Melrose Park Station

Last Sunday, as well as 3 Sundays ago, I rode the "Combined" line from Elkins Park to 30th St., because the line I ride on a daily basis (R8 Fox Chase) has horrible Sunday headways, and the R1/R2/R3/R5 is only an additional 5+ minutes away.

Anyway, I noticed that in both directions (going to and from the city) that nobody boarded or exited the train at Melrose Park station, and that the parking lot was empty.

My question: does anybody use Melrose Park Station, say, during the week, or is it just another always-empty SEPTA station? Does it get at least decent ridership?

Better not let SEPTA hear you say how easy it was to get on at Elkins instead of the R8...they'll be out there with plywood boarding up the last remnant of the Newtown line...

Melrose Park has 322 boardings a day. An empty parking lot on Sundays doesn't mean much, even though the parking is free on weekends.

jfrey40535 wrote:Better not let SEPTA hear you say how easy it was to get on at Elkins instead of the R8...they'll be out there with plywood boarding up the last remnant of the Newtown line...

Pfft... very funny... SEPTA won't close the line because they're too lazy to go anywhere near it...

If SEPTA would come out on the line once in a while, maybe they'd notice that weeds growing out of weeds on the station platform isn't normal...

Or maybe, they think the line's already abandonded... after all my home station is all covered up in grafitti and weeds.

matt1168 wrote:My question: does anybody use Melrose Park Station, say, during the week, or is it just another always-empty SEPTA station? Does it get at least decent ridership?

Decent, as Bob notes, but not as good as it used to be. Ridership (particularly park/ride) there took a big hit from the 92-93 rail shutdown, and another one when SEPTA lowered RRD fares at Fern Rock to City Transpass. Parking lot is mostly empty on weekdays too, and the station is listed in SEPTA's top ten with available parking.

The Oak Lane Middle Track was completely removed over the last couple of weeks.

Why did they take that track out? If every other train skips the station, wouldn't it make sense to keep them on the middle track and not buzzing by the platforms?

Maybe someone can answer here real quick, but I noticed Amtrak does that too in certain cases, where a train will be on the outer tracks and buzz by a station at full speed. Isn't that a safety issue? In some cases the trains dont sound the horn or bell.

jfrey40535 wrote:Why did they take that track out? If every other train skips the station, wouldn't it make sense to keep them on the middle track and not buzzing by the platforms?

Nope, because you would have a speed restriction in the curves going on and off that center track (which isn't long enough for passing at speed). Not to mention you would need expensive interlocking signals at both ends too.

jfrey40535 wrote:Why did they take that track out?

The track has been used intermittently over the years, most recently to divert southbound traffic from the running track to allow the construction of high-level platforms at Melrose.

jfrey40535 wrote:Why did they take that track out?

Why DIDN'T they take that track out fifty years ago?

The middle track at Melrose Park was only reinstalled in the mid-1980's when the Valley Road underpass was replaced. It was used as a shoo-fly, and when the bridge project was completed, the rail was left behind, but disconnected at each end.

It was last used to reroute #1 track around the southbound platform construction there last year. The welded rail from the bridge project was pulled up and replaced with jointed rail. Now it sits, disconnected again, its use completed.

Parking at Melrose Park is free 24-7 (though that may change once the new outbound platform is completed; other former free parking stations went "pay" after the station was rebuilt). Space has been limited ever since station reconstruction began, and is even more limited, now that construction has begun on the northbound side.

The lot has always been full to capacity on weekdays, as I've never gotten a spot there after 8am and have to drive either to Jenkintown or North Hills if I need to use the trains. Weekend space (as with most RRD lots) is plentiful.

As a note: The new southbound platform can fully hold a 6-car train, while the new northbound platform will only fully hold a 4-car train unless you pull the head car off the platform to the rear vestibule (thus platforming the head vestibule of the 6th car).

Silverliner II wrote:Parking at Melrose Park is free 24-7 (though that may change once the new outbound platform is completed; other former free parking stations went "pay" after the station was rebuilt). Space has been limited ever since station reconstruction began, and is even more limited, now that construction has begun on the northbound side.

[snip]

The lot has always been full to capacity on weekdays, as I've never gotten a spot there after 8am and have to drive either to Jenkintown or North Hills if I need to use the trains.

Huh? Melrose is one of SEPTA's top ten stations with available parking.
And AFAIK, the parking charge is the same as at all the other stations.

Well, I never found a place to park at Melrose on a weekday after the AM rush yet. After 1 or 2pm, a slot here and there would open up.

Indeed, parking at Melrose Park is free at all times (unless, as I said it changed since the new platform opened up). I've never paid a dime there in using that station for the last three years. Another free parking station is Bristol on the R7 Trenton.

As I said before, some stations that had been free went to pay status after being rebuilt, and Yardley comes to mind in that category. Melrose Park may likely join it when the work there is finished.

Silverliner II wrote:Another free parking station is Bristol on the R7 Trenton.

As is Levittown.

Is the inbound side of Cornwells Heights free? THe outbound side retained the $.50 machines from before the park-n-ride construction that last time I was there.
Still true?

I always thought that the $.50 was a tax on the efficient and on the people unwilling to ride the shuttle bus to the free side!