Fox Chase (SEPTA station)

Fox Chase
SEPTA regional rail station

Fox Chase Station, December 2012
Location 442 Rhawn Street
Philadelphia, PA 19111
Coordinates 40°04′36″N 75°04′57″W / 40.076643°N 75.082487°WCoordinates: 40°04′36″N 75°04′57″W / 40.076643°N 75.082487°W
Owned by SEPTA
Line(s)
Platforms 2 Spanish solution (2 side platforms, 1 island platform)
Tracks 2
Connections SEPTA City Bus: 18, 24, 28
Construction
Parking 342 Spaces
Disabled access Yes
Other information
Fare zone 2
Electrified Yes
Services
Preceding station   SEPTA   Following station
Fox Chase LineTerminus
Fox Chase Line
(closed 1983)
toward Newtown

Fox Chase is the current terminus of SEPTA's Fox Chase/Newtown Line. It is located just west of the intersection of Rhawn Street and Rockwell Avenue in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Fox Chase Station, which has the largest number of parking spaces of any on the line (342), is the closest regional rail stop to the neighborhoods of Fox Chase, Bustleton, and Pine Valley, and Rockledge and Huntingdon Valley in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. SEPTA rebuilt the station area and ticket office in Summer 2010, using funds provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.[1] In FY 2013, Fox Chase station was the ninth busiest station, with a weekday average of 1378 boardings and 1327 alightings.[2]

Extended electrification

The former Fox Chase station depot as seen in 2006

Electrified service between Newtown Junction and Fox Chase Station was opened on September 25, 1966. In the late 1970s, there were plans to extend electrification to the line's actual terminus in Newtown, using funds supplied by both Montgomery and Bucks Counties. Had the electrification plans come to fruition, the Walnut Hill Station would have been closed, and trains would have operated non-stop from Fox Chase to Huntingdon Valley. Unfortunately, Bucks County was unable to come up with the needed funds, and electrification was put on hold indefinitely.[3]

Newtown extension

Passengers changing over to Newtown-bound diesel Budd RDC trains at Fox Chase, November 24, 1981

Before 1983, service continued northward via RDC passenger trains to a terminus in Newtown, Pennsylvania. The grade crossing at Rhawn Street still exists, but bumpers prevent trains from crossing.[4]

Service in the diesel-only territory north of Fox Chase was discontinued on January 13, 1983, due to failing diesel train equipment that SEPTA had no desire to repair. Although rail service beyond Fox Chase was replaced with a Fox Chase-Newtown shuttle bus in 1983-1999, patronage remained light. Like British rail passengers victim of the 1960s-era Beeching cuts in the U.K., the traveling public never saw a bus service as a suitable replacement for a train service that operated more efficiently and quickly.[5] There are no plans to reinstate service, and Fox Chase remains the official end of the Newtown line.

References

  1. ↑ Fox Chase is onboard with Plans for Train Station
  2. ↑ SEPTA (May 2014). Fiscal Year 2015 Annual Service Plan. p. 61 PDF (539 KB)
  3. ↑ Pawson, John R. (1979). Delaware Valley Rails: The Railroads and Rail Transit Lines of the Philadelphia Area. Willow Grove, Pennsylvania: John R. Pawson. p. 59. ISBN 0-9602080-0-3.
  4. ↑ Bumpers at former grade crossing of Rhwan Street at Fox Chase Station (Google Street View)
  5. ↑ Schwieterman, Joseph P. (2001). When the Railroad Leaves Town: American Communities in the Age of Rail Line Abandonment, Eastern United States. Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press. p. 266. ISBN 0943549973. OCLC 702179808.

External links

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