Tuesday, July 10. I'm told that it's normally a 7-10 business day turnaround.

If it turns out that my beloved S400 is dead, I have had my eye on a Canon PowerShot SD900. With 10 megapixels (compared to the S400's lowly 4 megapixels), and the ability to shoot up to ISO 1600, I think the SD900 would be a nice upgrade to my nearly-four-year-old S400. Part of me has really had my eye on digital SLRs, but I'm not sure that I'm ready to dive in. My film SLR camera (also a Canon, if memory serves me) has been sitting idle since the S400 became my traveling companion.