Direct Connection - Subway to 30th Street Rail Station

gprimr1 wrote:

alewifebp wrote:That's a good question that I don't have an answer for. Perhaps usage? Even obscure stations in NYC have plenty of patronage, as well as the tunnels that lead to them, making them not as dangerous.

I would say that's a big part of it, although I do hear about crime in the outlying stations, it's unlikely you'd see more than some pickpocketing with how busy Manhatten stations are.

I also feel like NYC has more police on patrol. Walking around the Port Authority Bus Terminal station, I saw at least 5 troopers, heavily armed with rifles, keeping an eye out.

I feel that the reason for seeing more (heavily armed) police in NYC than in Philly, is because it is much more likely for terrorists to target NYC than Philly.

You are correct, but it also has a side effect of reducing crime in general.

gprimr1 wrote:You are correct, but it also has a side effect of reducing crime in general.

There is not currently a serious problem with crime at 30th Street

Suburban Station wrote:

gprimr1 wrote:You are correct, but it also has a side effect of reducing crime in general.

There is not currently a serious problem with crime at 30th Street

Probably due to the major building boom and revitalization going on in that area. If I understood correctly, back in the 1970's/early 1980's, just about every neighborhood west of the Schuylkill River was crime-ridden, probably including the area surrounding 30th Street Station.

Everyone:

On Wednesday March 16th between 4 and 7pm at 30th Street Station there will be a presentation about a proposed
new passageway and connection between the Market Street Subway and the main 30th Street Station building that
will include a domed concourse between the two replacing the remnants of the long closed passageway connection.

From the Business section of the Inquirer:
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/r ... lleys.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This proposed concourse is the result of a $5 million dollar study of the station area and any construction will not
take place until the 2020s decade at the earliest - provided the money and will is there to proceed to build it.

If anyone can stop down and take in this presentation please do - and post findings about this proposed project.

MACTRAXX

It's a massive program backed (in planning--don't know about funding) by Amtrak, Brandywine Realty (a developer and owner of Cira Centre), Drexel University, SEPTA, PennDOT (because I-76 and connections are involved), and I can't remember who all else. It contemplates the creation of an entirely new neighborhood over various parts of the north throat of 30th St., Penn Coach Yard, Race St. engine terminal, and Powelton Ave. coach yard, mixed residential and commercial, with lots of parkland, with some highrises near the river, their positions staggered so as not to impede a river view from farther inland. Final completion is tentatively 2040, so you may wish to clip and save this so your grandchildren can monitor its progress. One project to be tackled early is restoration (more properly a re-creation) of the underground passage between the railroad and subway stations, now separated by 30th Street. There will be a large, round subsurface plaza, apparently open to the sky, at least partially, with retail space along the route between the stations. Although beyond the scope of the project itself, there is provision for a light-rail line originating at a new plaza immediately opposite the station, west of 30th St., which could traverse the new neighborhood to be built, and possibly terminating at the Zoo, which I was told has been pushing for some time for good transportation access to 30th St. Station. (It occurs to me that 2040 is 110 years after the whole 30th St. Station idea was begun.)

There is also to be an intercity bus station just north of the station; I inquired whether Bolt and Megabus would be required to contribute something in order to use it. I was told that the City may require those lines to use the terminal rather than the Kennedy Blvd. sidewalk, and preliminary discussions indicate that those lines are receptive to paying for the use of the terminal; apparently they are already doing so at Boston South Station.

It remains to be seen how exactly this will play out. The architects would like to build straight across to the mezzanine level but that would involve reconfiguring Amtrak yard tracks and providing alternative access for maintenance vehicles. There is an alternative vision for this but from just the one diagram I saw, I'm not getting it. All I know for sure is that the original passageway with 100 steps or whatever it has for access and the crime it presented is never coming back.

The crime it presented?

Suburban Station wrote:The crime it presented?

SS: What Wingnut meant to write was "the problems that it presented" in which criminal activity was one
of the prime reasons the underground passageway was closed back in the early 1980s.

This was just a typo on his part...MACTRAXX

Is that the reason why a couple of stairways on the upper level 30th street are closed/blocked?

I think it is good planning to reopen the passage between 30th Street Station and the Elevated/trolley system, would have been nice if it had been there when I commuted through there everyday. I have been monitoring this massive proposed renovation of the 30th street area and rail yards, I don't think anyone should hold their breath on most of this project. The Pennsylvania Railroad itself proposed building over the coach yards in the 1930s, 75 years has passed and it has never happened. The way I understand things, Philadelphia had a glut of unfilled commercial/high rise/office space and a reluctance of businesses to come into Philadelphia because of the tax structure, I seriously doubt businesses are going to come out from the woodwork to rent and assign space in new buildings over top of Penn coach yard. Secondly, the actual cost of engineer, building, etc, seems at a glance insurmountable for many of the parties involved. That being said, I think the best hope for the project is the 30th street connection to the trolleys and maybe a remodeling of of the exterior space on that side of the building.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=221324

I believe that the 30th St area is ripe for redevelopment, especially the air rights over the train tracks!!! I still don't understand why SEPTA doesn't have a direct connection for the 30th St subway station into the Amtrak Station while Boston has direct connections for North and South Stations, NYC has then for Penn and Grand Central Stations, and DC has one for Union Station. I'm not sure whether this has anything to do with SEPTA or Amtrak, but it seems like it's more on SEPTA's end since they were the ones maintaining the connector tunnel. It could've been a lot easier and the tunnel would've still been used had SEPTA easily ceded the maintenance to Amtrak, but I still don't understand why the tunnel as of today remains closed!!!