SEPTA Subway–Surface Trolley Lines

Subway–Surface Trolley Lines
#9074 seen on Lansdowne Avenue/Main Street operates on the #13 line in Darby, PA.
Overview
Type	Trolley
Locale	Philadelphia, Yeadon, and Darby, PA
Termini	Overbrook (Rt 10) Darby (Rt 11/13) Angora (Rt 34) Eastwick (Rt 36) 13th Street (all lines)
Stations	8 total underground stations, 8 major surface stations
Services	Routes 10, 11, 13, 34, and 36
Daily ridership	84,829 (ave. weekday, FY 2014)[1]
Operation
Opened	1906
Owner	SEPTA
Character	Underground and surface
Rolling stock	Kawasaki Heavy Industries Rolling Stock Company K LRV cars
Technical
Line length	19.8 mi (31.9 km)[2]
Track gauge	5 ft 2 1⁄4 in (1,581 mm)[3][4]
Electrification	direct suspension Overhead grooved trolley wire.
Route map

The Subway–Surface Trolley Routes 10, 11, 13, 34 & 36 or Green Lines are five SEPTA trolley lines that operate on street-level tracks in West Philadelphia and Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and the two outermost tracks of the Market Street subway with rapid transit trains using the inner two tracks in Philadelphia's Center City. All together, the five lines operate on about 19.8 miles (31.9 km) of route.^[2] (SEPTA Route 15, the Girard Avenue Line, is also a Streetcar Trolley and its map are colored in Green but is not part of subway-surface system.)

Like Boston's Green Line and San Francisco's Muni Metro, the SEPTA Subway-Surface line is the descendant of a pre-World War II streetcar system. Where Boston and San Francisco's systems use longer, articulated LRT vehicles, Philadelphia uses 112 Kawasaki K-Car LRVs. Delivered in 1981-82, they resemble ones used on the suburban trolley routes.

Starting from their eastern terminus at Juniper Street Station in downtown Philadelphia, the lines loop around in a tunnel under City Hall before stopping under Dilworth Park then re-aline back under Market Street.

All five routes stop at underground stations at 13th Street, 15th Street, 19th Street, 22nd Street, 30th Street, and 33rd Street. From 15th to 30th Streets, they run in the same tunnel as SEPTA's Market–Frankford Line, with the rapid-transit trains on the inner tracks and the subway–surface trolleys on the outer ones.

Passengers may transfer free of charge to the Market–Frankford Line at 13th, 15th, and 30th Streets and to the Broad Street Line at 15th Street. Connections to the SEPTA Regional Rail are also available. Underground passageways connect the 13th and 15th Street Stations to Jefferson Station and Suburban Station.

The 30th Street trolley station is across the street from the 30th Street railroad station that serves SEPTA Regional Rail, Amtrak, and New Jersey Transit trains. An underground passageway that connects these stations is currently closed.

The Route 10 line surfaces on 36th Street just south of Market Street, then heads northwest on surface streets. The other four lines make underground stops at 36th and Sansom Streets and at 37th and Spruce Streets, surface at the 40th St Portal near 40th Street and Baltimore Avenue, and then head southwest on surface streets.

The Route 11 line, traveling along Main Street in Darby, crosses CSX Transportation at grade. This is currently the only location in the U.S. with an at-grade crossing between a trolley line and a major freight rail line.^[5][6]

History

College Hall (and Logan Hall) viewed from Woodland Ave., ca. 1892.

The Subway–Surface lines are remnants of the far more extensive streetcar system that developed in Philadelphia after the arrival of electric trolleys in 1892. Several dozen traction companies were consolidated in 1906 into the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company. The PRT funneled the West Philadelphia lines into subway tunnels as they approached the city center. After the PRT declared bankruptcy in 1939, it was reopened as the Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC), which was absorbed into SEPTA in 1968.^[7]

In October 2006, University of Pennsylvania's class of 1956 funded the construction of an innovative portal for one of the eastbound entrances of the 37th and Spruce station: a replica of a Peter Witt trolley of the kind manufactured by J. G. Brill and Company from 1923–26. Operated by the Philadelphia Transportation Company until 1956, these trolleys brought university students to the campus and to Center City, Philadelphia. Routes 11, 34 and 37 ran through the Penn campus on Woodland Avenue and Locust Streets for nearly 65 years. In 1956, the trolley route was buried to enable the university to unify its campus. Woodland Avenue and Locust Street became pedestrian walkways.

Diversion services

When tunnels are closed due to maintenance, an accident or some other obstruction, the trolleys can be diverted onto auxiliary surface tracks west of the 40th Street Portal connecting all five lines. Southbound tracks start along 40th Street at the intersection of Lancaster Avenue, which is occupied by the SEPTA Route 10 line. At Market Street, the line connects to the 40th Street MFL Subway Station. They continue southbound along reaching Spruce Street, where it splits either eastbound or westbound. Westbound tracks run to 42nd Street where they turn south to either Baltimore Avenue (SEPTA Route 34), Chester Avenue (SEPTA Route 13), or Woodland Avenue (SEPTA Routes 11 and 36). At 49th Street (SEPTA station), another diversionary trolley track moves from Chester Avenue to southbound 49th Street to over the Media/Elwyn Line bridge, to Woodland Avenue, where the Route 36 line splits from the Route 11 line.

Northbound trolleys run up 42nd Street to Spruce Street and then north along 38th Street (US 13) until it reaches Filbert Street and makes a left, crossing the 40th Street tracks. When Filbert Street terminates at 41st Street, the tracks turn right, and head north until reaching Lancaster Avenue.^[8]

Routes

Former Subway-Surface Routes

• Route 31 – Overbrook Park (Lansdowne & Haverford Avenues Loop) to Juniper/13th Street Station via 63rd Street, Market Street & Subway Surface Tunnel – Callowhill Carhouse. Replaced by buses in 1956.
• Route 37 – Chester, PA (3rd & Crosby Streets) to Juniper/13th Street Station via Industrial Highway (PA 291) Eastwick Avenue, Woodland Avenue & Subway Surface Tunnel – Woodland Carhouse. Replaced by buses in 1955.
• Route 38 – Parkside (48th Street & Parkside Avenue Loop) to Juniper/13th Station/City Hall via Parkside Avenue, 40th Street, Baring Street & Subway Surface Tunnel – Callowhill Carhouse. Replaced by buses in 1955.

Stations

All stations are in Philadelphia and western suburbs. Stations only on Route 10 are shown in gray.

See also

• Pennsylvania gauge
• SEPTA City Transit Division surface routes
• West Philadelphia Streetcar Suburb Historic District

References

1. ↑ "Fiscal Year 2014 Annual Service Plan" (pdf). SEPTA. May 2013. p. 40. Retrieved 2014-06-19.  – Total ridership from sum of riderships for Routes 10 (16,845), 11 (18,274), 13 (15,906), 34 (16,268) & 36 (17,536) from the FY2014 Annual Service Plan report.
2. 1 2 Demery, Jr., Leroy W. (November 2011). "U.S. Urban Rail Transit Lines Opened From 1980" (pdf). publictransit.us. pp. 37–40. Retrieved 2013-11-02. 
3. ↑ "The history of trolley cars and routes in Philadelphia". SEPTA. June 1, 1974. p. 2. Retrieved 2014-06-11. An early city ordinance prescribed that all tracks were to have a gauge of 5' 2 ¹⁄₄. 
4. ↑ Hilton, George W.; Due, John Fitzgerald (January 1, 2000). The Electric Interurban Railways in America. Stanford University Press. Retrieved 2014-06-10. Worst of all, not all city systems were build to the standard American and European gauge of 4'-8 ¹⁄₂". Pittsburgh and most other Pennsylvania cities used 5'-2 ¹⁄₂", which became known as the Pennsylvania trolley gauge. Cincinnati used 5'-2 ¹⁄₂", Philadelphia 5'-2 ¹⁄₄", Columbus 5'-2", Altoona 5'-3", Louisville and Camden 5'-0", Canton and Pueblo 4'-0", Denver, Tacoma, and Los Angeles 3'-6", Toronto an odd 4'-10 ⁷⁄₈", and Baltimore a vast 5'-4 ¹⁄₂. 
5. ↑ Philadelphia Transit; Streetcars;Route 11 (Kavanaugh Transit Systems)
6. ↑ davidwilson1949 (July 6, 2003). 20030706 26 Main St. Crossing CSXT in Darby (6071320235) (photograph). Retrieved December 31, 2015. 
7. ↑ "Studio 34's Eponymous Trolley, or, A Short History of Route 34". Retrieved 2008-03-11. 
8. ↑ SEPTA Subway-Surface Lines map
9. ↑ "SEPTA - Spring 2012 Route Statistics" (PDF). Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. 2012. Retrieved 2013-06-28. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to SEPTA Subway-Surface Trolley Lines.

• SEPTA subway and trolley schedules
• Map of subway surface lines in West Philadelphia
• Tramway, Light Railway and LRT in Philadelphia (PublicTransit.US)
• Transit Systems in Philadelphia and Southeast Pennsylvania Electric Railway map (Chicago Railfan.net)
• WorldNYCSubway.org - SEPTA Subway-Surface Streetcar Lines

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