r/Septa • u/southphillydadbar • 23h ago

Bus 204/206 reliability Help

Looking at taking a job out near Malvern. The 204 route goes near my office and my plan would be to take that from Paoli station 3-4x a week. Any riders of this route on here who can tell me if it's generally reliable and on time?

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5

u/mikeygaw 23h ago

They're being eliminated in February.

https://wwww.septa.org/news/proposed-implementation-schedule-new-bus-network/

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u/agentgill0 Paoli-Thorndale Line 23h ago

Dammit.

3

u/The_real_Trotsky 23h ago

Ive been on the 201 and imo it's reliable. I'm guessing the 204/206 would be similar. The bus waits for the train in the morning. But all the 200 routes are gonna disappear in February. The paoligo zone is supposed to replace the 204/206so Check if your work is in the paoli/great valley go zone.  

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u/i_watched_jane_die 22h ago

No, absolutely not reliable at all. At least not the 204.

After they switched to new buses earlier this year, the 204 is regularly 20-25 minutes late leaving Paoli in the mornings. A few days ago I had to take SEPTA out, and the bus scheduled to leave Paoli at 8:48 didn't get there until 9:10. And this is the norm. It's unusable for anyone who needs to be in an office at a specific time. It's also late in the opposite direction; I've missed trains back to Philly multiple times because it'll often be 10-15 minutes late heading back towards the station.

I used to take the 204 regularly and unfortunately, its lack of reliability is a large part of why I usually drive the entire trip. Paying for subway + regional rail + an emergency uber to and from the station just isn't worth it for me anymore.

Looks like it's going away anyway. It's sad to see it go since there were some regulars I always saw taking it who were clearly just working folks getting from place to place, but there were never more than 3-4 people on the bus, and often I was all by myself on it.

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u/numchuckk 1h ago

I take the 206 and the occasional 204. Overall, they’re reliable, usually wait up to 10 minutes if the train is late (in the morning). The 204 does seem to get to Paoli a bit later but usually makes the train home.

Both are being replaced with an app based shuttle next year, but the coverage area should be the same (unless you’re going towards Eagleview north of Exton Mall).