Suburban Station’s Escalator to Nowhere (and other mysteries)

[dcipjr]

Hey all,

I’ve noticed for years that there’s an escalator that goes into a wall at the east end of Suburban Station, on the platforms for tracks 1 and 2. Does anyone know where this used to go?

I’ve heard stories about a connection from Suburban tracks to the BSL, was this it?

I was down there today and finally got to snap a picture. It looks like there might have been stairs next to the escalator, too, that were covered up (presumably long ago).

56335FD9-3D54-4447-BA59-FABA4159F27B.jpeg (571.83 KiB) Viewed 2966 times

Does anyone know?

Sorry for the crappy picture. There were signs warning me not to go further, bad lighting, cell phone camera, general sketchiness.

[mcgrath618]

I'm pretty sure the same exit is still used on the platform for tracks 3 & 4. It just goes up to the concourse between Suburban and City Hall.

[dcipjr]

I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing—there’s a flight of stairs further up the platform on each track, but tracks 3 and 4 don’t have the escalator along the east end.

Prior to the commuter tunnel, was there a wall along the entire east end of Suburban Station? I see that beyond tracks 3 and 4 at the east end, the platforms connect so you can walk between them. Perhaps 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 had the same connection at one time? Then all the platforms would have been able to access the escalator.

If it did go to the BSL platforms, that would make sense.

[scotty269]

http://railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=82415#p82415

That 'rump' is there becasue they used to have a direct entrance from the 'Municipal Services' building to the platform via that escalator. if you go upstairs and walk 'down the platform' you can look in the glass to escalator area. It's all still there, ready to carry passengers, but it blocked off. Another stupid SEPTA 'cost saving' idea.

[dcipjr]

Ah ha...I have read a lot of the threads on here about mystery locations but never saw that thread. Thanks!