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Showing posts with the label Philadelphia

Station Review #98: 49th Street (SEPTA)

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49th Street is a station on SEPTA's Media/Wawa line. The station is located at 49th and Chester in Philadelphia's Kingsessing neighborhood. 49th Street is a Zone 1 station.  History The old 49th Street station  It's relatively unknown when there started being a train station in the location where 49th Street station is today. The station was known to have existed by 1886, and the line it was on started construction in 1852. The station did not originally exist at the time and most likely was added as an infill station in the 1860s or 1870s.  Any old station house in the area was most likely demolished in the 1950s-1960s, replaced by a few small shelters. Years later, some ramps and mini-high platforms were added to make the station accessible. Not much else has changed since then. Tour Path to the station  The shelter for the outbound platform For some reason, the shelter at the outbound platform is very far away from t...

Station Review #89: Arrott Transportation Center (SEPTA)

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Arrott Transportation Center is a station on SEPTA's L line, located at Frankford Avenue and Arrott street in the center of Frankford, a neighborhood in Lower Northeast Philadelphia. The station is a regional bus hub as well.  History 75 bus at the busway Arrott Transportation Center is a very old station, its existence going back to 1922. Originally, the station was named Margaret-Orthodox-Arrott, but the Arrott was dropped after SEPTA took over in favor of what is simply "Margaret-Orthodox". Meanwhile, the bus terminal was called "Arrott Bus Terminal". It was around the time of this renaming that the last trolleys in the area, the 59 and 75, were replaced by trolleybuses.  For decades, this change stuck, confusing people who were not familiar with the area all the while. This finally changed in 2014, when Margaret-Orthodox station was renamed to Arrott Transportation Center. This was a hallmark for a major change to come for the station...

Station Review #79: Wyoming (SEPTA)

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Wyoming is a station along SEPTA's Broad Street Subway, served by the B1 service. The station is located at Broad Street and Wyoming Avenue, in the Logan neighborhood of Philadelphia.  Tour The entrance. A closer look at one of the entrances A very sad corner in the staircase The staircase Much like every other BSL station, there are at least two maps, one for the B and one of the main SEPTA maps as well.  Much of the inside of the station outside of the faregates The giant fence that cuts through the station It's pretty clear how similar this station is to Fairmount station, right down to the giant fence that cuts the entire station in half. Somehow, this feels worse than there just being a wall there.  Wyoming, like every other subway station without express service made by the City of Philadelphia has a mosaic wall The platform The tracks,...

Station Review #75: Wayne Junction (SEPTA)

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Sign Wayne Junction is a train station located in the Wayne Junction neighborhood of Philadelphia. It has service from SEPTA's Airport, Chestnut Hill East, Fox Chase, Glenside Combined, Lansdale - Doylestown, and Warminister lines.  History  Old Wayne Junction station Wayne Junction was first built in 1881 as a station along Germantown Pike that also served as a junction station. This junction allowed trains from Germantown, Chestnut Hill, Bethlehem, Doylestown, and Newtown to all converge along the Reading Main line, which made transfers more convenient for passengers. Both the Reading Railroad and the B&O railroad used the station, so eventually, services from all over the US that went through Philadelphia started going through Wayne Junction as well.  Alas, the era of train being the main mode of travel eventually ended in the US by the 1950s. This caused the decline of Wayne Junction station. Even after this, there still was intercity train...