Station Review #162: Darby Transit Center (SEPTA)


Darby Transit Center is a SEPTA transit center located near 9th Street and Main Street in the borough of Darby, Pennsylvania. 

Available Routes

These are the routes that go to Darby Transit Center:

T3 - 13th-Market to Yeadon and Darby Transit Center: Formerly known as the 13, this trolley route is one of SEPTA's subway surface trolleys. Most T3 trolleys go to Yeadon, with only a few per day going past that to Darby. There are plans to make the T3 much more frequent past Yeadon, but they require large amounts of trackwork to even make possible. 

T4 - 13th-Market to Darby Transit Center: This is another subway-surface trolley, this one going directly to Darby via Woodland Avenue/Main Street. This generally runs about once every 5-10 minutes on paper, but the actual frequency is essentially random. This is the main route of tthe transit center. 

113 - Claymont Transit Center to 69th Street Transit Center: This bus runs from 69th Street Transit Center in Upper Darby to Claymont Transit Center in Claymont, DE. Along the way, it also links to the Lansdowne station (Media-Wawa line), MacDade Boulevard (D2), Darby Transit Center and Chester Transit Center. Buses between 69th Street and Darby run every 15 minutes, with buses to Chester Transit Center running about half hourly, and buses to Claymont Transit Center being about hourly. This is one of the most heavily uses buses in Delaware County. It mainly runs along MacDade Boulevard for most of its route

114: Darby Transit Center to Lima: This bus is essentially two routes stitched together: the first part runs from Darby Transit Center to Chester Transit Center via Chester Pike. These run about every thirty minutes, with some buses going past Chester TC to an industrial park in Chester township. The other trips go past Chester Transit Center to Lima, going via Concord and Pennell roads. The 114 alternates between Penn State Brandywine and Wawa station for the Lima trips, serving both every other hour. 

115: Airport to Delaware County Community College: This is another stitched route. One half of the route goes from the Philadelphia International Airport to Darby Transit Center in an incredibly circuituous manner, linking to Folcroft and Glenolden on the way. The second portion only runs on weekdays and runs along Lansdowne Avenue all the way to West Chester Pike, before going on that to Media Line road and thus to the college. This bus runs about once every 45 minutes or so

Tour

T4 shelter

This is the large shelter for the trolley loop, mainly served by the T4. In the past, the T3 used to go in here, but the curve for the tracks linking it with the T3 were too sharp for the K-car trolleys, so it was abandoned. 

T4 trolley

Bench inside T4 shelter

I'm not sure if there's heated lamps in there or if it's just the effects of physics at work, but this shelter was a lot warmer than it was outside

The trolley loop for the T4, with a large sign on the top that says "Welcome to Darby Borough"

Bus Terminal

The bus terminal is across the street, though you need to walk a little bit before crossing to get to the driveway. This tends to make very quick transfers incredibly annoying because you often have to watch for traffic. 

Another view of the bus terminal building

TVMs

Benches

Section outside of the main shelter 

There are a lot of basic amenities here, things one would expect from a transit center. There are also posted bus bay signs for each of the buses here, which the drivers often ignore. 

Busway

Old Signage Compilation 
Outdated trolley map

On the back is a map of the SEPTA rail network, which from what I saw was also outdated. 

Outdated map for the 113

Tri-State Mall is no more, and the 113 has also since been extended to Claymont Transit Center.

Outdated map for the 114

Granite Run Mall doesn't exist anymore. Additionally, the bus route itself has since changed a few times. 

Outdated map for the 115

This is a notice for a service change from 2019. Why is this still up? 

Points of Interest Near Darby Transit Center
Darby as a town seems to have a lot of stores, and a very large amount of urban parkland. The borough's strategy of turning empty lots into small parkettes really seems to have done Darby well in making the town more welcoming. Next to the busbay is Buttonwood Park as well. There is a lot of dense housing nearby and some larger big box supermarkets as well. Also nearby is Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital, though this is also equidistant to Lansdowne station. 

Statistics


Name: Darby Transit Center
Agency: SEPTA
Line(s): T3, T4
Locality: Downtown
Municipality: Borough of Darby
County: Delaware
State: Pennsylvania
Ridership: 2178 people per average weekday (2024)

Amenity Checklist


Accessible: ×
Bathrooms: ×
Bicycle parking: ×
Clean Station: ×
Connections to other transit routes: ✓
Easy passage for each side: ×
Existence is justifiable: ✓
Fare Payment Kiosks (if applicable): n/a (on vehicles)
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: 1.5/10. This is tied with Springfield Mall Transportation Center for the worst SEPTA transit center. 

Station Directory

T3

--------Philadelphia County-------- 
- - - -Trolley Tunnel Section- - - - 
13th
15th/City Hall
19th
22nd
Drexel Station at 30th Street
33rd
36th
37th
40th 
- - - -Street Running Section- - - -  
Mount Moriah
--------Delaware County--------
Yeadon
Darby Transit Center   
 

T4

--------Philadelphia County-------- 
- - - -Trolley Tunnel Section- - - - 
13th
15th/City Hall
19th
22nd
Drexel Station at 30th Street
33rd
36th
37th
40th 
- - - -Street Running Section- - - -
--------Delaware County--------
Darby Transit 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