To bump this Philly thread, here's a trivia note that is mostly unrelated to this story, for anyone who may be interested.
The SEPTA Route 23 bus route discussed in this story, used to be a SEPTA (formerly PTC, formerly PRT) trolley car (streetcar) route, which was sort of like a mini, noisy, one-car train which actually ran on tracks built right into the streets, and had a single headlight like a train. It also had a pole coming out the back of the roof, in the middle of the car, which connected to an overhead power wire, providing the power needed to propel these "electric cars".
Here's a few old pics I found to show those features, prior to the conversion of those routes from electric trolley car routes to diesel-burning bus routes.
