More on "City Rail Concept"

The Philadelphia City Planning Commission on May 17 issued a Final Draft for its Year 2035 City Plan which gives a few more details on its proposed transformation of the SEPTA Railroad Division calling for transitized inner services. The following description is now attached to the otherwise-undefined map ("graph") on page 106 of the final plan:


"Philadelphia has a wealth of regional rail infrastructure that could be leveraged to improve service and to attract potential riders who are currently bypassing rail transit. The City Rail concept is a proposal for a new two-tiered service arrangement with (1) additional stations in a core area to offer more frequent extended service to local travelers and (2) a more traditional express and limited schedule outside of the core area that would accommodate longer distance commuters. The system could be rebranded and the fare structure stream lined to increase ridership and improve overall regional mobility. On the above graph, the two shaded areas represent the two-tiered structure and inner and outer rail areas. Potential implementation steps include:

* Continue to install high level platforms at all Regional Rail stations to facilitate faster turnaround and ADA accessibillity.

* Identify locations within city limits where new regional rail sttions can open to provide rail service to neighborhoods presently served only by bus.

* Expand the "central zone" of Regional Rail fare to include all stations within Philadelphia County to increase transit equity for all residents.

* Pilot higher-frequency service on the Reional Rail line between Center City and a point with high ridership.

* Expand this higher-frequency service City Rail line to multiple lines pending success of pilot.

* Rebrand select Regional Rail lines as part of the rapid transit system."

From the map, the bounds of this first tier are Airport, Marcus Hook, Secane, Bryn Mawr, Cynwyd, Elm Street in Norristown, Chestnut Hill East and West, Glenside, Fox Chase, and Cornwells Heights. The second ("traditional service") tier inexplicably is trimmed back to Del Val College, Woodbourne, and Levittown. There are no costs, other practicalities, or trade-offs discussed; so this concept is accurately a vision from one part of the region, not a developed and mutually-agreed plan.

Having been wary of SEPTA's transitization schemes of the past, I have asked the PCPC website for more specific details, which I await.

delvyrails wrote:The second ("traditional service") tier inexplicably is trimmed back to Del Val College, Woodbourne, and Levittown.

I find this a bit odd. Wonder why no Doylestown, West Trenton, or Trenton?

tgolanos wrote:

delvyrails wrote:The second ("traditional service") tier inexplicably is trimmed back to Del Val College, Woodbourne, and Levittown.

I find this a bit odd. Wonder why no Doylestown, West Trenton, or Trenton?

There's no point of bringing the Doylestown line away from Doylestown. The whole reason I ride the Doylestown line past Lansdale on the small single track is to get to Doylestown. I say: just cut service back to Lansdale and just throw out that one track or use it for training of conductors and engineers.

As to West Trenton that might sever the connection between NJT and SEPTA because of NJT's plan to restore service there as the West Trenton (NJT) line so you could have another alternative to get to New York and Newark without using Amtrak. But, if it must happen, can SEPTA at least provide service to one stop before West Trenton YARDLEY!

With Trenton, don't cut service at Levittown. Cut it at Cornwells Heights, where the Amtrak North Regional and Keystone Service stops and where high level platforms are. There's virtually no ridership between Levittown and Cornwells Heights, from the last reading I observed. SEPTA might as well just get rid of the line entirely if they are going to cut service away from the most used (non-center city station) on the line!~

Why would septa even want to do this? They would lose a lot of ridership and every rider might as well be a walking dollar bill as far as septa is concerned.

It was most likely just an ignorance by the part of the Commission with regards to where SEPTA runs to outside the city. They probably weren't aware it ran into NJ/got as far North as Doylestown.

Which is why it is called the Doylestown Branch.

The former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia rode the first train inbound from Doylestown every morning! And so did many others.

Sorry, grew up in New Britain.

Jeff D'Amelio

jdamelio wrote:Which is why it is called the Doylestown Branch.

The former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia rode the first train inbound from Doylestown every morning! And so did many others.

Sorry, grew up in New Britain.

Jeff D'Amelio

An alumnus of my high school (Joseph Smith Harris) was the President of the Reading Railroad. Just some more fun trivia

The document link is http://www.philaplanning.org/plans/finalDraft.pdf.

The City Rail concept is a proposal for a new two-tiered service arrangement with (1) additional stations
in a core area to offer more frequent and extended service to local travelers and (2) a more traditional express and limited schedule outside
of the core area that would accommodate longer distance commuters.

After reading the language in context, and viewing the map, my interpretation is that the the service levels of the inner areas would move toward S-Bahn standards, that the outer areas would be more frequent than now but not match S-Bahn standards, and service levels to the areas denoted with the thin black line would remain unchanged. I also get the impression that outer zone passengers would be required to change trains at the zone boundary stations in order to reach an inner zone station not within Center City, and vice versa. This approach to service levels is somewhat similar to the Copenhagen S-Tog system. The viability of such a concept on SEPTA RRD is is an open question.

Pilot higher-frequency service on one Regional Rail line between Center City and an intermediate point with high ridership

How would this be accomplished? Where is the excess capacity going to come from? RRD isn't going to become the Kowloon-Canton Railway.

This isn't the first questionable transit idea to emerge from City of Philadelphia planning entities. During the Schuylkill Valley Metro study process, at least one city official offered the idea of extending light rail service from 52nd Street & Lancaster Avenue to East Falls via R6 Cynwyd and the Schuylkill Viaduct with a reversing move at Ivy Ridge!?!

interesting enough on pdf page 111 (printed page 107), it shows a greenway along JFK between 30th and 32nd. hopefully that means the end of the bolt bus parking & traffic jams that ensue.

tgolanos wrote:

delvyrails wrote:The second ("traditional service") tier inexplicably is trimmed back to Del Val College, Woodbourne, and Levittown.

I find this a bit odd. Wonder why no Doylestown, West Trenton, or Trenton?

Three thoughts:

1. Doylestown is 35 miles from the city by rail, 25 miles via Broad Street Line and route 55. That's the route which the city would prefer. Doylestowners' preference doesn't count.

2. West Trenton and Trenton are outside the state and don't pay any subsidy as Delaware does. Let 'em pay up if they want the service.

3. Woodbourne-West Trenton shares tracks with CSX. Avoid "problems".

Still no response from PCPC on my 10 qeustions.

delvyrails wrote:From the map, the bounds of this first tier are Airport, Marcus Hook, Secane, Bryn Mawr, Cynwyd, Elm Street in Norristown, Chestnut Hill East and West, Glenside, Fox Chase, and Cornwells Heights. The second ("traditional service") tier inexplicably is trimmed back to Del Val College, Woodbourne, and Levittown.

My comments in reverse order of the tier descriptions:

I've read the comments already posted regarding the second tier concept. One thing that hasn't been brought up yet though is the question, is there a third tier that includes Doylestown, Yardley, West Trenton, and Trenton?

Even if the two ex-Reading lines were to be cut back, service to Trenton is essential to allow the NJT connection. I've given up hoping for an NJT connection at West Trenton. As for why the proposed turnback for the current West Trenton line is Woodbourne instead of Yardley, my guess is that there's no place to turn around or store trains overnight at Yardley.

Regarding the first tier boundaries, I don't see any listed for the West Trenton line. I realize that there's a dilemma here. Since Glenside is used for both the Warminster line and the Doylestown line, the natural choice for West Trenton would be Noble. However, further out, the line goes back into the city and serves two more stations within Philadelphia - Forest Hills and Somerton. If this commission wants to benefit the Somerton riders, those at Noble, Rydal, Meadowbrook, Bethayres, and Philmont also benefit more than most stations located as far out as they are.

Bill R. wrote:How would this be accomplished? Where is the excess capacity going to come from? RRD isn't going to become the Kowloon-Canton Railway.

Exactly. SEPTA, possibly foolishly, did not take advantage of the Railworks shutdowns to make improvements to the signal system to enhance capacity. Speeds and signal spacings remained largely as they were before the reconstruction. Arguably, the purpose of Railworks was not to enhance capacity but to rebuild the decaying physical infrastructure of the SEPTA Main Line, so you can't definitively fault SEPTA for not adding in a signal/capacity improvement.

I haven't reviewed the document in detail, so I don't know what the planners define as "higher-frequency service". At the very least, this would increase equipment requirements and might require a redesign and rebuilding of the signal system to support closer headways than are possible today.

Bill R. wrote:This isn't the first questionable transit idea to emerge from City of Philadelphia planning entities. During the Schuylkill Valley Metro study process, at least one city official offered the idea of extending light rail service from 52nd Street & Lancaster Avenue to East Falls via R6 Cynwyd and the Schuylkill Viaduct with a reversing move at Ivy Ridge!?!

For the longest time, I thought the Cynwyd line should have been extended back to Ivy Ridge and converted to light rail with a new connection to Center City via Girard Avenue, the City Branch and the Ben Franklin Parkway. But having trains do a reverse move at Ivy Ridge is completely impractical. Better to continue serving East Falls separately.

However, with an impending conversion of the Cynwyd Line past Cynwyd into a bike trail, none of what I described will happen any time soon.

Also, I think if the city wants to run transit-like frequencies on Regional Rail lines, they should choose one of the lines that run entirely within Philly (Fox Chase, Airport, CHE or CHW). Even better would be to convert one of those lines into a subway line as a pilot project, but that would involve significant construction costs.

One of the biggest lapses in SEPTA's system (aside from the obvious lack of subway extension to Northeast and Mayayunk/Roxborough) is the lack of good north/south rapid transit in DelCo. A bus ride from southern DelCo to 69th streen can take 35-45 minutes and you don't know how many times I've missed a bus because of traffic congestion around the station. One of the worst commutes in DelCo is up Lansdowne or Church, as they are two lane roads with too many lights and often you get a driver who decides to do 15 mph the whole trip, backing up cars for blocks behind them.

So, has SEPTA ever considered a Cobbs Creek light rail line? Seriously, build the occasionally discussed "Eastwick Transportation Center" (this could serve as a Cornwell Heights type collector station for inbound I-95 traffic from the south), with both regional rail and trolley/light rail access. There's a ton of city owned land in Eastwick that pretty much serves as a large dumping ground for trash and old tires.

From the Eastwick Transportation Center, one could run trains up the existing 36 ROW, then up Island and then over to Cobbs Creek and then follow the park up to Millbourne and into 69th street. This would also provide much better access between regional rail lines as well for DelCo Residents, as you could put stations at the Airport, Media Line and the Wilmington Lines and eliminate the trip into Center City for transfers between them.

Then again, something like this might happen when Septa actually extends service to northeast....lol .

city rail is a penn based concept adopted by the politicians. it's very easy to see that plan is a mish mash of citizen desires, city planning, and special interests (cultural corridor? only exists in political minds)
city rail seems like an ivory tower concept, looks great on paper but...
one place they should look to improve is the airport line which needs to run twice as often and probably five minutes faster. if the only thing that gets built is the blvd subway I'll be happy

But can the SEPTA Main Line handle an Airport Line running on 15-minute headways in addition to the other lines running on 20- and 30-minute headways during the rush? Where would you turn the extra trains coming from the Airport?

Might it be better if the Airport Line were to run on its own right-of-way (i.e. an "Airport Subway")?