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Showing posts with the label 2025

Station Review #113: 27th Street (Metra)

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27th Street is a station on Metra's Electric District line. The station is the least used Metra station, and possibly one of the least used train stations in the midwestern US.  History Not much is known about the original history of the station, though it's assumed to have first been built sometime around the 1870s. On October 30th, 1972, the 1972 Chicago Rail Crash happened at this station, the worst crash in all of Chicago's history, with 45 deaths and 322 injuries.  The station was originally made to serve Michael Reese Hospital, with the hospital having been directly connected to 27th Street station. Michael Reese Hospital went out of business in 2008, and was demolished. Chicago tried to build an Olympic Village at the site of the former hospital for the 2016 Olympic Games, but this failed. This is because of two important factors: staunch opposition from residents, and radioactive waste buried between the former hospital and the station, and a...

Station Review #113: Oakmont (SEPTA)

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Oakmont is the first station on SEPTA's Ardmore Busway, which is served by the 103 bus. One side of the station is a shelter on East Darby road, while the other side is an inaccessible bus stop st the start of the bus way. Tour Bus at Oakmont   Oakmont is a very small station, with only southbound service being at the shelter, or even somewhere marked at all. The northbound platform is across the street, and is just a sign. There is no curb there at all, making it inaccessible.    Area behind southbound platform Bench ???   Is this somewhere where someone would put out an old cigar? I'm not at all sure.  The southbound platform from across Darby Road Bus Connections     Besides the 103 itself running to 69th Street Transportation Center and Suburban Square in Ardmore, there's one bus connection here: the 115. The 115 runs from Delaware County Community College to Darby Tran...

Station Review #111: Wynnefield (SEPTA)

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Wynnefield Avenue is a station on SEPTA's Cynwyd Line, located at the intersection of Bryn Mawr and Wynnefield avenues in Philadelphia's Wynnefield neighborhood. Wynnefield Avenue station is also oftentimes just known as Wynnefield.  Wynnefield Avenue is along SEPTA's Cynwyd Line, which boasts the lowest ridership among every SEPTA line.  History Wynnefield station in 2012 Very little about the history of Wynnefield Avenue is known. All that is known is that the station was rebuilt in 2019.  Tour There's not much at Wynnefield station, but that's more than enough. Wynnefield Avenue is not a station that needs a lot of frills. Stairs Small parking lot Map and schedule The platform Wynnefield Avenue is accessible, like all of the Cynwyd line stations.  The shelter The ramp Bus Connections There is one bus connection at Wynnefield Avenue: the 40. The ...

Station Review #110: Cynwyd (SEPTA)

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Cynwyd is the outbound terminus for SEPTA's Cynwyd Line. The station is located at Montgomery Avenue and Conshohocken State Road in downtown Bala-Cynwyd, PA. Bala-Cynwyd is a census designated place within Lower Merion Township, PA. The Cynwyd Line is by far the least used SEPTA Regional Rail line. Only about six trains a day run on the Cynwyd Line, weekdays only.  Bala and Cynwyd were originally separate towns, unifying due to both sharing a post office. This is why Bala and Cynwyd both have their own train stations. History Cynwyd was originally a station along the Pennsylvania Railroad's Schuylkill Branch. The Schuylkill branch went parallel to Reading Railroad's Main Line. Cynwyd station was most likely originally built in 1880-1882, and then rebuilt in 1890 in a far more grand manner.    In the 1970s, most of the line west of Manayunk was abandoned. The line was re-extended to Ivy Ridge, and the Cynwyd line was operated as the R6, which paired it with the...