It glides as softly as a cloud...

From ninth grade until I moved into Center City two years ago, I depended on the Market Frankford Line to transport me into and out of the city. I remember the old El cars, the ones without air conditioning and which required that you sit on top of the heat vent in the winter in order to stay warm.

I also remember when SEPTA, in its infinite wisdom, replaced them with the shiny new, air-conditioned, El cars, complete with beautifully upholstered seats. As this letter to the Inquirer indicates, it's not only the train drivers who fall asleep at the switch over at your region's transportation authority:

In all the articles about SEPTA, its needs and its efficiencies, I have yet to see a reference to the debacle of the upholstered seats on the subway cars. These seats quickly became soiled, ripped and unsightly. Having had the misfortune to sit in a seat that turned out to be wet, I now choose to stand.
...
Some SEPTA employee, lacking any common sense, made the decision to buy the upholstered seats.

The writer points out that SEPTA has been replacing these seats with the more solid, common-sense types of seats that are generally found on the buses.

There's been a lot of news about mass transportation in general and SEPTA in particular over the last several days. Many of the other blogs have also mentioned transit and transit funding as major issues that need to be addressed by the next mayor. Ray Murphy, a contributor to Young Philly Politics, even mentioned it in one of our early Counter Intelligence missions.

I hope to explore the issue in a little more depth in the coming days and weeks and write about the real big picture stuff as well as bring to light a lot of really cool ideas that are already floating around out there in the blogosphere. For now, though, I just want Joe Baker, El rider, to know that I agree with him 100 percent.