>>1224738The problem with Septa is also that that the two subway lines it has run at a 90 degree angle to each other and so while they service a lot of the city, they're kind of out on their own with little else to feed them while being too far for busses to be a reliable means of traveling between their outer ends, making it hard for them to drive real development in the areas around them.
Compare that to the MBTA, where the Red and Orange lines run somewhat parallel to each other (while the Blue line is basically a miniature PATH/PATCO) and their respective ends are never more than 5 or so miles apart, pushing major density in the spaces in between them (Somerville and Dorchester), with the Green Line's fanning branches taking care of the huge area between the Red Line's northern branch and the Orange Line's southern one.
DC did the same thing with the metro routings as well, though it's a "new" system and so that doesn't really count. Chicago OTOH did the radial thing like septa did only Chicago basically has a branch every 45 degrees rather than one every 90 and so it does a much better job of providing service density near the downtown, while the outer ends are basically interurbans with their own discrete streetcar suburbs built around them. NYC doesn't count because they practically have as much trackage and stations as London and Tokyo combined.
