PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Starting next weekend, most SEPTA buses and trolleys will only display their new names, not the old route numbers riders may have been used to.
In an effort to make the system simpler to navigate, SEPTA in February 2025 changed nearly all of its bus route designations to numbers, and train and trolley routes to letters. The Route 34 trolley, for example, became the T2.
"Calling them T1 through 5 instead of 10, 11, 13, 34 and 36, you know, it is a change obviously. But it makes sense in the long run," SEPTA's Chief of Customer Experience Lex Powers told KYW Newsradio.
To ease the transition, the old and new designations were both displayed on the electronic signs on SEPTA vehicles. But starting next week with the new spring schedule, the old designations will disappear.
"If you look at the front of a trolley, if you're taking the T1 or the 10, it will flash back and forth between T1 and 10," Powers said. "Starting on the 22nd, it will just say T1."
"We don't want any of these changes to feel too abrupt," Powers continued. "So the numbers and letters — the old ones — will still be featured in certain places on the website and on printed [schedules], but they will become less prominent over time."
Powers said for now, though, the M, the Norristown High Speed Line, and the D, the Media-Sharon Hill Line, will still display the old and new designations.
"One place where we're not ready to stop the toggle is on the suburban lines — the M and the D," Powers said. "Those are just a little bit further behind. So those will continue to display the new and the old for the time being."
The K bus will keep its letter designation for now, because SEPTA plans to combine it with another route as part of its bus network overhaul later this year.