Okay, so apparently there were proposals for elevated lines in Philadelphia predating 1901, sponsored by John Wanamaker, but nothing came of it. Amazing find in the @Hagley_Library archives
https://digital.hagley.org/08144710_speed_lines

A crazy judicial ruling that no elevated railway company could build above existing street railways led to this last-ditch proposal that snaked through the River Wards to Cheltenham

Even though the PRTC was the monopoly trolley operator, they were always reluctant to build and operate rapid transit even when coerced by the city; this directly explains much of the lack of Philadelphia's overall buildout

The PRTC was also too broke to extend the trolley tunnel past City Hall, but at least A. Merritt Taylor was able to extend it to 69th St we know today

It really exemplifies the failure of privately built transit, at least without a comprehensive plan: incompatible track gauges, refusal of through-routing, leading to the threat of a parallel duplicative line that only then spurred completion

At one point the city could have also gotten a Wuppertal-style monorail across various lines! What a sight that would have been

The groundwork of the Taylor plan: Boston-style streetcar feeders with universal 5-cent transfers, as well as public construction with private franchising to recoup investment. None of it would come to pass, and we're only getting free transfers in 2020!

More hindrances: the downtown subway loop, although a poor and overcomplicated design to begin with, was stopped in its tracks by the Feds' refusal to issue more wartime bonds for the subway. Leaving the short section at 10th and Arch extant today

Again, anti-competitive objections from the profitability of the PRTC trolleys led by Mitten, and the tepid sponsorship of subway planning from the city meant that no other lines were ever going to come to fruition. Too many unanswered questions even in 1923

Roxborough/29th St never got their subway, partly because of mismanagement from the failed 1926 Sesquicentennial celebration. It was to run right under the Henry Ave bridge deck

Previously unseen New Deal-era plans for massive subway expansion, either on-street or as railroad conversion. While Philadelphia got $0 for this $217M plan, Boston and Chicago both were able to expand their subways with Federal aid

When Parsons-Brinkerhoff studied the original iteration of PATCO in 1956, they suggested abandoning the Ben Franklin Bridge approach for a new cross-river tunnel to Phila. DRPA rejected it, but P-B recycled this proposal in the Bay Area, thus creating BART's Transbay Tunnel

Looks like the Fox Chase Line does show the most regional rail potential; "Operation Northwest" direct subsidy of frequencies/fares saw a 250% ridership gain, then electrification in 1967 saw a *1000%* gain @Schlieffen

The 1955 PCPC plan, which I previously had thought were all rail extensions, are actually express bus routes. Quite strange, and only SEPTA's Schuylkill Expy routes really serve this function today

Why was the Roosevelt Boulevard Subway ultimately canceled? Obviously Mayor Rizzo played a major role in making sure the CCCT rail tunnel would get favored Federal approval, but also poor route alignment that would require residential takings are to blame

Laid out in full glory, @DVRPC's 1969 "Maximum" Public Transportation Test Network, the most rail transit planning the agency ever did. And then they immediately scuttled it to focus on highway spending instead, which remains the case today.

@DRPA_PAandNJ, for all their faults, has certainly been the single most ambitious agency in the region. Really the only ones cognizant of core capacity demands and making studies that could be reality one day

And @SEPTA... from GM McConnon's visionary idea of a grid-style "total transit complex", reduced to a single marginal line in KOP Rail. @_LeslieRichards needs to use Bus Network Redesign to leverage a true long-range system plan and right a dire ridership crisis