Philadelphia Rail Transit
A comprehensive guide to Philadelphia's rail system.
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Philadelphia Rail TransitA comprehensive guide to Philadelphia's rail system. |
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The SEPTA Regional Rail system is an extensive network of urban and suburban rail lines running as far as Trenton, NJ and Wilmington, DE. The system is one of the largest in the country and is one of only two systems in the nation to be completely electrified. |
The current SEPTA regional rail system is based almost entirely on inherited trackage from the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Reading Railroad. This complex system is easiest to understand if viewed from the perspective of dual railroads integrated into one system.
The Railroads of Philadelphia
The Pennsylvania Railroad, one of the nation's great mega-railroads operated a number of commuter lines in the Philadelphia
area as well as what is now the Northeast Corridor and the western Keystone Route to Harrisburg. The Pennsylvania Railroad was
merged with the New York Central System in 1968 and later the New Haven to form the Penn Central Railroad. Penn Central took
over all Pennsylvania commuter routes after the merger. The former ex-PRR routes include the R2 Wilmington, R3 Media, R5
Paoli, R6 Cynwyd, R7 Trenton, and the R8 Chestnut Hill West. Penn Central went bankrupt in the 1970s and was consolidated into
Conrail.
The Reading Railroad, another large railroad based in PA, also had a number of commuter routes in the Philadelphia area. Reading Terminal in center city Philadelphia was the company's premier station, once the terminus of long distance routes and later scaled back to regional routes. The Reading Company went bankrupt in 1971 and became Conrail (the consolidated system consisting of a number of northeast railroads) in 1976. The ex-Reading routes include the R6 Norristown, R7 Chestnut Hill East, R5 Doylestown, R2 Warminster, and the R3 West Trenton.
SEPTA Takes Over
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority was created in 1963 to handle multi-modal transportation in the
Philadelphia area. SEPTA took control of the regional rail system in 1983 from Conrail. Vukan Vuchic of the University of
Pennsylvania devised a numbering system for SEPTA's new system based on the pairing of the ex-Pennsylvania lines with the
ex-Reading lines. The route numbers were devised by starting at the Pennsylvania mainline and numbering in a clockwise
direction. This pairing was made possible by the completion of the Center City Tunnel in 1984. The tunnel is a 1.7 mile long
connector between Pennsylvania's suburban station and the Reading mainline through the heart of Center City. Above ground
Reading Terminal previously served as the center city terminus for all Reading commuter routes and subterranean Suburban
Station was it's Pennsylvania counterpart. After the completion of the Center City Tunnel, Reading Terminal was demolished and
the tunnel was connected to the Reading elevated structure at Fairmount Avenue. The viaduct leading into Reading Terminal was
partially demolished and the remainder of the unused section was abandoned and left in place. This created the Center City
Loop, allowing trains entering from a Reading line to cross over to a Pennsylvania line and visa-versa. Under this new pairing system, the Pennsylvania lines with the highest ridership are paired with the Reading lines
with the highest ridership, thus allowing large trains to be utilized in an efficient manner.
The Layout
The Pennsylvania's Philadelphia system is centered around Zoo interlocking to the west of Center City. Zoo, a major
multilevel interlocking is the intersection of the PRR's north-south
and western mainlines as well as the commuter route to 30th Street Station's upper level and Suburban Station. This is still
an active interlocking seeing Amtrak, NJT, freight and SEPTA traffic. The R5 is to the west, the R6 Cynwyd stub and the
Northeast Corridor to the north, R2 and R3 to the south and the Center City Loop to the east. North of Zoo is North
Philadelphia, the junction of the R8 Chestnut Hill West commuter line and the Northeast Corridor. South of Zoo is Arsenal
interlocking, where the R3 Media line splits from the Northeast Corridor. The new R1 Airport line splits from the mainline
around Brill Junction.
The Reading system's main line starts after the exit from the Center City Tunnel, through Temple University station and up to
16th Street Junction. The Reading and PRR cross at 16th Street with the PRR one level
above
the Reading. At 16th street the R6 line to Norristown breaks off to the west while the Reading mainline continues to the
north through Wayne Junction. The R7 Chestnut Hill East splits from the mainline at Wayne Junction while the R8 Fox Chase
splits off further north at Newtown Junction. The routes to Warminster and Doylestown split from the mainline at Jenkin (CP
Wind) and the mainline continues east to West Trenton, the rest of the lines continue as the Bethlehem Branch. The Warminster
line diverges at Carmel while the Doylestown line diverges at Lansdale.
After SEPTA's takeover, a number of outlying lines were abandoned. These mostly consisted of Reading's non-electrified lines
and a few lines on the Pennsylvania side. On the Reading side, the Bethlehem Branch, running from Bethlehem to Lansdale, was
abandoned due to lack of electrification. The Newtown Branch, terminating in Newtown and connecting to the system at Fox
Chase, was also abandoned. On the R6 line to Norristown, service was truncated to Norristown from Reading. Many of these
routes were operated with Budd RDC diesel units and terminated in the above ground Reading Terminal.
On the Pennsylvania side, electrified service on the R3 Media line was cut from West Chester to Elwyn. On the R6
Cynwyd, service was truncated to Cynwyd from Manayunk and Ivy Ridge. This line spanned the Schuylkill on a massive viaduct and
then continued just feet from the Reading's line to Norristown.
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| R1 - Airport/Warminster |
Pennsylvania Branch Terminal E Terminals C/D Terminal B Terminal A Eastwick University City Center City 30th Street Station Suburban Station Market East Temple University North Broad Reading Branch Wayne Junction Fern Rock Melrose Park Elkins Park Jenkintown-Wyncote Glenside
| R2 - Warminster/Wilmington |
Pennsylvania Branch Newark Churchmans Crossing Wilmington Claymont Marcus Hook Highland Ave Lamokin Chester T.C. Eddystone Crum Lynne Ridley Park Prospect Park Norwood Glenolden Folcroft Sharon Hill Curtis Park Darby University City Center City 30th Street Station Suburban Station Market East Temple University North Broad Reading Branch Wayne Junction Fern Rock Melrose Park Elkins Park Jinkinstown-Wyncote Glenside Ardsley Roslyn Crestmont Willow Grove Hatboro Warminster
| R3 - Elwyn/West Trenton |
Reading Branch West Trenton Yardley Woodbourne Langhorne Neshaminy Falls Trevose Somerton Forest Hills Philmont Bethayres Meadowbrook Rydal Noble Jenkintown-Wyncote Elkins Park Fern Rock Wayne Junction Center City Temple University Market East Suburban Station 30th Street Station Pennsylvania Branch University City 49th Street Angora Fernwood Lansdowne Gladstone Clifton-Aldan Primos Secane Morton Swathmore Wallingford Moylan-Rose Valley Media Elwyn
| R5 - Doylestown/Thorndale |
Reading Branch Doylestown Delaware Valley College New Britain Chalfont Link Belt Colmar Fortuna Lansdale Pennbrook North Wales Gwynedd Valley Penllyn Ambler Fort Washington Oreland North Hills Glenside Jenkintown-Wyncote Elkins Park Melrose Park Fern Rock Transportation Ctr. Wayne Junction Center City North Broad Temple University Market East Suburban Station 30th Street Station Pennsylvania Branch Overbrook Marion Narberth Wynnewood Ardmore Haverford Bryn Mawr Rosemont Villanova Radnor St Davids Wayne Stratford Devon Berwyn Doylesford Paoli Malvern Exton Whitford Thorndale
| R6 - Norristown/Cynwyd |
Reading Branch Norristown Elm St Norristown Main St Norristown Trans Center Conshohocken Spring Mill Miquon Ivy Ridge Manayunk Wissahickon East Falls Allegheny Center City North Broad Temple University Market East Suburban Station 30th Street Station Pennsylvania Branch Wynnefield Av Bala Cynwyd
| R7 - Chestnut Hill East/Trenton |
Pennsylvania Branch Trenton Levittown Bristol Croydon Eddington Cornwells Heights Torresdale Holmesburg Junction Tacony Wissinoming Bridesburg North Philaelphia Center City 30th Street Station Suburban Station Market East Temple University Reading Branch Wayne Junction Wister Germantown Washington Lane Stenton Sedgewick Mount Airy Wyndmoor Gravers Chestnut Hill East
| R8 - Chestnut Hill West/Fox Chase |
Reading Branch Fox Chase Ryers Cheltenham Lawndale Olney Wayne Junction Center City Temple University Market East Suburban Station 30th Street Station Pennsylvania Branch North Philadelphia Queen Lane Chelten Ave Tulpehocken Upsal Carpenter Allen Lane St Martins Highland Chestnut Hill West