SEPTA is planning to rename a popular West Philadelphia bus route. Beginning February 2025, the “G” bus will become Bus 63. The other lettered buses (H, J, L, R, and XH) will also change into numbers. Riders will get a chance to get used to the new name as SEPTA is planning to use both new numbers and old letters for a period of time.

SEPTA is planning these changes because it wants to use letters only for its Metro network – trains and some trolley routes: “L” for Market-Frankford Line, “B” for the Broadstreet Line, and “G” for Trolley Route 15. As for the other trolley routes, they are now numbered from 1 to 5 with “T” in front: T1 (Route 10), T2 (Route 11), T3 (Route 13), T4 (Route 34), and T5 (Route 36). These changes were introduced last year as part of SEPTA’s efforts to simplify its naming system, which is a part of the SEPTA Forward plan.

SEPTA has been moving in this direction for a while – it used to have many lettered bus routes, but over the years they’ve been switched to numbers one by one, with only a few ones still remaining. More information on the upcoming changes is available here.

Route “G”, which connects Pier 70 with Overbrook, is on SEPTA’s frequent bus network, and the name change will not affect the route.