SEPTA Flxible New Look signed up as route N at SEPTA Roadeo 2011īy the time SEPTA took over operations of the Philadelphia transit service in 1968, there was already a mix of lettered and numbered bus routes. The X simply meant that it continued from X but was still was its own route, not “express” as people would eventually believe as route XH runs a quicker route than the regular route H, despite ending and starting at the same locations. Over time, so many new bus routes were created, that all letters A through X ended up being used, so PRTC would begin making route X1, XA-XO. These new bus routes would receive letters, to make it clear that these routes would not use electric vehicles. Around this same time, traditional buses started to join the ranks on new routes that operated where a trolley could not (due to being proven by the trackless trolleys, that it’s more convenient to move service without also having to move tracks).

See, in 1923, PRTC began operating what is now known as “trackless trolleys” on a route numbered 80, which operated along Oregon Avenue. It wasn’t until the 1920s, where buses began to come into operations, but at first, these buses were all powered by electricity. That means not a single diesel bus operated on the streets of Philadelphia. In 1902, when Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company, or PRTC, came to exist, all lines were either rail lines. PRTC Trackless Trolley operating on route 61, courtesy of

Septa routes