Station Review #11 and ⅘: North Philadelphia MAIN (Amtrak/SEPTA)
Sign on the side of the shelter
North Philadelphia Main is a station serving both as an Amtrak train station on Amtrak's Keystone Service and as a SEPTA train station on the Trenton Line. This station is the most built out and most used station in the North Philadelphia Station Complex aside from North Philadelphia BSL station. The station is located on a large lot between Broad Street and 16th, just south of Indiana Avenue.
Until 2022, this station held the award for being the least-used Amtrak station in Pennsylvania, though now that award goes to Cornwell Heights. This is unsurprising considering the sheer amount of decay and neglect this station has faced over the last few decades. I'll show you what I mean about that in a moment, but first, a very depressing history lesson.
Services
Southbound platform view
This station has two services that stop here:
Amtrak: Five Keystone Service trains stop here, Four southbound and one northbound. This service is on weekdays only.
SEPTA: 40-50 trains run to and from Trenton that stop at this station, per day.
History
Old station house
North Philadelphia Station was originally called Germantown Junction or New York Junction, that station being from the 1870s. In the late 1890s, a new station was needed, so the old station was demolished and replaced by a newer and much grander station by 1901. Then, it was enlargened again and renamed North Philadelphia.
At the time, this was one of PRR's most profitable train stations in the area, so they enlargened it multiple times. However, the prosperity of this station would not last, and the area, in general, suffered many blows economically once the Great Depression started, and later on, as the tide of World War 2 and the rise of suburbia fueled this station's descent to the depths of low ridership.
Times had changed, the PRR got absorbed into Conrail, and Conrail got intercity service transferred to Amtrak. PRR still ran a commuter line service on the line to Trenton, but that was later also transferred to Conrail, and later to SEPTA. At some point during all of this, the main station house was sold and turned into a shop, which ironically is now the most well-kept part of the station's area.
While this station had already been gripped by the throes of low ridership, North Philadelphia would slowly have its fate sealed. Over the span of multiple decades, North Philadelphia Station has been neglected, maimed, and not fixed. The station has been decaying, with no fix in sight.
In 1991, Amtrak made a new waiting lounge for the station, an ugly green brick building. That building was later abandoned over a decade later and boarded up, and nobody has touched it since. Now, the only building that is directly part of the station is the platform facility.
Sometime around then, the elevators also stopped service and have never been restored to date.
Station Tour
While attempting to get to the station, you first have to traverse through the two blocks' worth of parking lot. This parking lot is filled with tire marks from people doing donuts in it, and it really should not be surprising that this station has a lot of issues with people being very loud with modified cars in the parking lot in the late night hours.
Donut marks
Before you get to the station, there's also A large, outdated Amtrak logo on the floor for some reason
This aged well
Eventually, you also end up passing by the boarded-up new station house, which is currently covered in graffiti.
This also aged well
Inside the new station house, you can faintly tell that it was not up-kept at all and that the entire thing is currently a mess. Much of the inside has graffiti on it, and much of it has also been absolutely destroyed, filled with trash.
Arches holding up the station
From here, if you turn you will see the current station building itself. There is a passageway that goes under that station building that you need to use to get to the platforms.
Said tunnel is also in extremely bad shape, unfortunately. The walls are all covered in two decades' worth of graffiti. At the top, there are signs saying what platform it is and places in each direction trains at that platform go to. This is inaccurate currently, however, as Amtrak's Pennsylvanian service currently does not stop at this station. Amtrak only has service going as far west as Harrisburg at this station. The northern platform meanwhile advertises service to Trenton and New York City, both of which are services that still exist.
The staircases in general are daunting enough, even without the stench they sometimes have.
I honestly doubt many people would take these stairs if they didn't need to.
Going up the stairs, you eventually get to the platforms themselves, which act as the meat and potatoes of the station. Before you do so though, make sure to look behind you, as there are more signs you would miss otherwise.
To Station and Broad Street.
The platforms themselves each have a small sheltered waiting area like this, where you can sit and mostly be sheltered from the elements. The roof is made of wood and much of the structural elements are made of steel.
Waiting area
On the sides of the inner walls of the waiting area, it again tries to tell you the destinations you can get to for each part of the station.
You can also see the wood on the ceiling better from here
By the way, the outside of the platforms looks like this:
Quite a platform
There are elevators, but they are completely non-functional. The elevators were vandalized and then shut down, never to be used again
I would definitely not use that if it was operational
There isn't much else there
Gallery
Video of trains at the station
A better view of the Parking lot
Agreed, bench. Agreed.
A better view of the tunnel
The other plate
This station does not have service to Boston anymore
A better view of the ceiling
The old station house from the Northbound platform
Connections
54 bus at Broad and Lehigh, the photo was taken in August 2019
Rail:
Broad Street Line: Fern Rock Transportation Center to NRG Station/Broad and Pattison, Access from North Philadelphia BSL
Chestnut Hill West: Regional Rail Service from Center City to Chestnut Hill, access from North Philadelphia CHW, which is coincidentally a short walk away.
Lansdale - Doylestown Line: Regional Rail Service from Center City to Lansdale and Doylestown, access from North Broad Station
Manayunk - Norristown Line: Regional Rail Service from Center City to Norristown, access from North Broad Station
Bus:
2: 20th and Johnston to Pulaski and Hunting Park or Wayne Junction via 16th and 17th streets. (get on at 17th Street and Indiana Avenue)
4: Broad and Pattison to Fern Rock Transportation Center via Broad and 9th. (get on at Broad and Indiana Avenue)
16: Cheltenham - Ogontz Loop to City Hall (get on at Broad Street and Indiana Avenue)
54: 33rd-Dauphin loop to Richmond - Cambria via Lehigh (get on at Broad and Lehigh)
60: 35th and Allegheny to Richmond - Westmoreland loop (Get on at Broad or 16th and Allegheny)
Mid-Sized Train Station Amenities:
Accessible: ×
Bathrooms: ×
Clean Station: ×
Connections to other transit routes: ✓
Easy passage for each side: ✓
Fare Payment Kiosks (if applicable): ✓
Indoor Shelters: ×
Maps: ✓
Multiple entrances/exits: ×
Parking: ✓
Seating: ✓
Shelters: ✓
Station In Good Condition: ×
Ticket Kiosks (if applicable): ×
Ticket Offices: ×
TOD: ×
Train Departure/Arrival Info (signs that update/screens): ×
Updated Signage: ×
Final Verdict: 1/10
This station is a sorrowful husk of what it once was, it's decayed so much that it's legitimately scary. It has beautiful bones and a lot of uses, and it's unfortunate that it's been allowed to decay for this long, the fact that the station is kept in such a state is appalling, and frankly, I legitimately wish it wasn't.
Station Directory (Note: Amtrak stops will have three-letter abbreviation at the end)
--------Pennsylvania--------
--------Dauphin County--------
Harrisburg (HAR)
Middletown (MID)
--------Lancaster County--------
Elizabethtown (ELT)
Mount Joy (MJY)
Lancaster (LNC)
--------Chester County--------
Parkesburg (PAR)
Exton (EXT)
Paoli (PAO)
--------Montgomery County--------
Ardmore (ARD)
--------Philadelphia County--------
30th Street (PHL)
Trains to Temple University
''''''''SEPTA Zone 1''''''''
North Philadelphia (PHN)
''''''''SEPTA Zone 2''''''''
''''''''SEPTA Zone 3''''''''
--------Bucks County--------
Cornwell's Heights (CWH)
Croydon
''''''''SEPTA Zone 4''''''''
Bristol
Levittown - Tullytown
--------New Jersey--------
--------Mercer County--------
Trenton Transit Center (TRE) (END OF SEPTA TRAINS)
Princeton Junction (PJC)
--------Middlesex County--------
New Brunswick (NBK)
MetroPark (MET)
--------Union County--------
Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)
Newark Pennsylvania (NWK)
--------New York--------
--------New York City--------
--------Manhattan--------
New York Penn (NYP)
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