Station Review #161: Gulph Mills (SEPTA)


Gulph Mills is a station on SEPTA's M Line, located at 925 Trinity Lane. This is within the village of Gulph Mills, PA, a small affluent community in Upper Merion Township, PA. The area was named Gulph Mills due to there being several mills along the nearby Gulph Creek. Multiple points near the area are also tied to the Battle of White Marsh, which happened during the American War of Independence. 
 

Tour

It mostly looks like every other larger M station. The only important part is that both platform's shelters look fairly fancy. 

Outdated signage

This station honestly feels like it came from a different era with how much outdated signage there is. 

Working countdown clock

Stairs

Map

Bench inside one of the shelters

Ramp

This station is fully accessible, with ramps leading to areas outside of the platforms, and full high level platforms. 

Bus loop and parking

One of the bus shelters

There are two bus shelters here, but three bus bays. The one bay without a shelter is for the 95 bus, the bay closest to the road is for southbound 124/125 buses, and the third bus bay is for northbound 124/125 buses. 

More outdated signage
 
This map is from at least 2020.  

Foamer shot

Bus Connections

There's three bus connections that go here

95 - Gulph Mills to Willow Grove Mall: This bus connects much of Montgomery county. it goes through the communities of Gulph Mills, Swedeland, West Conshohocken, Conshohocken, Plymouth Meeting, Broad Axe, Ambler, Fort Washington, Oreland, North Hills, Dresher, and Willow Grove. The 95 doesn't go to Willow Groves station, opting to just end at Willow Grove Mall. There are plans to extend this bus to King of Prussia Mall and end all service past Plymouth Meeting Mall. This bus currently runs hourly.    

124 - Chesterbrook and King of Prussia Mall to 13th-Market: This bus runs from Center City (13th and Market) to Chesterbrook via King of Prussia. The 124 runs via Henderson Road and DeKalb Pike/Swedesford Road after getting off of I-76. The 124 runs about hourly off peak and half hourly otherwise. This bus is often used to get to King of Prussia Mall from the M. 

125 - Valley Forge and King of Prussia to 13th-Market: This bus runs from Center City (13th and Market) to King of Prussia via I-76. One it leaves the expressway and stops here, it runs up Gulph Road to the King of Prussia Mall, before looping through much of the rest of King of Prussia and ending at Valley Forge National Park. This bus runs every 15 minutes during peak times and half hourly for most of the day otherwise. This bus is often used to get to King of Prussia Mall from the M.   

Besides transferring to those buses, there is little to no reason to actually go to Gulph Mills station. The village of Gulph Mills area around it is frankly pretty unwalkable and full of people with large houses who probably eschew using public transit at all under any circumstances. There is absolutely no transit oriented development here whatsoever. There are a few historical things nearby and a museum, but good luck getting to any of it. 

Statistics


Name: Gulph Mills
Agency: SEPTA
Line(s): M
Locality: Gulph Mills
Municipality: Upper Merion
County: Montgomery
State: Pennsylvania
Ridership: 463 riders per average weekday (2024)


Amenity Checklist


Accessible: ✓
Bathrooms: × (employee only)
Bicycle parking: ×
Clean Station: ✓
Connections to other transit routes: ✓
Easy passage for each side: ✓
Existence is justifiable: ✓
Fare Payment Kiosks (if applicable): ×
Good Wayfinding: ✓
Indoor Shelters: ×
Maps: ✓
Multiple entrances/exits: ✓
Adequate Parking: ✓
Safe to use: ✓
Seating: ✓
Shelters: ✓
Station In Good Condition: ✓
TVMs: ×
Ticket Offices: ×
TOD: ×
Train Departure/Arrival Info (countdown clocks): ×
Updated/Useful Signage: ×
 
Final verdict: 5/10. This station does a lot of good things and has a lot the average M line station doesn't have. Despite this, it seems to do all of these things rather poorly. 
 
 

Station Directory

--------Delaware County--------
69th Street Transportation Center
Parkview
Township Line Road
Penfield
Beechwood - Brookline
Wynnewood Road
Ardmore Junction
Ardmore Avenue
Haverford
Bryn Mawr (M)
Roberts Road
Garrett Hill
Stadium
Villanova
RADNOR (M)
County Line
--------Montgomery County--------
Matsonford
Gulph Mills
Hughes Park
DeKalb Street
Bridgeport
Norristown Transportation Center  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Station Review #96: North Wales (SEPTA)

Image
North Wales is a station on SEPTA's Lansdale-Doylestown Line. The station is located at 5th and Walnut Street in North Wales, PA.  History It's unknown when the original North Wales station was built, but what is known is that the North Pennsylvania Railroad rebuilt it in 1873. At some point, this station was heavily remodeled by the Reading Railroad, including a removal of the cupola. Despite this, North Wales station remains as one of the few still-operating stations with a usable depot built by the North Pennsylvania Railroad, along with Doylestown   In 2008, North Wale was remodeled again, with the station being made fully accessible while the building remained intact. Tour North Wales station is fully accessible. This means getting to the trains from the platforms is extremely simple and stress free. There are worker shuttles operated from North Wales station, I could find absolutely no information on these.  ...
Read more

Station Review #78: Cornwells Heights (Amtrak/SEPTA)

Image
Cornwells Heights (pronounced and often misspelled as "Cornwell Heights") is a train station along the Northeast Corridor. The station is located at 700 Station Avenue in Cornwells Heights, PA, a CDP located within Bensalem, PA.  The station is mainly served by SEPTA's Trenton line. Despite this, three trips of Amtrak's Keystone Service stop at the station every day: 640 (7:02 AM), 649 (3:51 PM), and 655 (7:40 PM). Cornwells Heights is currently the least used Amtrak station in the state of Pennsylvania.  From Station Avenue to the edge of the park and ride, this station is about half a mile long.  History Despite how it is today, Cornwells Heights was not nearly as important as it is now for much of its existence. The first known iteration of Cornwells Heights station was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1891. It's unknown if there was any iteration of the station from before that year, and was only rebuilt by the PRR or not. This is ...
Read more

Station Review #100: BARTA Transportation Center/Reading Transportation Center (AMTRAK/BARTA)

Image
BARTA Transportation Center is a station in Reading, PA. The station is located on Franklin Street, near the old Reading Train station History The old station, now a brewpub and transportation museum There had been passenger rail service at Reading since 1871, when the Wilmington and Northern trains started stopping at a station on front and Penn Streets. Franklin Street station is the one pictured above. The original station at Franklin Street was constructed in 1884, and replaced by the Reading Railroad in 1930. This station was built as an infill for Downtown Reading, since the Reading Outer station was in the middle of the city.  The line changed owners many times until it eventually got to conrail, which allowed SEPTA service on the line. Trains ran here through to Pottsville and Philadelphia until 1981. The Pottsville line was one of the earlier lines to experience cutbacks that many other lines did as well. No trains ran here ever since.  The BAR...
Read more