(The following article by Tina Moore and Mario F. Cattabiani was posted on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on July 4.)
PHILADELPHIA — In the aftermath of Live 8, while the rest of the city was generally basking in good reviews, SEPTA found itself defending its performance handling passengers after Saturday’s concert.
Thousands of riders, hot and tired and frustrated, were stuck in long delays at Suburban Station after the concert.
“They should have been better prepared,” said concertgoer Jack Rosen, who gave up on SEPTA after waiting 40 minutes and paid $37 for a cab ride home to Ridley.
The criticism came at an unwelcome time for the financially troubled agency, mired in prolonged contract talks and looking to the state legislature for a long-term funding solution.
State Rep. Josh Shapiro (D., Montgomery) said yesterday that he has long had concerns about the management at SEPTA, not only in the transit agency’s daily operations but also in how they deal with special events, such as Live 8.
“This was SEPTA’s opportunity to shine and show themselves to the greater Philadelphia region and the world, and they seem to have come up short,” he said. “And, frankly, this is one of the concerns I have as a legislator when they come and say they need hundreds of millions of dollars.”
SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said the train system was simply unable to handle the “historic” number of people who tried to use it after the concert.
About three times the average 50,000 people – 100,000 round-trip rides – who commute on a regular weekday took the train to and from Live 8, he said. While most of the riders came into the city from various stations, the majority of them left from the same one – Suburban Station.
In response, SEPTA stacked up trains in the station and began running them continuously rather than on a schedule after the concert, Maloney said. The number of people made it difficult to load and unload trains and slowed progress, he said.
“The way we view it was that it was unprecedented in its size and unprecedented in our ability to handle it,” he said. “What was remarkable to me was how calm people were. It couldn’t have gone better.”
SEPTA board chairman Pat Deon said he also did not have all the details but that the system probably just couldn’t handle the number of people who tried to use it.
“I’m not sure we ever had the capacity to handle that many people at one time,” he said.
When asked why people were told to use the transit system to get to the show, he blamed the city.
“The city and event coordinators forced the situation when they cut off all those blocks to be a no-drive zone,” Deon said.
Mayor Street said yesterday that he had heard about the SEPTA problems but did not believe they would hurt the city.
“This was a once-in-a-lifetime event, and people who came in from the suburbs knew they were coming to an event where there could be a million people,” he said. “I think most people who came were satisfied, and if they had to wait a while at the end of the day, this was still a great event.”
Rosen, who had left his car at home and even purchased a special $8 ticket for rides to and from the show, said he probably would not go through the frustration of taking SEPTA again.
“When you go down the steps, there’s the area where the booths are,” Rosen said. “There was nobody there to give you information. And it was hot.”