Round Table: Duality of Philadelphia
And Europe
Welcome back to another Round Table at the end of the 5 week month. We’ve spent the past month in Australia and New Zealand, but there's a mix of news close to home, including a bonus video that dropped at the start of the month.
Good News, the Reopening of Franklin Square
On April 3rd, Patco reopened the long closed Franklin Square station as part of slew of big plans for the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States. The last time the station was active was during the Bicentennial period in the mid-70’s plus the very first day of service for Patco back in 1969. Prior to that, it originally opened in the mid-1930’s and during 1952.
The platform level shows its age, although the headhouse and Franklin Square are pretty nice-with new restrooms being rebuilt during the station’s opening.
Bad News for Regional Rail
Meanwhile, there is a financial strain in PA once more as SEPTA in Philly and PRT in Pittsburgh face fiscal cliffs in the midst of bus network redesigns.
Alongside various cuts to bus routes, the 10/T1, 15/G, and T Silver in Pittsburgh are slated to be cut. The 10 and 15 will become busses. SEPTA also plans to cut all service on the ex-Pennsy side except the Airport and Media/Wawa lines. The Broad-Ridge Spur/B3 and Sports Express will also be terminated. All remaining service ending at 9pm.
Some state congressmen have thought about recreational weed as a guaranteed funding stream to support transit. That’s something you have an option to opt into and you don’t care about the tax because you want the weed.
I have heard that the old PCC’s have not been a good choice on the business side of running the service, so drivers would rejoice at this, but the remaining 4 lines would have significantly reduced service on top of the 9pm curfew.
In a perfect world, they should get enough that if they have to make cuts it should be: Cynwyd Line, 15/G (if drivers and other employees are that dissatisfied with PCC service), and only the routes/deviations that are planned to be cut (there are a few SEPTA does want to keep that I would kill off imo, being the 310 and Cornwells Heights shuttle). Also if it saves any money operating 1 train on the spur as a shuttle from Girard to 8th/Market, just do that.
Also the sports teams have money, make them pay for the short fall on sports express service-even if you make them do it as tax deductible or something since its going directly into something. And if the 76’ers tried to pull any BS like they did with the stadium, I’d just tell them that they’ll love you in Seattle.
Killing my home line, the most popular in the system, simply because its owned by Amtrak will be a death sentence for regional rail in Philadelphia. It would almost be better to contract out the regional network to someone else if the money saved could maintain Trolley and Broad Street line service. That’s what the MBTA in Boston does. At that, they’d probably kill Cynwyd and Chestnut Hill West day 1. Compared to everything that needs to be (and could be) done with Chestnut Hill’s junction with the Trenton Line/North East Corridor, similar concepts could be gotten away with less optimal and cost effective options once the logistics with the Wayne JCT shop are figured out.
NJT isn’t fairing any better as their railroad workers have gone 5 years without a contract and plan to strike in June after the latest round of negotiations faltered.
With NJT unable to afford the unions demands, it could be a death spiral of passenger rail in the country-with the Prairie Flyer between Oklahoma City and the DFW metroplex possibly being the first domino to fall despite the new Mardi Gras Service between New Orleans and Mobile coming online in early June.
These are very confusing times.
Meanwhile, in the World of Theme Parks
In the world of theme parks, Six Flags Over Texas, De Waarbeek (NL), Alton Towers and Chessington in the UK, among others, are getting on with future plans.
The tiny De Waarbeek in Hengelo, home to a quirky coaster from 1930’s, has announced on top of a previously announced Samba Tower balloon ride, the park will be adding another coaster (bringing the count to 4) and 2 other flats. Being a local kiddie park (which has an included with admission fry stand), don’t expect much from this place.
Meanwhile, the other 3 mentioned look to 2026 with permitting (repermitting in the case of Alton Towers), with Chessington already gearing up to tear out their Mexicana area-supposedly for a Minecraft-themed land. With the hype surrounding A Minecraft Movie (leading to consequences), its a surefire win for the park to invest into this long standing video game IP.
Universal News
Universal’s Destinations and Experiences formally replaces promotional concept art for the now approved Universal Studios Great Britain, to be located in Bedford, England.
They later followed up saying they plan this resort to be their only destination in Europe. As a fully fledged theme park? yes, they are right having only one resort will be sufficient. As part of the greater portfolio? I feel that it would be a missed opportunity to do a smaller attraction liked the Horror unleashed one coming to Las Vegas in Germany or Spain. Just focusing on the haunt side won’t eat into the park’s bottom line and might attract people who have no interest in going to a Universal theme park and might even change their mind and attend a Halloween Horror Nights at the Great Britain or Orlando resorts.
I also know Studio 100 (Plopsa) has a lot of attractions in Poland with three (fourth under construction) Majaland indoor parks, with a fifth in nearby Czechia-so I also see that as a barometer that Universal could expand in Eastern Europe as well. However, the present environment there might be the reason they said this.
In laymen’s terms, “we are not buying back Port Aventura, we are not going to Germany”. I still think they are missing an opportunity, unless this is just counting eggs before they hatch and don’t want to do a Horror Unleashed after the Vegas attraction and this resort prove themselves. Thus, we are still a decade out from the first Horror Unleashed going to continental Europe at best, and that’s only if D&E changes their mind.
Disney
Disneyland Paris announced a revamp of their Rivers of the Far West. Considering Walt Disney World is loosing their equivalent, the of Rivers of America (and no new rides since Walt Disney Studios/Disney Adventure World opened).
Across the plaza, the trunk between the current Walt Disney Studios and Adventure Bay with a wave swinger themed to Up. This area I feel will probably be the nicest area in any Disney park simply because its a natural area and not wholly dedicated to IP, although Galaxy’s Edge and the Frozen lands in Hong Kong and Tokyo do look nice.
Meanwhile, the Oriental Land Company (owners of the Tokyo Disney Resort) released their 5-year plan along with some Blue Sky concepts for The Incredibles and Up to replace Westernland (Frontierland) and Adventureland in their Magic Kingdom.
I assume Pirates of the Carribean would become just a pirates land (or a generic nautical area as Moana seems to also be present) and Westernland would just be Big Thunder and Hungry Bear/Country Bear Jamboree. I guess the whole area could be called Advenureland since you have the Carribean represented with pirates, frontier west with Big Thunder, Polynesia with Moana (presently represented with Stitch being within the Tiki Room), South America with Up. Not sure about The Incredibles as I’d much prefer an original area for Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain that would make sense. The Company did not seem interested in Tiana, and the facade matches the colonial style of the Walt Disney World version. I guess you could rename the area Cryptid/Yokai Country and play off Japanese Culture since this would fit best with Japanese Culture whilst also getting away from the Song of the South IP (trust me, Splash Mountain is/was a great ride based on a mid film, controversy aside).
On the other side of the resort at Tokyo Disney Sea, they are looking at replacing Aquatopia with an indoor attraction. I’m sure some feel Port Discovery has lost itself a bit since Searider got a Nemo rethme. Port Discovery is really this park’s Tomarrowland, and I guess it now has a Tomarrowland problem where Aquatopia’s trackless ride technology is now not uncommon outside of Disney (and this resort) and the other ride just had an IP slapped on it.
Does just a random show building over Aquatopia mean Searider is gone too as we know it? No, I just wish that whatever plans are set forth for that area feel cohesive and OLC should have that in mind if they want to basically keep the area as is otherwise. I could also see both just getting gutted and we put Incredibles here instead as a new Tomarrowland for this park built on the retrofuterism principle of the US parks (with their Tommarowland instead feeling like a comic convention, but maybe in a more Epic Universe way of thinking)
When in Spain
Port Aventura on Strike
Speaking of strikes, employees at Port Aventura went on strike in the lead up to the Easter Weekend. Work on a new deal after the last contract expired at the end of 2024 and management and employees are far from agreeing on change. From Catalan News, “According to the union, the infractions include excessive working hours not recognized or paid, failure to comply with rest periods, exposure to serious or very serious psychosocial factors, violation of dignity, or violation of the rights of information of the workers' representatives, among others.” These are just some/part of the 15 infractions, 5 warnings and 7 requirements against management.
There was hope that present management would be ousted with Universal getting back in charge of the park. Port Aventura is already known for not being the best when it comes to rides due to the prioritization of their skip the line system over the standby, so this strike adds insult to injury to the poorly managed resort overall.
I still would’ve given Port Aventura and Ferrari Land if it fit into my schedule when I was in Spain, but this never worked out since I was shocked that the park did not operate year-round (and equally so with Plopsaland, probably would’ve had added it in had I known that was the case prior to departing for Spain).
Another Transit Milestone
On April 21st, Madrid opened their delayed 1-stop extension of Line 3 to connect with line 12/Metro Sur and C-3 of the Cercanias regional rail network. This also marks the 15th anniversary of the previous extension to Villaverde Alto, which opened on the same day in 2007.
The Cercanias station opened alongside line 12 in April 2003 and passed through it to Parque Warner and Aranjuez. The metro is said to take 30mins from El Casar to Sol. The Cercanias line is said by Renfe’s timetable to take 22mins. At peak, the line has trains every 10-15mins with 3 peak “CIVIS” round trips being under 20. Weekend service is half-hourly and takes 21mins. Considering its about 5:1 Metro on weekends/off peak. However, The Metro has a zonal fare for single trips which means the metro is more expensive at 2 Euro vs 1.7 on the Cercnaias. If you have a regional transit card that works for both, then you just pay one price per the length of that card (10-tripper, monthly, etc).
Epilogue
I am going to take a step back on the videos next month. Scheduling is weird at the moment and I had technical issues with writing this article on my laptop I got for my birthday-and its just been a slow transition to it in general.
In the mean time, I want to expand on Franklin Square and El Casar, so keep an eye out for that article dropping in a few weeks.