Philadelphia's Labyrinth: Navigating The Often Confusing SEPTA Concourse
By Jim Melwert
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- It can be confusing navigating the SEPTA concourse: the series of tunnels that run underground from the Comcast building to the Gallery Mall. But efforts are underway not only to ease that confusion, but also to try to make it more inviting.
"Some of these I think you can go through," says Center City Resident Lynn Marks, trying to use the concourse to get to the Reading Terminal Market. But her confidence begins waning as she stares down a crumbling tunnel labeled City Hall Annex, a building that closed nearly 30-years-ago.
"You kind of get to a place and you can't get out, and I'm not sure if this is one of them," Marks says.
"We know we have to fix the signage," says SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams.
One example of sign confusion can be found trying to get from the Broad Street Line to the Trolleys at City Hall. There aren't any signs. Instead, Williams jokingly points out, "There's a green staircase, and everybody knows green means trolleys."
She says, since SEPTA took over the lease for maintenance and upkeep of the concourse last July, they've been working on better lighting, better maps, and better, more uniform directional signs.
"So you're flowing from one area to the other area and you don't feel like, 'Where am I going? Is this the end of the trail?' It all has the same color and it all has the same grade," Williams says.
One idea under consideration: "Actually putting marks on the floor, so if you're going to City Hall, you're going to follow this color footprint, or this design that's on the floor."
She says they're also improving lighting and fixing peeling paint – already done under the new Dilworth Park.
And, she says, they expect a more inviting concourse to encourage more people to use their services.