Ranya's Ramblings

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...

Bala is a station on SEPTA's Cynwyd Line. The station is located on City Avenue in Bala-Cynwyd, PA (itself a part of Lower Merion Township). The Cynwyd Line is the least used regional rail line in the SEPTA system, and the one with the least amount of service with only six trains per day at peak times mainly, weekdays only. History The station, 1966   Bala station was originally built along the Pennsylvania Railroad Schuylkill Branch in 1884. It had a depot on one end and a shelter on the other. At some point around the 1950s, the depot was torn down. The station was rebuilt sometime around the early 1980s, before the Cynwyd line service was truncated to Cynwyd "temporarily". Sometime between 2017 and 2019, Bala and Wynnefield Avenue stations were rebuilt. The old shelter for Bala still remains, although it is fenced off and unable to be used now. Tour Parking Bala station is essentially a City Avenue park and ride station. Signage ment...

Port Jervis is a station on MNRR's/NJT's Port Jervis Line. The station is located at 100 Pike Street in Port Jervis, New York, along US-209.  History The old station Port Jervis Station was created as part of the New York and Erie Railroad, on its Delaware branch. It was built in 1847, and served passengers going between Hoboken (NYC) and Binghamton. Despite this, some trips going as far west as Chicago stopped here.  As train travel in the US declined, so too did Port Jervis station. Eventually, there was only a commuter service between the town itself and Hoboken, which would be operated by the Metro North Railroad. In 1974, MNRR chose to abandon the old station and build a new station nearby.  The station the MNRR built, pictured in 2015 In 2021, this station was completely remodeled to become the station of today. This gave Port Jervis station a full high level platform, making it fully accessible.  Tour The entire ...

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...