George School station

George School
Former railroad station

The George School station site as viewed in October 2009.
Location George School, Middletown, Pennsylvania
Coordinates 40°12′44″N 74°56′20″W / 40.2123°N 74.9389°W / 40.2123; -74.9389Coordinates: 40°12′44″N 74°56′20″W / 40.2123°N 74.9389°W / 40.2123; -74.9389
Owned by SEPTA
Tracks 1
Construction
Structure type demolished
History
Opened 1905 (RDG)
Closed January 14, 1983
Electrified no
Services
  Former services  
Preceding station   SEPTA   Following station
Newtown Line
Terminus
Reading Railroad
toward Cheltenham
Newtown Branch
Terminus

George School station is a defunct railroad station in at George School, a private Quaker boarding and day high school in Middletown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Built by the Reading Railroad, it was later used by SEPTA Regional Rail. SEPTA closed the station and several others in 1983.

History

George School Station was a stop on the Reading Railroad's Newtown Line. 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.

George School Station, circa 1905. There is little trace of the station itself today, though the large brick staircase leading to the former station site remains

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.[2] Service in the diesel-only territory north of Fox Chase was "temporarily suspended" at that time, and George School 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.[4]

References

  1. ↑ newtownline.pa-tec.org/history Archived May 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ 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.
  3. ↑ SEPTA Tariff No. 154; effective July 1, 2009 Archived May 31, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ newtownline.pa-tec.org/history
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