(The following article by Vernon Clark was posted on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on March 12.)
PHILADELPHIA — Anticipating a strike by SEPTA workers on Monday, institutions and businesses around the city are offering workers and students transportation alternatives and advice.
Temple University will operate shuttle buses at various sites along Broad Street, from Cheltenham Avenue to the north to the former Philadelphia Navy Base to the south, for students at the main campus at Broad Street and Montgomery Avenue and for those attending the health sciences campus at Broad and Tioga Streets, university spokesman Mark Eyerly said.
“If you can get to Broad Street, we can get you to the main campus and the health sciences campus,” Eyerly said yesterday.
At 12:01 a.m. on Monday, the current labor agreement between SEPTA and Transport Workers Union Local 234 – which represents more than 5,100 workers who operate and maintain the subway, the Market-Frankford Line, buses, and trolley lines of SEPTA’s City Transit Division – expires.
SEPTA and the union have been meeting daily, but neither side will comment beyond saying the discussions are continuing. SEPTA is asking veteran Local 234 employees to help pay for their own health care for the first time.
A strike would end service offered by SEPTA City Transit Division: the Broad Street Line, Market-Frankford Line, subway-surface lines 10, 11, 13, 34 and 36, and buses that operate in Philadelphia. In addition, Suburban Division bus routes that operate into Philadelphia will operate only in the suburban counties.
The union went on strike in 1998, and the prospect of a another shutdown of transportation in the city led major employers to offer contingency plans.
Managing Director Philip Goldsmith is scheduled to announce contingency plans for city employees today.
In addition to transportation on Broad Street, Temple University will offer reduced-rate parking for students who carpool with other students or staff members.
“We are also encouraging people with access to Regional Rail lines to use the Temple University Station,” on Berks Street between Ninth and 10th Streets, which is a stop for the R1, R2, R3, R5, R6, R7 and R8 lines, Eyerly said.
“We are hoping we can make this as convenient as possible for people to get to our campuses,” Eyerly said. “We’ll be getting the word out to our students and faculty and posting information on our Web site.”
The University of Pennsylvania announced that Penn and Drexel University would offer free shuttle buses for students and faculty from the center of the campus to the Gates Pavilion at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 16th and Locust Streets, and the 69th Street Terminal. For schedules, call 215-898-6358.
The Philadelphia School District is appealing to SEPTA and its workers to avoid a strike, as its students are preparing for key standardized tests that begin this month and last through April.
To get to and from school, about 20,000 public-school students and about 19,000 charter- and private-school students rely on SEPTA service, officials said.
James Nevels, chairman of the School Reform Commission, said: “A SEPTA strike could not only keep students from attending school, but it could cripple our students’ efforts to score well on our next round of PSSA [Pennsylvania System of School Assessment] and TerraNova tests.”
The tests are critical for the school district, control of which was taken over by the state more than two years ago because of declining student achievement. Ninety-five percent of a school’s students scheduled to take the exams must take the tests in order for their school to be eligible to meet guidelines under the “No Child Left Behind” law, officials said.
Officials are also urging employees who live near each other to organize employee car pools.
Fred Farlino, executive director of school administrative services, said: “We’re going to get that information out so that if you live in 19102, you can reach other people who live in your building.”
The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce is urging members to help workers form carpools and is offering a list of Regional Rail services and schedules on its Web site, www.philachamber.com.
At Cigna Corp., company spokeswoman Tina Angelo said the company was negotiating discount parking rates at lots near its headquarters at One Liberty Place, 16th and Market Streets, in Center City. She said employees were also being encouraged to carpool.
And finally, SEPTA is offering its own advice to riders at www.septa.org/subsite/strikewebsite/septaguidemain.html.