Station Review #144: Parkside Loop (SEPTA)


Parkside Loop is a SEPTA bus loop located at 50th Street in the Parkside neighborhood of West Philadelphia. 

Services and Transit Connections

There are multiple buses that use this loop: 

40 - 2nd-Lombard to Conshohocken-Monument: A few trips a day go to the Parkside Loop, often to short turn. Otherwise, you can catch this bus nearby at Parkside Avenue. Both variants of this bus run about once every 15 minutes

43 - Richmond-Cumberland to Parkside Loop: This bus is a crosstown route that uses Spring Garden Street and Haverford Avenue, among others. The SEPTA Bus Revolution plan will have this bus continue to 69th Street Transit Center in place of the 30, thus removing this connection. 

52 - 49th-Woodland to 54th-City/Parkside Loop: This bus acts as a vertical, and goes via 52nd Street north from Kingsessing. Some trips of the 52 go to Parkside Loop, and some continue to City Avenue. A few trips a day also end at the nearby ParkWest Town Center. 

64 - Pier 70 to Parkside Loop: This bus is another crosstown, this one running along Washington Avenue and Greys Ferry Avenue. 

Other transit connections

10/T1: This is a trolley that runs from 13th Street through the Trolley Tunnel to 36th Street, where it then runs on the street to 63rd-Malvern. You can catch this at Lancaster Avenue and 52nd Street.

38 - 5th-Market to Wissahickon Transit Center: This is a bus that essentially links Parkside and other parts of West Philadelphia with Center City and Wissahickon Transit Center. In doing so, it also goes to the Philadelphia Art Museum. Catch this at Belmont Avenue

Tour

Sign

This is an average rebuilt SEPTA bus loop. 

Shelter and nearby plaza

Inside the shelter

Those are hostile benches. Better than the leaners SEPTA keeps trying to put in some of these loops.

Bus maps

A lot of SEPTA bus loops seem to have a triangular sign with a few bus maps on them. Wissahickon Transit Center is the exception here rather than the rule. This is no different.

Shopping cart

More benches and trash can

Some sort of notice for a local law from 1955? 

Bus and break house

There's not much else here.

Points of Interest near Parkside Loop

Most of what's nearby this place includes: 

A large oddly shaped Goodwill that clearly used to be part of a warehouse. 

ParkWest Town Center, a shopping plaza that probably drives most of the traffic to this bus loop. It's incredibly inconvenient placement for the bus loop, especially if you're coming back carrying groceries

Fairmount Park, a giant park full of forests and trails and many things to do. There are many better ways to get here, but this is still possible. Particularly, Lake Concourse is near the park

Statistics


Name: Parkside Loop
Agency: SEPTA
Line(s): 40, 43, 52, 64
Locality: Parkside
City/Township: Philadelphia
County: Philadelphia
State: Pennsylvania
Ridership: 846 riders per average weekday

Amenity Checklist


Accessible: ✓
Bike racks: ×
Bathrooms for employees: ×
Bus Departure/Arrival Info (signs that update/screens): ×
Clean Station: ×
Easy to get around: ✓
Existence is justifiable: ×
Indoor Shelters: ×
Maps: ✓
Multiple entrances/exits: ✓
Near places people are: ×
Safe to use: ✓
Seating: ✓
Shelters: ✓
Station In Good Condition: ✓
Something related to fares: ×
Ticket Offices: ×
TOD: ×
Updated Signage: ×

Final Verdict: 4/10

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