Education graduate student Christina Wood woke up Monday to find that her transit nightmare was over.
"Thank God," she said after turning on her radio to hear the good news.
Early on Nov. 7, SEPTA trains, buses and trolleys started their engines as workers went back to work after striking for nearly a week. But the apparent resolution of the problem has left riders reconsidering their future transit options.
Wood thinks that planning is key to prevent a future nightmare.
"I should definitely make more friends that work in areas that I work," she said.
Wood had relied on taxi rides to get to work at the Community College of Philadelphia's main campus, located at 1700 Spring Garden St. She missed one day of work and was often late but could not find a better transit alternative because she does not own a car.
"That was money I really didn't have," she said. Wood estimates that she spent $80 on cab fares during the one-week strike.
The strike ended following Gov. Ed Rendell's intervention in the previously deadlocked negotiations between SEPTA and Transport Workers Union Local 234 and United Transportation Union Local 1594. The city's major transportation lines ground to a halt at 12:01 a.m. Oct. 31 after the sides failed to reach a compromise on contract negotiations.
Ted Skaarup, an employee of Scoop deVille, located in the lower level of Houston Hall, did not even realize that the strike was over until a trolley passed by him during his morning walk to work from around 4800 Baltimore Ave.
While the transit halt did not significantly affect his work schedule at Scoop deVille, Skaarup said it affected his job at Cuba Libre, a restaurant in Old City where he works as a security officer on weekends.
"My boss downtown understood that I wasn't making enough to take a cab," he said.
Still, Skaarup was forced to take a cab to his weekend job last Friday. The ride cost him $40 round trip, but he only made $50 during his five-hour shift.
"I only earned 10 bucks," he said.
Though he acknowledged that the strike complicated his work schedule, Skaarup said that he has now learned to appreciate SEPTA.
"I sort of realized that I took it for granted," he said.
Skaarup does not plan to stay long enough in Philadelphia to witness another SEPTA strike. However, he said that this experience will make him think more about the distance between where he lives and works.
While taxi fares may have been draining commuters' pockets during the last week, David Arbel, president of the Philadelphia Taxi Owners' Association, was glad that SEPTA was back on track.
"What a relief," he said. "That was a madhouse. You could not even find a telephone line [in the taxi-dispatch center] that was going to be empty."
Arbel said his company gave priority to customers who were traveling for medical reasons but that it still could not meet the public's overwhelming demand for rides. And even though a SEPTA strike might have meant more business for the taxi industry, Arbel said this was not the case.
"You're talking about the drivers working for themselves, not the company," he said.
"The traffic jam is actually stopping them from making their regular money," said the manager of Victory Regular Dispatch.
Josephine Bredell, a Houston Market employee, was happy the strike ended but vented steam over SEPTA's paralyzing grip over the city.
During the strike, Bredell, who has asthma, had to walk for 45 minutes from her home at 47th and Spruce streets. At times, her husband drove her or she took the Penn shuttle.
"I was hoping they'd hold out and come forward with another bus company," she said.
In the event of another SEPTA strike, Bredell said she would only be able to count on the Penn shuttle because campus parking is too expensive.
Transportation Engineering professor Vukan Vuchic said that a strike, regardless of its duration, always affects riders, who are inclined to look for other transportation alternatives.
TWU Local 234 spokesman Bob Bedard agreed that riders are losing faith in SEPTA but said that a strike was necessary to voice concerns the union had.
"Because we have a blue SEPTA patch on our shoulders, we get blamed for things that are well beyond our control," he said. "Once in a while, people have to stand up for what is right, and we hoped the public, given the nice weather, would be forgiving."
