Lansdale 9th street

[jackintosh11]

I rode by the station on Saturday. It looks very close to completion. When is it slated to open and what will the name be?

[jackintosh11]

Opening this Sunday
http://septa.org/rebuilding/9th-st.html

[Head-end View]

Will this replace the old station in the Downtown area? If yes, what will be done with the old station building and parking lots?

[jackintosh11]

No, this is just a supplemental station on the Doylestown branch. It will serve as additional parking during the lansdale parking garage construction, but it will also remain afterwards.

[Suburban Station]

Gotta love stations within walking distance of each other

[Head-end View]

I'm surprised SEPTA's okay with that. On Long Island if a scheme like this was proposed the LIRR would be against having to build an additional station and make an additional stop that would further delay trains. Did SEPTA actually pay for this new station or did the local municipality foot the bill? Oh never mind, I see the answer in the press release about the shared funding by many agencies. Interesting.

[The EGE]

Well, the station is open. The media is reporting it's the first new station on SEPTA in nearly 20 years. I believe the last was Eastwick, opened 1997.

[jackintosh11]

I think Thorndale was opened in 1999

[BPP1999]

I'm surprised SEPTA's okay with that. On Long Island if a scheme like this was proposed the LIRR would be against having to build an additional station and make an additional stop that would further delay trains. Did SEPTA actually pay for this new station or did the local municipality foot the bill? Oh never mind, I see the answer in the press release about the shared funding by many agencies. Interesting.

By focusing time/energy/resources/effort on unneeded stations and station improvements, they provide themselves additional reasons not to be able to expand their system. This policy is something any visionless, loser organization would undertake. People in NY would not tolerate mismanagement and lack of vision the way we do.

[chuchubob]

9th Street station photo

[MACTRAXX]

I'm surprised SEPTA's okay with that. On Long Island if a scheme like this was proposed the LIRR would be against having to build an additional station and make an additional stop that would further delay trains. Did SEPTA actually pay for this new station or did the local municipality foot the bill? Oh never mind, I see the answer in the press release about the shared funding by many agencies. Interesting.

By focusing time/energy/resources/effort on unneeded stations and station improvements, they provide themselves additional reasons not to be able to expand their system. This policy is something any visionless, loser organization would undertake. People in NY would not tolerate mismanagement and lack of vision the way we do.

BPP and HEV:

I agree with both of you - it would be much harder to open a station similar to 9th Street-Lansdale on either
the LIRR or MNCR...

I will mention Republic - which closed in the Fall of 1986 during the LIRR Hicksville-Ronkonkoma Electrification.
Ridership there was steadily increasing - including significant reverse commuter use - but the rationale used to
close the station that it was too close to Farmingdale - about one mile - and these stations would be too close
together to allow higher speed train service. Planners figured that riders would use connecting bus service to
the NYS 110 Corridor from Farmingdale but few did - and that ridership was lost. Recently there has been some
mention to re-open Republic - which should have not been closed in the firstplace - for a substantial sum...

9th Street-Lansdale is under a mile and within walking distance of central Lansdale as mentioned and to me
unless this station can attract a significant permanent ridership this should have been built as a temporary
station - it will be interesting to see how many riders use this station - and to see what happens when the
Lansdale parking garage and other station improvements are completed.

With the addition of this new station will SEPTA seek to close Fortuna?
Fortuna's problem is lack of parking even though it is on Cowpath Road and near North Broad Street...

Lansdale Borough now has three separate SEPTA RRD stations within its boundaries including Pennbrook.
I just do not see - outside of pass holders - anyone paying $4 on board to ride between these stations...

MACTRAXX

[JeffK]

Lansdale Borough now has three separate SEPTA RRD stations within its boundaries including Pennbrook.

There's a very similar station density in Norristown where the TC, Main Street, and Elm Street are within a few blocks of each other. However all three seem to be heavily used on weekdays so it's difficult to see Main or Elm as redundant unless parking could be consolidated. IMO that's unlikely given how both the roads and rails are configured there.

That said, overall RRD station spacings are some of the closest of any comparable system in the country. That's a major factor in SEPTA's relatively low average speed figures. The problem is that nearly any effort to close or consolidate stations is met with loud opposition. It's the same objection that's raised every time SEPTA proposes improving city bus speeds by only stopping at every other block. Even though skip-stops are common practice in many other cities, it ain't gonna happen in Philadelphia!

[jackintosh11]

18 trains a day also terminate/originate in Lansdale, and none of them serve 9th street.

[CComMack]

The parking crunch in Downtown Lansdale is the proximate reason for 9th Street, but the real reasons are Lansdale Hospital on one side, and 90 acres of developable land on the other. Much as Development Oriented Transit makes me twitchy, it's still a bargain.

And please, BPP, never imply that NYC doesn't tolerate mismanagement and lack of vision. It hurts when I snort coffee out my nose. MTA regularly wastes more than SEPTA's annual capital budget on mismanaged projects and turf wars between agencies.

[ExCon90]

Lansdale Borough now has three separate SEPTA RRD stations within its boundaries including Pennbrook.

That said, overall RRD station spacings are some of the closest of any comparable system in the country. That's a major factor in SEPTA's relatively low average speed figures. The problem is that nearly any effort to close or consolidate stations is met with loud opposition. It's the same objection that's raised every time SEPTA proposes improving city bus speeds by only stopping at every other block. Even though skip-stops are common practice in many other cities, it ain't gonna happen in Philadelphia!

Closing a station on SEPTA Regional Rail immediately raises the problem of how to find additional parking at the remaining adjacent stations. As far as I know, in most places parking is the ruling constraint against increasing ridership, and if the displaced passengers can't find parking at a nearby station they're gone. As it is, SEPTA can't even close 49th Street and Angora, which have no parking spaces, because of local political opposition and despite the proximity of two trolley routes with much more frequent service.