Ardmore (SEPTA and Amtrak station)

This article is about the station on the SEPTA Paoli/Thorndale Line and Amtrak Keystone Line. For the two interurban stations on the Norristown High Speed Line, see Ardmore Avenue (SEPTA station) and Ardmore Junction (SEPTA station).
Ardmore
Amtrak station
SEPTA Regional Rail commuter rail station
Location 75 Station Road and Anderson Avenue
Ardmore, PA 19003
Coordinates 40°00′30″N 75°17′25″W / 40.0083°N 75.2903°WCoordinates: 40°00′30″N 75°17′25″W / 40.0083°N 75.2903°W
Owned by Amtrak[1]
Operated by Amtrak & SEPTA
Line(s)

Amtrak:

SEPTA:

Platforms 2 side platforms
Tracks 4
Connections SEPTA City Bus: 44
SEPTA Suburban Bus: 103, 105, 106, 115
Construction
Parking 196 spaces (109 permit, 87 public daily)
Bicycle facilities 3 racks (12 spaces)
Other information
Station code ARD (Amtrak)
Fare zone 2
History
Opened 1870[2]
Rebuilt 1950s
Electrified September 11, 1915
Traffic
Passengers (2013) 67,942[3] Increase 14% (Amtrak)
Passengers (2012) 841 (weekday boardings)[4] (SEPTA)
Services
Preceding station   SEPTA   Following station
toward Thorndale
Paoli/Thorndale Line
Amtrak
toward Harrisburg
Keystone Service
  Former services  
Pennsylvania Railroad
Haverford
toward Chicago
Main Line
Haverford
toward Paoli
Paoli Line

Ardmore Station is an above-ground intercity (Amtrak) and commuter (SEPTA) railroad station at MP 8.5 on Amtrak's four track Keystone Corridor Philadelphia-Harrisburg "Main Line" located in the western suburbs of Philadelphia at Station Road and Anderson Avenue in Ardmore, Pennsylvania.[5] It is served by Amtrak Keystone Service trains, The Pennsylvanian (Sunday Eastbound service only), and most Paoli/Thorndale Line trains with the exception of several express runs.

The station is a one-story brick building with a flat roof built in the 1950s. It replaced an 1870 building that burned down. There are plans to build a new transit-oriented development in the area, and this would include a new station building.

Station and surroundings

The ticket office and waiting room at this station are open weekdays 6:10 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. excluding holidays. An Amtrak QuikTrak machine is available when the station is open. SEPTA permit parking is available at the station, and the township provides additional metered parking in nearby lots.

This station is 8.5 track miles from Suburban Station. In 2011, the average total weekday SEPTA boardings at this station was 841 and the average total weekday SEPTA alightings was 834.[4]

Nearby attractions include the Suburban Square shopping center, Ardmore Farmers Market, Brownie's 23 East, and other businesses in the downtown Ardmore shopping district along Lancaster Avenue.


Trompe-l'oeil replica of PRR-era Ardmore train station sign.

Ardmore was the nearest station to the home of Stuart T. Saunders, the last CEO of both the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) until its 1968 merger with the New York Central and then of the Penn Central (PC) until its bankruptcy in 1976. Despite his proximity to the station, however, Saunders preferred to travel to his Philadelphia office by chauffeur-driven private car rather than riding his own trains. His detractors used this as an indication of both the inhospitable conditions of the train cars and management's detachment from the riding public.

Development

Lower Merion Township has considered plans to replace the station as part of a larger economic revitalization "transit oriented development" (TOD) project for the neighborhood. Parts of the plan, however, relied on using eminent domain to force the purchase of private property, which would then be transferred to a private developer. For this reason, it met significant opposition among some members of community.[6]

In 2008 the plan of developer Dranoff Properties[7] for the TOD project was accepted and the Philadelphia based company was named to develop a $180 million mixed use project for the station area with ground breaking anticipated in 2012.[8] In August, 2010, the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program of the State of Pennsylvania made a $9 million grant to the project following an earlier $6 million grant made in 2008.[9]

Ardmore Station (MP 8.5) on Amtrak's Keystone Corridor Philadelphia-Harrisburg "Main Line"

The old station

Ardmore station circa 1875

The old station at Ardmore was designed by the firm of Wilson Brothers and Company of Philadelphia as a two story stone structure with a slate roof.[10] The walls were built of gneiss stone laid irregularly with sandstone lintels. It had a daylight basement by virtue of the land sloping to the rear, which served as housing for the agent, containing a bedroom, dining room, kitchen, and living room. The ground floor waiting room measured 20x35 feet, a ladies' room measuring 14x18 feet, a gentleman's smoking room 11x12 feet, a baggage room 8x12 feet, a telegraph office and ticket office of 9x18 feet, and a bedroom. The second story had three bedrooms and the signal tower.[10]

References

  1. ↑ "Transportation Planning for the Philadelphia–Harrisburg “Keystone” Railroad Corridor" (PDF). Federal Railroad Administration. Retrieved 9 January 2013.
  2. ↑ Existing Stations in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
  3. ↑ "Amtrak Fact Sheet, FY2013, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania" (PDF). Amtrak. November 2012. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Fiscal Year 2011 Annual Service Plan" (PDF). SEPTA. p. 71-72. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  5. ↑ Google maps
  6. ↑ Why the fuss about this block?, The Save Ardmore Coalition, retrieved 19 Feb 2008
  7. ↑ "Can Do Carl" MainLine Today. February, 2009
  8. ↑ "Ardmore Station" (The Ardmore Transit Oriented Development Project) ArdmoreStation.com
  9. ↑ "Pennsylvania invests $9M more into Dranoff’s Ardmore Station project" Philadelphia Business Journal, August 9, 2010
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Berg, Walter G. (1893). Buildings and Structures of American Railroads. New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 315–316.

External links