Wawa Extension

Thanks for the historic photos.

Some points from http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his480/r ... -trans.htm:

1. The Media-West Chester branch was built from 1852 to 1859.

2. The PRR took over the branch in 1879.

3. The Media branch was electrified in 1928, and the Frazer branch was abandoned in 1932.

4. Sunday passenger service on the Media-West Chester branch was suspended in 1958.

5. Regularly scheduled service was completely suspended on the this branch in 1986.

Also sometime in the mid-late 1950's, through service from Suburban Station to West Chester was cut at Media requiring a change of trains at Media. Some through service was restored in the 1960's ( I remember riding, on an everyday basis for about three weeks in 1967, a peak period through train, but it was one of a VERY few)

How did the change of trains work at Media? Did the train from West Chester stop just behind the Media train on the inbound track or did they use opposite platforms? Same platform transfers would seem logical to me but this is SEPTA (in the later years, anyway.)

Speaking of Media, I lived about 2 blocks from Media station from 2000 to 2002 and wondered when the station platforms were reconfigured. It looks like the outbound platform at one time had an exit up the hillside to Orange Street rather than requiring crossing the tracks after the train leaves. Anyone know when that changed?

Thanks,

Bob

If you were travelling from the east ( Phila- or Lansdowne in my case) the train from Phila simply pulled in behind the train from West Chester--- ie a same platform- same track transfer. In the case of the peak period through train which I mentioned, which usually had between eight and ten cars between Philly and Media,--- that train would pull in, and the first two cars would be uncoupled and only those two cars would proceed on to West Chester. ( If you boarded, say at Lansdowne, one of the cars behind the second car, when you gave your ticket or paid your fare to the trainman, and he saw that you were going to West Chester, he would tell you to walk through the train at the next station [while it was stopped] so that you could be in the portion of the train which was running all the way through) This was in PRR days--- I don't know what SEPTA did as I moved out of the area in 1967, about two months after my last trip on that train.

An article by Andrew Saul on 7/18/04 in the Delco Times summarizes some pros and cons of extending service to West Chester. Here are some points he makes that I thought were interesting:

1. Most of the $51 million cost is for building the [500-space] parking lot at Wawa, which is surrounded by wetlands.

2. West Chester RR trains travel on the existing track at 35 mph.

3. Why install a $1 million/mile signal system when you will only run one train at a time?

4. Just having a train to West Chester is more important than its average speed to get there.

(Source:http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?news ... 8171&rfi=8)

I would offer the counterargument that parking and speed of the service are much higher priorities than what it was in the past, and worth the investment. Parking at every station from Primos to Elwyn is maxed out, and the trains need to get up to at least 60 mph between stations to be competitive with driving at rush hours.

From my 1955 PRR timetable, there were 11 trips from West Chester each day, and the trip time to Suburban station was about 1 hour and 5 minutes, including a transfer at Media. Peak headways were one hour and off-peak headways were two hours. This is rather minimal service, although the PRR Schuylkill branch to Manayunk and Norristown had even less service.

Service to West Chester was even more sparce in the days after the 1955 date on that timetable. I suspect this is the reason why many people ( at least many WCSC students) were unaware that the train even existed. The difference in the level of service between Phila. and Media, and Medial & West Chester was, even in those days, striking.

I found my old SEPTA schedules while preparing to move to my new house and I pulled out the R3 Elwyn/West Chester schedules.

The oldest I have is from November 10, 1984. On weekdays there were 5 through trains, 1 shuttle train, and 4 shuttle buses inbound from West Chester. One through train ran express from Secane. There were 6 through trains outbound and 4 shuttle buses with no outbound expresses.

All stations between West Chester and Elwyn were flag stops. Per the schedule the mileage from West Chester to Elwyn is 12.4. Trains took 25 minutes to cover this segment. The express from West Chester left at 7:05 arriving Suburban at 8:13 (68 minutes). Local trains took 73 minutes. Track speeds on the R3 were slow on the entire line. The express runs between Secane and 30th Street are listed as 7.9 miles but 20 minutes was scheduled. Currently 14 minutes are allowed in the timetable with the addition of University City (hey, SEPTA has improved somewhere!!). The fastest train listed was the 5:15AM train from Suburban with took 58 minutes to get to West Chester.

Saturday service consisted of 9 shuttle trains inbound and 8 shuttle trains and 1 through train outbound. Most transfers occurred at Elwyn. Shuttle trains ran approximately every 2 hours with 1 hour gaps in the early AM and at dinner time.

As noted by others, there was no Sunday service past Elwyn.

Based on faster running speed and some closed stations west of Elwyn here is a proposed schedule based on the current express train 9340. Lenni and Glen Riddle would probably be flag stops but I would want service there due to the close walk-in patronage that could be developed from houses in Lenni and several large apartment complexes in Glen Riddle.

West Chester.............7:27
WC University............7:28
Westtown..................7:32
Cheyney...................7:34
Wawa........................7:39
Lenni.........................7:41
Glen Riddle................7:43
Elwyn........................7:47
Media........................7:51
Moylan-Rose valley....7:53
Wallingford................7:55
Swarthmore...............7:58
Morton.......................8:01
Secane......................8:04
University City............8:15
30th St.......................8:18
Suburban...................8:23

I think it would probably be best to run 2 (maybe 3) peak trains with this schedule in each way. A "super" express each way would be good too, running express to/from Media skipping Moylan to Secane. That should cut about 4 minutes from the trip getting it down to 52 minutes for the 27.4 miles. Run local service the length of the line every 2 hours during midday and evenings and on Saturdays.

Regards,

Bob

What-- no stop at Lansdowne? IIRC, in PRR days, this was the first stop after 30th Street on some evening peak period expresses. ( I will admit to a bias-- Lansdowne was the station closest to my West Yeadon childhood home).

If service was electrified all the way to West Chester, what was the point of running shuttle trains? Why not just operate them like the Doylestown branch?

jfrey40535 wrote:If service was electrified all the way to West Chester, what was the point of running shuttle trains? Why not just operate them like the Doylestown branch?

Even in the PRR days, once the line was "broken" at Media the Media- West Chester portion was essentially a shuttle. There was a significant difference in the ridership level between the Phila- Media segment and the Media- West Chester segment, plus the Media-West Chester segment was single track, and could not handle the volume of traffic that ran between Phila & Media.

Can anyone say if the proposals call for double-tracking all the way to Wawa? It appears from the photos that the ROW provisioning changes West of Elwyn to single track.

If this turns into a major traffic generator, Single Track would suck.

Perhaps running Non Stop, Elwyn to Wawa, would help.

Garry

I don't have any insider information on this project, but it's probably too early to tell what the track configuration will be Wawa-Elwyn. I suspect that keeping the existing single-track setup requires checking and making repairs to existing structures including catenary supports, retaining walls, bridges, and embankments, while double-tracking would be like building a new railroad, except for the catenary supports which look like they were designed for double-track.

I do not think that single-track will be a major problem since this is only three miles, and other regional rail lines end in single track, including the R6 Norristown.

Lucius Kwok wrote:... other regional rail lines end in single track, including the R6 Norristown.

But that stretch of the R6 is less than a mile long and effectively serves only to connect three very closely spaced stations. In any case other lines do have longer single tracks so three miles would most likely not cause any difficulties. You just have to make an apples-to-apples comparison.

There was a FHWA/FTA report released last week, "A Two-Phase Peer-to-Peer Roundtable on Potential Transit
Projects in the Nine-County Philadelphia Region," which mentions many of the region's railroad projects. It includes a short description of the Wawa extension:

Its infrastructure needs include developing a new station at Wawa with upgraded access to US Route 1, upgrading track with new second track at Wawa, upgrading the catenary system including structural repairs, developing a new signal and communication system, upgrading bridges, restoring ditches and culverts, and stabilizing retaining walls and embankments. A Feasibility Study was completed in June of 2000 and $2 million has been approved for engineering. An RFP for consultants is expected to be established by March 2004. The project is estimated to require $40.6 million in 1999 dollars for capital, and $1.5 million per year to operate, and to have a ridership of 1,064 passengers per day in 2020.

It mentions a second track at Wawa, but doesn't say anything about the track between Wawa and Elwyn.

Also, the Delco Daily Times has an article on progress on the Wawa extension:

Kane noted so far it’s taken $2 million and 42 months of engineering studies and related research, starting in the early 1990s, to get the project to this point. He said project engineers next must select a firm and then a contract must be negotiated by SEPTA.

The construction phase probably will get under way in three or four years.It will take 24 to 36 months to complete.

This means construction beginning in 2007-2008, and opening in 2009-2011.

Kane said extensive rehabilitation work on the three-mile stretch of track includes straightening out an existing curve. Along with new infrastructure and a new station, a parking lot for 300-350 vehicles on three or more acres must be developed.

As for extending the line nine miles beyond Wawa to West Chester, Kane indicated cost is the main reason why this is unlikely to happen.

It's 9.4 miles from Wawa to West Chester, and the track is in similar condition to the Wawa-Elwyn part. I'd estimate $157 million in today's dollars for construction, based on the total project cost for the Wawa extension.