{"id":276356,"date":"2026-09-01T07:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T07:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/276356\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T07:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T07:48:11","slug":"septa-bus-network-redesign-brings-new-changed-routes-to-university-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/276356\/","title":{"rendered":"SEPTA bus network redesign brings new, changed routes to University City"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEPTA implemented the first phase of a multi-year overhaul to its bus network last week.<\/p>\n

The \u201cBus Revolution\u201d \u2014 which includes changes to 30 routes \u2014\u00a0features a new pathway for Route 79, which will run from University City to South Philadelphia. The network redesign has been in the works for five years, according to Senior Operations Planner Brandon Miller.<\/p>\n

The transit agency recommends that those in University City take Route 79 rather than Route 49, which previously serviced the area. Route 49 will operate<\/a> at 40th Street and Woodland Ave, but no longer serves Grays Ferry and other areas. Route 49 also shortened its operational hours.<\/p>\n

Route 79 has been extended to 40th Street and Market Street in an attempt<\/a> to \u201ccreate a new connection between South Philadelphia and the growing job center of University City.\u201d<\/p>\n

The route also serves as a \u201cfrequent red\u201d stop, which the transit agency rolled out to indicate buses that are scheduled to arrive within 15 minutes on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.<\/p>\n

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Miller said that the overhaul was set in place to \u201chelp people move around better.\u201d He said that the previous bus system did not account for changing \u2014 and declining \u2014 numbers of how individuals were moving around Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

The final phase of the plan, set for implementation in 2027, will reduce the total number of routes from 124 to 106.<\/p>\n

Miller added that Route 49 was largely cut from the University City region due to a lack of \u201cend-to-end ridership.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re doing is redistributing our resources to better match how customers are traveling today,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

Greyson Forster, a College junior and the executive chair of the SEPTA Youth Advisory Council, told The Daily Pennsylvanian that the previous bus routes were formed based upon previous trolley lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue is a lot of those routes haven\u2019t changed while the structure and economic ebbs and flows and populations of our cities have changed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Forster contextualized the changes with SEPTA\u2019s tenuous financial situation<\/a>, which partly caused the delayed implementation of the bus changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t look forward if you don\u2019t know the lights are going to be on tomorrow,\u201d Forster said.<\/p>\n

After planning began in 2021, the Bus Revolution\u00a0was shelved in November 2024 \u2014 despite an original launch date of 2025. The current rollout represents an abridged version of the original project.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it was paused, and when SEPTA got the flex funding from the state, Bus Revolution was back on the table, but in a much weaker way,\u201d Forster said. \u201cThe changes we see now \u2014\u00a0all three phases \u2014 are not the initial idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Golden, SEPTA\u2019s senior press officer, wrote that the current overhaul is \u201cfocused on enhancing reliability and service frequency and will help riders travel more efficiently throughout our area.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Forster, SEPTA has changed bus signs around University City alerting riders that routes will be removed, added, and changed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Golden wrote that \u201cwith new maps and signs, riders will be able to navigate the system more easily.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEPTA implemented the first phase of a multi-year overhaul to its bus network last week. The \u201cBus Revolution\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-276356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}