Market East Station (Philadelphia)

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11th Street Entrance to Market East station

Market East Station is an underground SEPTA Regional Rail station located on Market Street (Philadelphia) between 10th and 12th Streets. It is the easternmost of the three core Center City stations on the SEPTA Regional Rail system, and is part of the Center City Commuter Connection, which connects the former Penn Central commuter lines with the former Reading Railroad commuter lines. The station opened in 1984, is owned and maintained by SEPTA and replaced the former Reading Terminal.

1 Building
2 Station
3 Service
4 References

[edit] Building

The station is part of the Gallery at Market East, a shopping mall built as part of an urban renewal project in the late 1970s and early 1980s. There are several entrances to the station, including several on the concourse level to the "Gallery II" part of the mall. After the Convention Center was opened, a new entrance was built in the Reading Terminal headhouse on Market Street.

Architecturally, the design of Market East station is integrated with the Gallery mall. Stainless steel and large plate-glass windows are a major design element, with large color tile murals adorning the walls and the extensive use of tile for flooring. The upper seating area has recently been renovated with metal benches facing the windows that look down onto the tracks. The large windows are used both for exterior windows, where they admit light from street level down to track level like a clerestory, and for separating the concourse level from the track level. Because this is an underground station and the clerestory section is only a small part of the station, artificial lighting is used throughout the station.

[edit] Station

The station extends under three city blocks and the platforms are along the northern edge of the blocks. The tracks here are the deepest ones in Philadelphia.

There are several monitors which show the status of the trains at these entrances, as well as near the ticket windows and at the tops of the escalators to the track level. At least one of the ticket windows, which are located on the concourse level, is open daily.

There are two wide island platforms and four tracks, with each platform serving two tracks. Each platform can accommodate up to 12 railroad cars, although the longest trains SEPTA currently runs are 6 cars in length and the platforms are much longer than necessary for the typical train (two to four cars). Each platform is divided into an "A" section and a "B" section so that trains on different routes stop at different spots along the platform length. This allows waiting passengers to be dispersed along the platform rather than congregating.

Tiled wall across from boarding plaforms

Overhead electric catenary wires supply power to the trains. Due to ventilation issues, diesel trains do not stop in the station, but sometimes a SEPTA diesel work train will go through the station without stopping. In this situation, the track must be clear through the tunnel before the diesel train is allowed through.

To the west, the tracks have a set of cross-over tracks that allow trains to change tracks before they reach Suburban Station. To the east, there is a sharp curve north where trains are limited to about 20 to 25 mph, and then another set of cross-overs before climbing an incline of over 2.5% to Temple University Station. Market East Station is approximately 0.5 miles from Suburban Station.

[edit] Service

Market East Station is served by all Regional Rail lines except the limited-service R6 Cynwyd line, which terminates at Suburban Station. In FY 2005, the average total weekday boardings at this station was 11,848, making it the second busiest station in the Regional Rail system.^[1]

[edit] References

^ SEPTA (May 2006). Annual Service Plan 2007. p. 83PDF

Next station	SEPTA Regional Rail		Next station
Suburban Station		R1 line	Temple University
		R2 line
		R3 line
		R5 line
		R6 line
		R7 line
		R8 line

	Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority
City Division	Market-Frankford Line - Broad Street Line - Subway-Surface Lines - Girard Avenue Trolley (Route 15)
Suburban Divisions	Norristown High Speed Line (Route 100) - Suburban Trolley Lines (Routes 101 & 102)
Regional Rail	R1 - R2 - R3 - R5 - R6 - R7 - R8
Major Stations	edit Market East Station - Suburban Station - 30th Street Station