The Travelin’ Grampa Touring the U.S.A. without an automobile Focus on fast, safe, convenient, comfortable, cheap travel, via public transit. Vol. 6, No. 9, August 2013 Photo credits: San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (Muni); Fred Hsu @ Wikipedia; S.F. Muni.. L to R: San Francisco Muni light rail train at Caltrain station, and Muni quiet trackless trolley and famous Muni antique cable streetcar, the latter each climbing steep legendary Nob Hill. San Francisco electric bus ride is smooth & quiet Grampa is just back from a California trip, where he rode on all manner of public transit. Especially pleasant was an incredibly smooth and silent ride on a San Francisco Muni Route 30 electric trackless trolley, from Ghirardelli Square, through Chinatown, to 5th & Market Street in mid-downtown. Powering this vehicle is an extremely quiet electric motor, a stark contrast to the noisy diesel engines that propel most urban transit buses. Two poles poke up from its roof to get electricity from twin overhead power lines. This bus glided along Columbus Avenue and Sansome and Mason streets as if floating on air. No jerking. No bumping. No grinding gears. As if respecting its extremely quiet environment, its passengers whispered to one another. Likewise, those speaking on cell phones. Muni runs more than 300 electric trolleybuses over 14 different routes. Only four other USA municipalities have them: Boston/Cambridge, Dayton, Philadelphia and Seattle. Muni’s Route #30 trolleybus is city transit as city transit should be. Photo credits: Public Transportation @ en.wikipedia; Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. Real trolleys have a trolley pole and wheel. Philadelphia’s Phlash, at right, is trackless but not a real trolley. “Today many cities use rubber tired vehicles which are decorated to look somewhat like trolleys, but these vehicles are not real trolleys,” explains the American Public Transportation Association. They are, in fact, “faux trolleys,” says the APTA. 1 Late bus to airport adds unexpected $25 cab fare Grampa’s latest West Coast trek began early in the morning of July 4 on a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority route #113 bus to Darby, Pa. He planned to transfer there to a SEPTA #115 bus to Philadelphia International Airport. Buses were on a holiday schedule. The #113 was supposed to arrive at Darby Transportation Center at 7:36 am. Nine minutes later, the #115 was scheduled to leave there for the airport. The #113 arrived on schedule. The #115 didn’t. The #113 pulled away. Two or three other buses arrived and departed . But not the #115. Grampa stood on the platform all alone. No other person in sight. All was silent. He waited ten minutes. A streetcar to downtown Philadelphia arrived at a distant platform. He walked over to it, pondering whether to ride 40 minutes in the opposite direction from the airport to a downtown railroad station to catch a SEPTA Regional Railroad train to the airport. Then, a taxicab pulled up. “Wanna go to the airport?” Grampa asked the driver, who was eating an Egg McMuffin. “Hop in,” he replied, setting down a paper cup of steaming black liquid. Ten minutes later they were at the airport. The #115 usually takes 35 minutes. Taxi fare was about $20, plus $5 tip. This was an unexpected expense. Grampa rides SEPTA buses without paying a fare. He, like many Pennsylvania seniors, has a transit-agency-issued ID card whereby the Pennsylvania Lottery pays their public transit fares. Because Grampa always tries to arrive at an airport at least two hours before flight time, allowing for situations such as this, he got to his plane with time to spare. Oh, the punch line: Two minutes after leaving Darby Transportation Center, the taxicab passed the #115 bus arriving 20 minutes late. This was a bit perplexing, since the transportation center is listed on the #115 schedule as its point of origin. Nonstop flight sometimes cheaper, sometimes not Getting the cheapest airfare never is easy. Grampa chose the lowest price US Airways flights he could find to and from San Francisco. That’s one reason he flew on July 4. Turned out it was cheaper to change planes in Phoenix than go nonstop. Grampa usually prefers two flights anyway, when flying very far. Sitting too long causes him leg problems. To return two weeks later, cheapest was an overnight 5 hour and 11 minutes “red eye” flight. Choosing a seat near a rest room, he got up and walked around every hour or so, successfully avoiding leg problem. Pay to check bag beats pay extra for ‘priority’ boarding For $25 each way, Grampa checked his roller suitcase. Waiting at the boarding area, he noticed about two thirds of the passengers were lined up to board “early.” These were VIPs and others qualifying for what US Airways calls “priority boarders.” They included first-class ticket holders, super-frequent flyers, and folks who pay $10 to $24 extra for such “special” treatment. “General boarding” followed, in five stages, which US Airways calls “zones.” Grampa was offered “priority boarding” for $24 each way. Almost all pre-boarders had large carry-on bags, apparently to avoid paying a $25 bag- checking fee. So, for the honor of hauling their bags around the airport and onto the plane and lifting them into an overhead compartment, they saved $1, Grampa figures. With few exceptions, US Airways passengers select their seats when purchasing their tickets. Grampa selected his weeks before the trip. Thus, he had a boarding pass and an assigned seat. So, why hurry to get on? While numerous other passengers, including many “priority boarders,” stood in lines or milled about for up to a half hour, he stayed comfortably seated in the departure gate area until almost all the Zone 5 folks had boarded. As he handed the gate attendant his boarding pass, Grampa remarked: “They ought to charge for boarding last.” 2 Photo credits: Jay Galvin, Flickr; Ben Franske at Wikipedia; (c) TECO Line Streetcar System. Left: San Francisco streetcar, aka trolley car, formerly part of suburban Philadelphia’s Red Arrow system. Center: Trolley wheel at end of a streetcar pole. Right: Antique streetcar Grampa rides in Tampa, Florida. What folks in Tampa and San Francisco call a streetcar, Philadelphians usually call a trolley or trolley car. Streetcars get power via one pole. Trackless trolleys, aka trolley buses, have two poles. If no pole, wheel and electricity, it’s not a real trolley “Trolleys run on electricity, normally 600 volts of direct current (DC) drawn from overhead wire,” says the American Public Transportation Association. “A trolley bus or trackless trolley is an electrically powered bus that draws its power from a pair of parallel overhead wires by means of two trolley poles,” it says. “Electric rail vehicles require only one overhead wire, as they complete the electrical circuit by returning power through rails. Trolley buses require a second wire to complete the circuit.” Labor strike stopped Grampa from riding BART from airport When Grampa flew into San Francisco the afternoon of July 4, his usual method of getting downtown from the airport wasn’t operating. Three days earlier, some 2,850 union workers of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) railways system had gone on strike. BART is his favorite way to get around the Bay Area. Along its 200+ miles of track are 44 subway and elevated stations, 23 of which Grampa has visited. Stopping at these stations are buses, trains, trolleys, ferries, cable cars, etc. of at least two dozen other public transportation systems operating in nine California counties. In downtown San Francisco are four joint BART and Muni subway stations. Fortunately, the strikers returned to work July 5, allowing Grampa to ride BART all over the place and, of course, to the airport for his July 16-17 “red eye” return flight to Philly. Photo credits: Mike L @Yelp; Kevin Y @ Yelp. Entrance to and train platform of BART station at San Francisco airport were empty during transit strike. 3 BART hires ‘union buster’ to lead labor negotiations BART management hired an outside negotiator to head its bargaining with labor union negotiators. He’s Thomas Hock of Veolia Transportation Service, who union officials have called a “union buster.” He was involved in stormy 2001 negotiations between BART and its unions. Bargaining in which he was involved have resulted in strikes in Phoenix and Tempe, Arizona. “We will be prepared for the longest, bloodiest strike since the ’70s,” warns Roxanne Sanchez, president of Service Employees International Union Local 1021, representing 1,430 BART mechanics, maintenance, clerical and professional workers. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 represents 945 BART train operators and station agents. The American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees Local 3993 represents 210 mid-managers and supervisors. Veolia Transportation recently got a five-year contract from BART and Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit bus system) to continue managing their 200-vehicle East Bay paratransit fleet, which it has run for the 15 years. Veolia also manages AirBART shuttle buses running between a BART rail station and Oakland International Airport. 75-mile Capitola-Oakland trip: $5.85 transit vs. $43.91 driving While in California, Grampa visited BART headquarters. He began his travel that day by riding a Santa Cruz Metro #69W bus at 7-am ($1) from Capitola Mall to downtown Santa Cruz. Next was an hour-long ride on a 7:31-am Amtrak Highway 17 Express bus ($2.50) to San Jose railroad station. There he boarded an 8:40-am Caltrain express ($4.25). This arrived in San Francisco at 10:03-am.