PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — SEPTA is making final design changes to its wayfinding plan, giving new names to rail lines.
An education campaign will precede the new signs that designate the Market-Frankford Line, Broad Street Line, trolleys and the Norristown High Speed Line as the “SEPTA Metro,” though that campaign will be a “long and gradual process,” according to Lex Powers, SEPTA director of service information design.
The system will designate lines by a single letter and color: The letter “B” on an orange square for the Broad Street Line, for example, and a blue square with the letter “L,” representing the Market-Frankford Line.
“We've really studied the way that people perceive the system and which terms they are using and where people are getting lost,” Powers said.
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Even SEPTA employees occasionally get confused at 15th Street and City Hall, he admitted, where the Broad Street and Market-Frankford lines intersect.
“It’s complicated, even for us. I get lost in it and I go the wrong way,” Powers said. “It’s also the place where all of our riders more or less come together.”
When the new signs go up next year, the 15th Street/City Hall stop will be among the first to get them.
“When you talk about getting lost in SEPTA, almost everybody brings up that complex,” Powers said. “We’re going to be trying to use that as a test case to show people how better signage can make their journey more seamless.”
SEPTA is working on upgrades to its website. The SEPTA app will also begin to introduce riders to the new designations.
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The digital offerings should provide riders with better information about the amount of time until the next train arrives.
“We have a new website, which is coming this summer, that is built on a platform that can handle constant pinging of real-time information,” Powers added.
Because today’s commuting patterns are not as fixed as they were before COVID-19, he said reliable information is a key component of rebuilding ridership.
The transit agency plans to put up signs with the new names starting in 2024.