Chester County Public Transportation Plan — Update
Project Purpose
This project seeks to continue the process of updating the Chester County Public Transportation Plan, adopted in July of 2014 as a policy element to Landscapes2, for the current Chester County Comprehensive Plan, Landscapes3, adopted in November of 2018.
Public Transportation was severely impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic with significant decreases in both ridership and revenue. As it appears that we are coming out of the pandemic, SEPTA is in process of redesigning both their bus and regional rail services through their ongoing Bus Revolution and Reimagining Regional Rail projects. There are current concentrations of minorities and low-income residents located in areas not served by SEPTA, and because of the bus and rail system redesigns, SEPTA may be pulling back on existing services. Ultimately this update will address any changes to these services by SEPTA that may create additional issues and/or service gaps and identify any necessary changes in policy or additional services that may be required to create a public transit system to best serve the needs of ALL Chester County residents.
Phase One Work
Phase One was performed by DVRPC staff as part of the DVRPC FY22 Unified Planning Work Program to revise the vision and performance measures for current conditions and the future plans of Chester County's transit service providers, which have changed significantly since adoption of the original Public Transportation Plan in 2014. Work on Phase One was completed in December 2022.
This report updates the data and data sources relative to the performance measures for current conditions and the future plans of Chester County's transit service providers, which have changed significantly in the past 8 years. View Phase One
Elements of the Plan
Phase Two of this update is not intended to undo the policy framework established by the 2014 Public Transportation Plan where policy issues were categorized into the SYSTEM, ENVIRONMENT, and EXPERIENCE chapters, but will rather revisit the issues and subsequent policies and recommendations within this framework for current relevance and consistency with Landscapes3. The plan update will
- identify any service gaps and/or new service models that may better provide transit services to underserved communities;
- promote more intermodal network connections between bus services, regional rail stations, the Circuit, and an expanded system of sidewalks and walkways to better connect our boroughs and surrounding suburban municipalities; and
- address economic resiliency and the fostering of sustainable economic development with a focus on the built environment.
A project steering committee was formed to help advance the project. This committee meets bi-monthly to review and discuss progress and direction of the update.
Project Schedule
The plan update is scheduled to be complete in late 2023/early 2024.
Please contact Alex Sankaran, Transportation Planner, at asankaran@chesco.org or (610) 344-6285 with any questions or feedback regarding the project.