Station Review #48: Fern Rock Transportation Center (SEPTA)
Fern Rock Transportation Center is a station that serves multiple SEPTA services located in the Fern Rock neighborhood of Philadelphia, PA.
History
The history of Fern Rock Transportation Center is really the history of three different places becoming one: Fern Rock Station, Fern Rock Yard, and Tabor Station. In order to understand the history of Fern Rock Transportation Center, one must understand the history of both of these places.
Tabor Station
Platforms
Tabor station was a train station along the Reading Railroad's Bethlehem Branch, immediately after the famed Wayne Junction station. It was built sometime in the early 1900s, near the now (mostly) nonexistent Tabor Junction. This was the intersection between the Reading Railroad's Tabor Branch and the North Penn Railroad. This junction is located at the nearby Tabor Road, hence the name of the junction and by extension the station.
At some point between 1893 and 1924, the Reading Railroad created this station, which was originally two shelters along the tracks. In 1926, the station was upgraded due to an influx in ridership from the development of the neighborhood of Logan. The station being within walking distance from Olney Terminal (now Olney Transportation Center) on the Broad Street Subway made it an attractive station for many people, ensuring that Tabor station had fairly high ridership for years to come, especially as it was rebuilt multiple times afterward. Or at least, higher ridership than the station directly north of it, Fern Rock.
Fern Rock Station
Train at the old Fern Rock station
Fern Rock Station was located at Godfrey Avenue, meanwhile, and is known to be older. The station was originally built in 1902 by the Reading Railroad, near a freight station built a few years earlier. Few changes occurred to the station for many decades afterward, including parking being added in the 1960s.
Fern Rock Yard
Meanwhile, in 1928, the PRT created a yard for their Broad Street Line in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Fern Rock at Nedro Avenue, simply called Fern Rock Yard. This setup persisted for decades without any changes, even as the PRT became the PTC.
This was until Northeast Philadelphia started developing more, and the PTC wanted to bring more bus service from Olney Terminal to the Northeast, especially along Cottman Avenue and Rhawn Street, to link the Northeast to the Broad Street Line. Unfortunately, Olney Terminal had no more space for new bus routes to be added. The PTC's solution to this predicament was to add a platform at Fern Rock Yard, as well as some bus bays at the street and a mezzanine connecting both, which they did in 1956. In doing this, the PTC could make a park-and-ride for the Broad Street Line as well, which they ended up doing soon afterward. The Fern Rock BSL station was located in an awkward spot, between the Fern Rock and Tabor stations, and this arrangement persisted even after both rail lines came under the operation of SEPTA.
This changed in the late 1980s when SEPTA built platforms for regional rail at Fern Rock Yard, a very long bridge linking the three platforms, and even more parking, and called the new station Fern Rock Transportation Center. Immediately after this happened, Fern Rock and Tabor stations were both closed and subsequently demolished.
Rail Services Provided
Broad Street Line
All variants of the Broad Street Line go to this station
• Local: All northbound trains terminate here/all southbound trains begin here
• Express: Most Express trips instead start or end at Olney Transportation Center, one stop south. However, a few trips do go to Fern Rock instead
• Broad - Ridge Spur: A few trips terminate at Fern Rock Transportation Center instead of Olney Transportation Center, especially at peak times.
Regional Rail
Multiple lines go to Fern Rock Transportation Center, five in total. These lines include:
• Airport line: Glenside to Philadelphia International Airport. This might be one of the most used services at the regional rail platforms of this station.
• Glenside Combined Line: Some regional rail trains only go from Penn Medicine station to Glenside. These trains tend to stop at Fern Rock.
• Lansdale - Doylestown line: Service between Center City and Lansdale or Doylestown
• Warminster line: Service between Center City and Warminster
• West Trenton line: Service between Center City and West Trenton. Note that West Trenton express trains skip this station, as well as Melrose Park and Elkins Park.
Tour
Local train at Fern Rock Transportation Center
Fern Rock is basically three platforms connected by very large amounts of metal that's next to a large yard.
Considering this, it's actually very easy to get lost at Fern Rock Transportation Center, even if it's not the worst maze in the system (could anything in the city ever be worse than City Hall/15th/Suburban? I think not).
The mezzanine is pretty cool, I think. It has everything you would expect from it, from Newspaper dispensaries to payphones.
Trying to get to the Regional Rail platforms? Good luck with that. That sign does not get you there, and in confusion you can easily exit the station completely. Exiting the station allows you to appreciate just how dystopic Fern Rock Transportation Center looks.
Oh also, there are a lot more stairs here than you'd expect
Congratulations! You just ended up wasting 10 minutes of your time just to end up at the exact same spot you were just at! Do you need a little bit of help?
The regional rail transfer is at the edge of the station, it's a very large and fairly steep ramp, but it's also easier than you'd think to miss, especially if you haven't been to this station before.
Yes, the ramp is that thin.
After taking the very long path made almost entirely of steel, you eventually reach another mezzanine. This is the mezzanine for the Regional Rail portion of the station.
The station as a whole feels less like a train station and more like a construction site for a warehouse, and this mezzanine is a huge part of that.
The old and inaccurate map at the mezzanine definitely doesn't help the feelings the mezzanine gives off at all. If anything, the map just makes it all worse.
There are two elevators down to the Regional Rail platforms, but you have to get through the only turnstiles in the regional rail system outside of the CCCC zone and the airport, turnstiles that literally only exist to prevent someone from getting a free transfer to the BSL.
These stairs to the regional rail platform legitimately scare me going down them, as they are very steep. If you are going outbound, you are forced to use these stairs. I feel nothing but hatred for this staircase.
Once you get to the regional rail platforms though, things suddenly seem much nicer than the rest of the station. There is everything you would need at the platforms, from benches and shelters to... Well, that's basically about it.
Really, Fern Rock Transportation Center is more of a transfer station than a residential station. It's kind of like Philadelphia's equivalent to Secaucus Junction.
Bus Connections
There are four bus connections that can be made from Fern Rock Transportation Center. These include:
• 4: Fern Rock Transportation Center to NRG Station via 9th and Broad
• 28: Fern Rock Transportation Center to Torresdale - Cottman loop via Rhawn Street
57: Fern Rock Transportation Center to Whitman Plaza
70: Fern Rock Transportation Center to Torresdale - Cottman loop or Frankford - Gregg loop via Cottman Avenue
Points of Interest in Fern Rock
There are no actual points of interest in Fern Rock, as the neighborhood is mostly either the station itself/the yard, or is just residential otherwise.
Statistics
Name: Fern Rock Transportation Center
Agency: SEPTA
Line(s): Airport Line, Broad Street Line, Broad Ridge Spur, Glenside Combined Line, Lansdale - Doylestown Line, Warminister Line, West Trenton Line
Locality: Fern Rock
City/Township: Philadelphia
County: Philadelphia
Ridership: BSL platform: 4498 per weekday. RR: 650 boardings, 779 alightings, 1429 total. Combined: 5927 total per average weekday.
Station Amenities:
Accessible: ✓
Bathrooms: ×
Clean Station: ✓
Connections to other transit routes: ✓
Convenience Store/similar place inside: ×
Easy passage for each side: ×
Good Wayfinding: ×
Indoor Shelters: ×
Maps: ✓
Multiple entrances/exits: ×
Seating: ✓
Shelters: ✓
Station In Good Condition: ✓
TVMs: ✓
Ticket Offices: ✓
TOD: ×
Train Departure/Arrival Info (signs that update/screens): ×
Updated/Useful Signage: ×
Final Verdict: 5/10
This is a very useful station and a good concept but it was executed poorly.
Station Directory
Glenside Combined Line
--------Montgomery County--------
''''''''Zone 3''''''''
Glenside
Trains continue from West Trenton
Jenkintown - Wyncote
''''''''Zone 2''''''''
Elkins Park
Melrose Park
--------Philadelphia County--------
''''''''Zone 1''''''''
Fern Rock Transportation Center
Trains continue from Fox Chase or Chestnut Hill East
Wayne Junction
Trains continue from Norristown
''''''''CCCC Zone''''''''
Jefferson
Suburban
30th Street
Trains continue to Cynwyd or Thorndale
Penn Medicine
Trains continue to Media/Wawa, Wilmington/Newark or Philadelphia International Airport
Broad Street Line
Fern Rock Transportation Center
Olney Transportation Center
Logan
Wyoming
Hunting Park
Erie
Allegheny
North Philadelphia
Cecil B. Moore
Girard
Fairmount
BRS trains continue to Chinatown and 8th and Market
Spring Garden
City Hall
Walnut - Locust
Lombard - South
Ellsworth - Federal
Tasker - Morris
Snyder
Oregon
NRG
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