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Showing posts with the label Regional Rail

Station Review #141: Penllyn (SEPTA)

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Penllyn is a station on SEPTA's Lansdale-Doylestown Line. The station is located at 908 Pershing Road in Lower Gwynnedd Township, PA. Despite this, the station attracts traffic from nearby Whitpain township (particularly Blue Bell) as well. Penllyn as a village is located in both townships, and grew mainly in part due to this station. Penllyn is a zone 3 station.  History   This station's history is to an extent unclear. Penllyn was built by the NPRR when they made their main line to Bethlehem in the 1860s or so. If Penllyn was built for the opening of the line, or if it was an infill station built after is unknown. What  is  known however is that this station was demolished by the Reading Railroad and replaced by a newer station in 1903.    In the 1990s, SEPTA rented part of the depot to CDNow, a popular online CD sales service, for its headquarters. This lasted for a few years until they then moved to Jenkintown and finally Fort Washington. Th...

Station Review #139: West Trenton (SEPTA)

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West Trenton is the terminus station on SEPTA's West Trenton Line. The station is located at 3 Railroad Avenue in Ewing Township, NJ. This station is located in the small village of West Trenton.  History West Trenton Station was built at least as far back as 1929 as an infill station. For a long time, West Trenton was a normal station along the Reading line from Philadelphia to Jersey City. Services such as the Wall Street and the Crusader ran that route, all terminating at the now nonexistent Communipaw Terminal, where passengers would then take a ferry at the nearby Weehawken Terminal into New York City.  In the 1960s, a new track connection was built for the Reading line that allowed trains to go onto the PRR main line, which meant that a new service pattern arose, with trains taking the Reading line between Reading Terminal and Newark Penn station. It got passed onto SEPTA, and then was broken into two lines at West Trenton in 1981, with NJT runnin...

Station Review #136: Miquon (SEPTA)

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Miquon is a station on SEPTA's Manayunk-Norristown Line. The station is located at River and Manor Roads in the village of Miquon, PA, itself located within Whitemarsh Township, PA. Four Manaynk-Norristown Line trains a day end at Miquon, and the station is often used as a turnback point in various situations, having more operational importance than the average station along the line.  History Miquon station seems to have been built as an infill station sometime around 1880, and named Lafayette. At some point, a shelter was added. In 1921, the station was renamed to Miquon. Besides things like signal upgrades, not much has changed since then.  Tour Train The station  Miquon station, while quaint, is not accessible. Validator Parking One of Miquon's only real amenities is parking, but it's not even the most well suited for this compared to other stations along the line.  The old depot Due to terra...

Station Review #124: Highland (SEPTA)

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Highland is a station on SEPTA's Chestnut Hill West line. The station is located at 8412 Seminole Avenue in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia. If one doesn't count the Chestnut Hill West Line platforms at North Philadelphia station as a separate station, Highland station has the lowest ridership of any station on the Chestnut Hill West Line, as well as the 9th least used overall.  History The Philadelphia, Germantown, and Chestnut Hill branch of the Connecting Railway (a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad made to connect) was established in 1884, and a line from North Philadelphia to Chestnut Hill to connect with the PRR main line was finished in 1887, and with it Highland station opened. A large depot was built for the station, but it didn't seem to be used a lot.  In 1916, this section of the PRR Chestnut Hill branch was grade separated, and with that the old depot was demolished. In its place went a small wooden shelter. At some ...