When the pandemic changed how Delaware County commuted to work, SEPTA looked at how it could change its regional rail schedules to accommodate that change, writes Kathleen E. Carey for the Daily Times.

Now SEPTA is looking at shorter, targeted rail trips augmented with bus trips.

“Pre-pandemic, it was really peak oriented, so service was really geared towards getting people into a 9 o’clock in the morning job and then leaving work at 5 PM,” said Ryan Judge, SEPTA’s director of Strategic Planning & Analysis.

“What we see in a post-pandemic environment with remote work, in particular, is that that model is just changing a lot and how we can adapt the regional rail system to serve different types of trips (is important),” he explained.

In Delaware County, there are a lot of trips that are fairly short on the regional rails, like traveling from Media to Lansdowne.

“That’s a trip that regional rail could serve well that happens pretty regularly,” Judge said.

Travel by train, bus, or subway in the middle of the day is also more common.

SEPTA’s goal is to make trips convenient with more frequent service.

See more details of changes to regional rail schedules and other ways to make your mass transit travel more convenient in the  Daily Times.