State reps, Darisha Parker (brown wool coat) and Andre Carroll (suit and tie), standing in front of neighbors at Thursday night’s meeting. (Photo: Rasheed Z. Ajamu)
Long before plans were revealed about the SEPTA Bus Revolution or talks of significant service reductions and cuts, the transit agency put the K bus on detour in 2013. This past Thursday, SEPTA representatives met with Northwest Neighbors of Germantown (NWNG) at Canaan Baptist Church to review decade-old unfinished business regarding the bus.
The detour was supposed to temporarily cease operations on Coulter Street (now referred to as the “pre-detour alignment”), as the Coulter Street bridge needed reconstruction over the Chestnut Hill West Line, shifting the route down Penn Street going westbound and coming up eastbound using Queen Lane.
The bridge finally opened back up in the summer of 2023. Still, the K bus never returned to its original route, which it had had since its inception, prompting neighbors to reach out about a return to its original service.
At Thursday’s meeting, SEPTA reps introduced new findings, revealing that, due to safety concerns, restoring any service, whether one-way or two-way, on Coulter Street would be infeasible due to three different points on the street: Wayne Ave, Morris Street, and St. Laurens Street/Midvale Avenue.
Instead, they imagine keeping the service as it’s been for 12 years would be much more reliable. Representatives gave a list of reasons, including:
- Coulter being “too narrow to operate safely and reliably,”
- Double parking and passing cars create challenges,
- Different parking problems near Enon Baptist Church,
- Pick-up and drop-off activity at the Boys & Girls Club,
- Delivery trucks frequently block Coulter Street
- An abundance of bikers and walkers
- A curve and approach at the St. Laurens/Midvale/Coulter intersection limits traffic visibility both east and westbound
Neighbors disagreed with keeping the route as it is, particularly on Penn, as they say those routes have caused their safety concerns and issues that SEPTA officials have not considered.
One neighbor shared that the westbound route down Penn causes issues when it needs to merge onto Queen Lane. “It’s dangerous because it becomes a two-way at the intersection,” she said, to which the entire room agreed in a wave of “yups” and “mmhms.”
“It’s actually worse turning on Penn Street than it is Coulter,” yelled out one neighbor. To this point, SEPTA rep Brandon Miller said that the agency has heard that, but Coulter still presents more challenges from an operator’s point of view.
While there is no designated parking space at the corner of Wayne and Coulter, drivers frequently park there, which both SEPTA reps and NW neighbors seemed to agree on. However, contention sparked over whether it was a good enough reason to disqualify the bus from operating down the street.
Neighbors maintained the position that getting cars to stop parking on the corner is an easy fix, as city officials and/or police could enforce the rule. Still, SEPTA reps stood by the fact that they had to see what the conditions currently were, not what they could be.
Neighbors continued to agree that the bus is much more of a safety hazard on Penn because SEPTA is not taking into consideration the newest playground, launched in the spring/summer last year at the Morris Street intersection.
State Rep. Darisha Parker, who attended the meeting in full, suggested bringing the operations team to see the area in real time to mitigate oversights like these. She said, “See what happens is sometimes with Google Maps, the aerial shots they take don’t show you the real effects of what’s really going on.”
Adding to issues on Penn, neighbors also said the weight of the bus coming down the block has led to more sinkholes over the years.
Aside from issues with the route, neighbors believe that the transit agency has interacted poorly with the community about these changes, noting that they didn’t check in before changing the route in the first place.
Now, according to another neighbor, “you’re dangling a carrot in front of our faces,” making the point that though the meeting is framed to collect feedback, it feels that the agency’s intentions to keep the route the way it is feel final.
Some neighbors agreed, but they also understood that the representatives in the room were just doing their jobs and could only report back on what neighbors said.
“They need to be here,” said state Rep Parker, who attended the meeting in full, about the decision makers on SEPTA’s side.
“I do not want consultants. And I do not want community liaisons. I want the individuals that are going to affect African Americans in this zip code. Because guess what? [They can’t be here] would not be the answer in Chestnut Hill, East Mount Airy, or Society Hill. And if you can’t make that call, don’t worry about it — I can make it.”
Final remarks also included questions about the 26 and K bus merger, as a result of the SEPTA Bus Revolution. While neighbors gathered to talk about the future of the bus, they also acknowledged that the bus was supposed to disappear entirely soon.
Director of City Service Planning Daniel Nemiroff clarified that as it stands, the 26 & K bus routes will remain independent, for now. Any plans for reallocation of service have been “suspended indefinitely” due to budget updates earlier in the day.
“It is not on the schedule in any way, shape, or form whatsoever at this point in time,” he ends.