Newtown (SEPTA station)

Newtown

Former SEPTA regional rail station

Newtown Station site, October 2009. Platform and signage remain.

Location

Penn Street
Newtown, Pennsylvania.

Coordinates

40°13′36″N 74°55′52″W / 40.2266°N 74.9312°WCoordinates: 40°13′36″N 74°55′52″W / 40.2266°N 74.9312°W

Owned by

SEPTA

Platforms

1 side platform

Tracks

Connections

Terminal station

Construction

Structure type

station shed (demolished)

Parking

History

Opened

1873 (RDG)

Closed

January 14, 1983

Electrified

Services

No services

Preceding station		SEPTA		Following station
	Former services
George School (closed 1983) toward 30th Street Station		Newtown Line R8 Newtown		Terminus

Newtown is a closed station and terminus of SEPTA's Fox Chase/Newtown Line located on Penn Street in Newtown Borough, Pennsylvania.

History

Reading passenger train in Newtown, circa 1948.

In the railroad's original plans, the line was to continue to the north, but this expansion was never built. Newtown Station was built in 1873 and torn down in 1960. A new shelter was constructed in 1976. It later became a part of SEPTA's Fox Chase Rapid Transit Line. The station, and all of those north of Fox Chase, was closed on January 14, 1983,^[1] due to failing diesel train equipment.

SEPTA experimented with the line by operating the Fox Chase-Newtown diesel segment as the Fox Chase Rapid Transit Line. SEPTA insisted on utilizing transit operators from the Broad Street Subway as a cost-saving factor, while Conrail requested that railroad motormen run the service. This was a result of a labor dispute that began when SEPTA inherited approximately 1,700 displaced employees from Conrail. When a federal court ruled that SEPTA had to use Conrail employees in order to offer job assurance, SEPTA cancelled Fox Chase-Newtown trains.^[2]

Service in the diesel-only territory north of Fox Chase was cancelled at that time, and the Newtown station still appears in publicly posted tariffs.^[3]

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. The Newtown Station shelter was torn down in 2004.^[4]

References

↑ .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
↑ Bucks Views website, documenting out-of-service Newtown train line

External links

Newtown Line.pa-tec.org – PA-TEC study on resuming SEPTA commuter service between Fox Chase and Newtown

SEPTA

City Transit Division	Market–Frankford Line Broad Street Line Subway–Surface Trolley Lines (Routes 10, 11, 13, 34, and 36) Route 15 Trackless trolleys (Routes 59, 66, and 75) City surface routes

Suburban Division	Norristown High Speed Line Routes 101 and 102 Suburban bus routes

Regional Rail	Main Line Airport Line Chestnut Hill East Line Chestnut Hill West Line Cynwyd Line Fox Chase Line Lansdale/Doylestown Line Manayunk/Norristown Line Media/Elwyn Line Paoli/Thorndale Line Trenton Line Warminster Line West Trenton Line Wilmington/Newark Line

Major stations	Frankford Transportation Center Fern Rock Transportation Center Jefferson Station Norristown Transportation Center Olney Transportation Center Suburban Station 30th Street Station 69th Street Transportation Center

Former services	Route 6 trolley Route 23 trolley Route 50 trolley Route 53 trolley Route 56 trolley Route 60 trolley Route 103 trolley Route 104 trolley Elwyn-West Chester service Cynwyd-Ivy Ridge service Fox Chase Rapid Transit Line

Miscellaneous	Roosevelt Boulevard Subway SEPTA Transit Police Silverliner Station lists Regional Rail Ex-Regional Rail Rapid transit Trolley and Interurban Swampoodle Connection

Mass transit in the Delaware Valley

Transit buses	SEPTA Philadelphia Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties Pottstown Pottstown Area Rapid Transit Reading Berks Area Regional Transportation Authority New Jersey Transit Camden, Gloucester, and Salem County suburban service Camden, Gloucester, and Salem County local service Atlantic and Cape May County local service Long-distance local routes from Philadelphia Long-distance routes from Atlantic City DART First State Kent County New Castle County

Commuter rail	SEPTA Regional Rail Airport Line Chestnut Hill East Line Chestnut Hill West Line Cynwyd Line Fox Chase Line Lansdale/Doylestown Line Manayunk/Norristown Line Media/Elwyn Line Paoli/Thorndale Line Trenton Line Warminster Line West Trenton Line Wilmington/Newark Line New Jersey Transit Atlantic City Line

Rapid transit and light rail	SEPTA Broad Street Line Market–Frankford Line Norristown High Speed Line Subway–Surface trolleys Route 15 Routes 101 and 102 Delaware River Port Authority PATCO Speedline New Jersey Transit River Line Proposed Schuylkill Valley Metro (cancelled) Greenline (cancelled) Glassboro–Camden Line Camden-Philadelphia BRT

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