(The following story by Christina Kristofic appeared on the Burlington County Times website on January 7.)
PHILADELPHIA — A SEPTA representative spoke on his cell phone about the authority’s plans to test a quiet car program on the R5 to Lansdale and Doylestown as he rode a different regional rail line home Tuesday evening.
“I wouldn’t be able to do this if I was on the R5 next week,” said Kim Heinle, assistant general manager for customer service.
SEPTA plans to begin piloting its QuietRide program Monday on express service trains on the R5 line serving Doylestown and Lansdale. The first car of each of the trains will be designated as the QuietRide car; passengers will be asked to mute cell phones, refrain from making or taking phone calls, use headsets with any other electronic equipment and keep the volume low, and keep conversations with other passengers short.
Heinle said the QuietRide program came out of a recent customer service initiative.
“The cell phone issue has been something that everyone keeps talking about,” Heinle said. “It’s kind of unusual because on the one hand, people absolutely don’t want to be divorced from their cell phones, but on the other, they expect people to be very courteous when they use them. When you’re sitting on a train, reading quietly and someone is talking loudly almost (to the point of) inviting you into the conversation, it’s really annoying.”
SEPTA is trying to offer a “quiet, relaxed” atmosphere for the people who want it.
Heinle added, “That doesn’t mean that on the rest of the cars you can go nuts with your cell phone. We expect people to be quiet there.”
Passengers will have to politely police each other on the QuietRide cars. Heinle said SEPTA does not expect its conductors to act as policemen for the program.
The pilot program will run through March 13. SEPTA will ask passengers to respond to a survey. It will also seek feedback from its employees and groups like the Delaware Valley Association of Railroad Passengers.
The authority will then decide whether to expand the QuietRide program to additional trains and regional rail lines, or to give it up.
Doylestown resident Millie Torre, who took the R5 home from Philadelphia after she visited her daughter Tuesday, said the quiet car sounds like a good idea. But chatter on the train doesn’t usually bother her.
“It’s a pleasant ride,” she said.
William Boyd, a Doylestown man who waited on the Doylestown station platform for his wife to arrive around 5 p.m. Tuesday, said he thinks the QuietRide program is a great idea.
Normally, he said, there’s “too much communication.”
SEPTA’s idea is not a new one. But it’s not a widespread one, either.
Amtrak has been experimenting with quiet cars for a number of years, and piloted its quiet car program in 2000 with one train out of Philadelphia. The Virginia Railway Express — a commuter train that runs between Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. — has quiet cars on all of its trains.
Other agencies, including NJ Transit and the Metropolitan Transit Authority of New York, have talked about testing quiet car programs.
Heinle said SEPTA chose to test its program on the R5 because the regional rail line “is a growing line and it’s got some longer trips with some longer trains.”
He thinks the response from R5 passengers and employees will be a good indication of whether the program will work systemwide.
“We’re going in with no preconceived notions of whether this is going to work or not,” Heinle said. “We hope it does.”