SEPTA recently replaced six of the seven remaining lettered bus routes, G, H, J, L, R, and XH, with numbers 63, 71, 41, 51, 82, and 81. This major adjustment is part of the transit company’s initiative, dubbed “Bus Revolution, that comes just over 100 years since the letter system’s inception.

Lex Powers, SEPTA’s director of information design, said that this replacement “will go a long way to making the [transit] network clearer.” The overall goal is to help passengers easily navigate the various routes throughout the city.

Many Philadelphians seem reluctant to lose the lettered system that has long been a part of their lives. Yet, without much fuss or confusion, the replacement has happened. Affected buses will display both the old letter and the new route number until enough time passes to allow the number to become the new normal among passengers.

As we say goodbye, a question remains. How did the city’s mass transit system receive a mix of lettered and numbered bus routes in the first place? 

SEPTA’s current initiative has been part of a 60-year process that eliminated (Route F in 1971), merged (Route Q to 25 and 43 in 1985), and clarified (Route C to 16 and 4 in 2012) transit routes as part of an expanded program that encompasses the entire bus system. This current iteration has dealt with starts and stops due to delays coinciding with fare increases, public outcry, and budgetary shortfalls.

Powers said that his job is “to respond to a need to make [SEPTA] services, information, and communication more consistent.” He explained that phasing out the final seven routes is “an opportunity to rethink things holistically rather than making ad hoc decisions.” The change was not particularly controversial. Most commuters understood why it had to happen. For the passengers, according to Powers, the goal is to immediately signify that “when people see a number, they know it is a bus. When they see a letter, they know it is a subway or a trolley.” The Bus Revolution was intended to “help people navigate [SEPTA] network with designations that are more intuitive and clearer.”

There are similarities between the current changes to the mass transit designation network and past efforts to improve it. In 1920, some service-related issues were presented to Mayor J. Hampton Moore by the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company (PRT). A transit commission report dated May 25, 1920, stated that “The present transit service in the City of Philadelphia is so grossly inadequate as to threaten the proper development of the city.” Over the next few years, modernization projects and routes were added to assist with overcrowded routes and to service areas outside the central business district.

In 1922, the Frankford Elevated began operations, and newly rechristened trolley routes were launched. Route 6 was previously the Huntingdon and Cumberland Line, Route 15 was known as the Girard Avenue Line, and the Bridesburg Line became Route 73. Also put into effect were new transfer privileges that coincided with the new routes to ease passengers’ transitions.

By 1923, trial trips of “Mitten” buses, named after Thomas E. Mitten, president of PRT, debuted with routes designated “Special” which drove up and down Roosevelt Boulevard. Due to this success, the first lettered bus, the A (Broad–Erie), was designated the same year. The local press gave it a positive reception and helped sell its virtues to the public. This excerpt from an article published by The Morning Ledger in 1923 captures the moment. “Like other good things, the boulevard buses will advertise themselves. The enthusiasm with which they were greeted by the public on Sunday, the first day of their operation, and the crowds who rode in them all day in spite of the rain, may be taken as an index of the reception awaiting this type of urban transportation facility when it shall come into more general use.”

Double decker buses, which were either semi-opened or closed on the top level, akin to what London, New York, and Chicago were utilizing, began to go into circulation. This fulfilled a promise by PRT to passengers to make sure there was a seat for everyone.

As the popularity of lettered buses increased, more lettered routes were added. The letter designation was used to distinguish between the numerical trolleys and the lettered bus routes. By late October 1923, motorbuses were flaunted as a transit option in Center City. “Motorbuses of the type now used on Roosevelt Boulevard are satisfying everyone and should be used whenever practical to relieve the ever-increasing congestion,” stated an article in Service Talks PRT Newsletter from October 23, 1923.

A plan was made to create an elevated road for motorbuses to help decrease congestion along heavy traffic areas such as Chestnut Street. This plan consisted of trolleys on the ground level and motorbuses on elevated platforms.

By November 1923, motorbuses were considered as options to use up and down Broad Street, which became a reality by the holiday season with new designations of the A (City Hall to Oxford Circle), B (Frankford to Byberry–Somerton), C (Broad-League Island to City Line), and D (Walnut–63rd to Broad).

Organizations such as the United Business Men’s Association, Logan Improvement League, Lindley Boosters’ Association, and The Evening Bulletin began to urge passengers to petition the PRT to either extend or include motorbuses in future plans. By late 1924, Mayor W. Freeland Kendrick applauded PRT’s decision to extend Broad Street service at the behest of Councilman John Burrwood Daly to include the C-1 (Rising Sun Avenue, 9th and 10th Streets to Summerville Street, and Wagner Avenue).

To connect the development of communities to public transit, PRT added the K (Fox Chase to Frankford and Chestnut Hill) to its motorbus lines. By mid-1925, South Philadelphia was included in the motorbus routes offering service from City Hall to the Navy Yard. As the routes reached Z, the lines continued as Special X routes like the XA that went to Willow Grove.

Today, out of reach and locked behind an unused section of Fern Rock Station, the XA bus sign stands as a fragment of local history that reminds us that cross-city service once connected neighborhoods. Due to decreasing ridership over the years, many of the lettered buses had their routes shortened or changed to numbers by SEPTA.

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