TuttleTree.com

Last night (Some server trouble meant that I couldn't post this on Friday morning when I tried… so THURSDAY night) I had what I would call a less than stellar commute home from work. There were a couple of factors at play; namely that it was a Philly CFUG meeting night (so I was staying later than normal anyway), and a wicked storm blew through the region in the late afternoon. The Phillies game was paused due to the storm — here's a video. The fun starts around 1:30. Surprisingly, the storm blew through in about an hour and shortly after that they were back on the field, and it was bright and sunny again.

In some areas, this storm pelted the area with roughly 1-inch diameter hail, and it snapped even green tree branches just about everywhere there were trees. This meant that, as per usual, there would be downed trees across my lifeline home, the R5 train line westbound from Philly to Thorndale.

I remember thinking a few weeks ago that SEPTA (South Eastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority) — the Philadelphia equivalent to Washington's MTA — might have finally gotten their act together. It had been what seemed like months since I was on a seriously delayed or broken-down train, and for the most part I was getting to work and back home on time. That's what I get for thinking, right?  All it took was one bad storm to remind me just how awful the SEPTA management really is.

I knew that the storm would cause delays and there was no telling what the train schedule would be, so I didn't rush to get to the train station, I just went at a casual pace but got there as soon as I could. What follows is the notes from the rest of my night…

7:40pm
Arrived at 30th Street Station, not knowing which train I would be catching home. I expected delays and off-schedule trains due to the bad weather, but the next train listed for my stop — Thorndale — isn't scheduled for another 50 minutes, and is running 30 minutes late (so a total 80 minute wait). Hooray!

8:09pm
I let the 7:49 local to Malvern (which was running 20 minutes late) come and go, because that's only part of the way home, and we didn't want Megan to have to get Dylan out of bed to come pick me up. About 2 minutes later, I overheard a septa employee talking to another passenger and explain that there is a tree down and no R5 trains are getting past Malvern. Great timing! Now the next train isn't for another HOUR!

8:45pm
I caught the scheduled 8:29pm train (which was delayed), and was informed that it would be going all the way to Thorndale. Hooray!

9:55pm
Our train stopped between Malvern and Exton, and we were informed by a conductor that we would not be continuing on to Exton; that we would have to go back to Malvern. Everyone onboard groans. I called Megan and let her know; and since we're both running low on phone battery, we don't chat long. We agree that she'll get Dylan up and get on the road in the right direction while I look up directions, and then she'll call me back for the directions to the train station.

10:20pm
The train hasn't moved yet. The engineer informed us of basically the same facts over the P.A. system: We've got to go back to Malvern, but apparently they're down to 1 working track and there are several trains in line to use it to go back; so we're just going to have to wait our turn. Meanwhile, we can see a train or two shuffling around outside, and by now it's pitch black outside. We could have walked back to Malvern by now.

10:30pm
Megan just called to let me know she's at Malvern train station waiting for me. We still haven't moved an inch. Starting to feel like a hostage. The emergency exit has never looked so tempting.

10:35pm
We still haven't moved. We were just told that we will be following an Amtrak train up to Thorndale. He specifically used the word "promise" that we would get there. I'm torn on whether or not to send Megan home. How many times have they changed the story now? And because of this, Megan had to get Dylan out of bed, perhaps for no reason. I decided not to call her and send her home until we start moving in the right direction. The last thing I want to do is send her home and then make her come BACK out. Keeping her there for no reason is only a slightly better option, but slightly better is better. Slightly.

10:45pm
Still haven't moved an inch, in either direction. Some of the other passengers have resorted to cannibalism. Luckily I don't look that tasty. Scrawny pale white boy for the win.

10:55pm
We're moving, but in the wrong direction (back toward Malvern). It may be in order to switch tracks so that we can head toward Thorndale, but I suppose anything is better than sitting in perpetuity between stations.

10:58pm
We stopped again, but we haven't made it all the way back to Malvern. The theory running through the rumor mill is that we had to back up to switch tracks, and now we'll be moving forward. I'll believe it when I see it.

11:05pm
We're moving toward Thorndale! I'm going to give it a minute or two before I call Megan. At least until we get to the first stop, in case they change their minds again…

11:08pm
I decided to call Megan, and we agreed that I should get off at the next stop so there's no chance they can screw me over again. We can't get to Exton fast enough.

11:12pm
Got off the train at Exton, and the power was out in the area so the station lights were all off and it was pitch black out. I headed to a convenient place for Megan to pick me up and waited. Apparently there was a puddle right next to me, because a car drove by and splashed me pretty hard. This day just keeps getting better!

11:38pm
Megan drops me off at my truck in the Thorndale train station parking lot. There is a train (not sure if it was mine) at the station. I'm curious if it's the same train, but not curious enough to hang around and find out. I just want to go home and go to bed!

11:50pm
Home! Finally!

—

I should note that I do not hold a bad opinion of the conductors or engineers on the trains. They only work with what they're given. The real failures here were entirely the fault of the managers and organizers:

Failure to communicate clearly. As I mentioned in my notes above, there was no clear indication that trains weren't going past Malvern on my line; and I know I wasn't alone in my ignorance here because there were dozens of other travelers on the platform that were just as pissed as me to find out they could have taken an earlier train.

Failure to keep critical computer systems online. TrainView was down for the entire evening. They posted an official response (note that I didn't say apology — they didn't even bother to apologize!) which mentions that lightning "knocked out the server for the SEPTA website" — which probably means it was running on a computer under someone's desk, with no battery backup and no disaster recovery plan. Real professional, guys!

Failure to communicate via alternate means. Septa has a twitter account, which would be a perfect way to communicate in events such as these. Instead, they have spent months attempting to automate the service, often resulting in truncated messages that accomplish nothing. And worse, in situations like Thursday's, they didn't bother to have a dedicated resource to send clear and concise messages about which service was running and which wasn't. This is like a lesson in how not to use Twitter to connect to your customers.

These are the basic things that you need to do after a storm. If you can't handle that, perhaps you should step down and let someone else run the show. But you won't. And you're increasing fares by 9% across the board soon. Lucky you.