Churchville (SEPTA station)
| Churchville SEPTA regional rail | |||||||||||
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 Churchville Station site in 2006 | |||||||||||
| Station statistics | |||||||||||
| Address |
Knowles Avenue and Bustleton Pike Churchville, Pennsylvania | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 40°11′06″N 75°00′49″W / 40.1849°N 75.0137°WCoordinates: 40°11′06″N 75°00′49″W / 40.1849°N 75.0137°W | ||||||||||
| Line(s) | |||||||||||
| Levels | 1 | ||||||||||
| Platforms | 1 side platform | ||||||||||
| Tracks | 1 | ||||||||||
| Parking | 25 spaces | ||||||||||
| Other information | |||||||||||
| Opened | 1878, 1892 | ||||||||||
| Closed | January 14, 1983 | ||||||||||
| Electrified | no | ||||||||||
| Owned by | SEPTA | ||||||||||
| Formerly | Reading Railroad | ||||||||||
| Services | |||||||||||
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Churchville Train Station, Philadelphia and Reading Railroad | |||||||||||
| Area | 185 acres (74.9 ha) | ||||||||||
| Governing body | Private | ||||||||||
| Part of | Churchville Historic District (#95000887[1]) | ||||||||||
| Added to NRHP | July 21, 1995 | ||||||||||
Churchville is a derelict train station located along SEPTA's Fox Chase/Newtown Line located on Knowles Avenue and Bustleton Pike in Churchville, Pennsylvania. The station, built in 1892, was a stop on the Reading Railroad's Newtown Line, and a replacement for another structure built in 1878.
History
Churchville Station, and all of those north of Fox Chase, was closed on January 14, 1983,[2] due to failing diesel train equipment resulting in low ridership.
In addition, a labor dispute began within the SEPTA organization when the transit operator inherited 1,700 displaced employees from Conrail. SEPTA insisted on utilizing transit operators from the Broad Street Subway to operate Fox Chase-Newtown diesel trains, while Conrail requested that railroad motormen run the service. When a federal court ruled that SEPTA had to use Conrail employees in order to offer job assurance, SEPTA cancelled Fox Chase-Newtown trains.[3] Service in the diesel-only territory north of Fox Chase was cancelled at that time, and Churchville Station still appears in publicly posted tariffs.[4]
Although rail service was initially replaced with a Fox Chase-Newtown shuttle bus, patronage remained light, and the Fox Chase-Newtown shuttle bus service ended in 1999.
Station building
Churchville Station has been restored and is now used as a private residence. SEPTA signage—installed in 1984, one year after train service had ended—remains in place at the station parking lot.[citation needed] The station is a contributing property of the Churchville Historic District, which has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since July 21, 1995.
Popular culture
Independent filmmaker Tom Quinn used the Churchville train station in his film Lusting for Dust Words.
References
- ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2010-07-09.
- ↑ newtownline.pa-tec.org/history
- ↑ Tulsky, Fredric N. (January 29, 1982). "Conrail Staff Must Run Trains: court ruling bars SEPTA takeover". Philadelphia Inquirer. SEPTA must use Conrail workers rather than its own personnel to run trains over the region's 13 commuter lines, a special federal court has ruled in a decision that offers some job assurance for 1,700 Conrail employees next year. The special court, in an opinion issued Wednesday, ruled that SEPTA had acted legally in October when it replaced Conrail workers with its former subway operators on the line.
- ↑ SEPTA Tariff No. 154; effective July 1, 2009
External links
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