R8 Fox Chase Line

Hey! (First post)

Anyway, I live about 10 blocks from the R8 Fox Chase Ryers station in Northeast Philadelphia. Lately, I have noticed that shorter trains are being used on the line, and that ridership is decreasing rapidly, as more and more people move away and decide to drive to the city. Does anybody have any information on average daily riders on the R8 line, and if SEPTA has any plans for this line? Also, why all the decreasing ridership? They ran a single car train last weekend, which was 1/2 full. Will the R8 line end up like the Cynwyd line?

It seems that the heaviest R8 travel is M-F peak periods. Off peak and weekend ridership has always been on the low side. Too many other options are available and at lower fares.

The RRD at SEPTA is so sad that I almost want to just give up and buy a car for my weekend commutes to the city.

On the CHW side of the line, I am usually either the only one to board or am one of >5 to board the 10:20a inbound to Center City at Queen Lane. Frequently, I was the only one to board on Sunday at that time, though now, INEPTA axed that train. Now, I have to trek to the other side of campus to catch the earlier R6 at East Falls. I am lucky that I have a second line to turn to, but some people don't. What do they do? Drive.

I have yet to see a single car train arrive at Queen Lane on the weekends, but if this keeps up, that may be the case pretty soon.

How can SEPTA improve the ridership on their lines? Well, increase frequency of trains to less than 90 minutes off peak. If you could catch a train every 30 minutes, I am sure that more people would opt for rail travel. Plus, keep the darn stations OPEN during off peak times! There needs to be someone at the station as long as there is a 'station' there and if there is a train arriving.

SEPTA needs to be vigilant and go out there and GET passengers to ride trains.

queenlnr8 wrote:The RRD at SEPTA is so sad that I almost want to just give up and buy a car for my weekend commutes to the city.

On the CHW side of the line, I am usually either the only one to board or am one of >5 to board the 10:20a inbound to Center City at Queen Lane. Frequently, I was the only one to board on Sunday at that time, though now, INEPTA axed that train. Now, I have to trek to the other side of campus to catch the earlier R6 at East Falls. I am lucky that I have a second line to turn to, but some people don't. What do they do? Drive.

I have yet to see a single car train arrive at Queen Lane on the weekends, but if this keeps up, that may be the case pretty soon.

How can SEPTA improve the ridership on their lines? Well, increase frequency of trains to less than 90 minutes off peak. If you could catch a train every 30 minutes, I am sure that more people would opt for rail travel. Plus, keep the darn stations OPEN during off peak times! There needs to be someone at the station as long as there is a 'station' there and if there is a train arriving.

SEPTA needs to be vigilant and go out there and GET passengers to ride trains.

You should see Ryers Station... it is pathetic. Basically, it is a rotted and breaking staircase up to a patch of grass and a plank of wood. It is considered a "flag stop" but since trains must come around a curve to see the "platform", so all trains must stop there.

I vote the R8 line for Philadelphia's most upsetting and deteriorated line. You may think it's the Cynwyd line, but surprisingly this line is well maintained.

I attribute a lot of the deplorable conditions at Ryers and Fox Chase to the hoodlums that hang there at night. Skate boarders, beer partygoers etc hang at both stations and when you get off the train you have to make your way around their activities. God forbid they move!!!! Fox Chase station is so deplorable looking they should just knock it down!

I was running today along Chelten Ave. today and I took a little break at the Chelten Station. I decided to walk the ROW and it looks as if there is an abandoned station building just past the current 'station' on the outbound side. Along with the abandoned building is a HUGE parking lot!

But, what does INEPTA do? Squeeze the parking lot next to the bomb shelter station house on the inbound side, let the old station rot to peices and forget the ample parking lot.

Do they not get that they OWN this land? Why not make the best use of it?

aem7 wrote:I attribute a lot of the deplorable conditions at Ryers and Fox Chase to the hoodlums that hang there at night. Skate boarders, beer partygoers etc hang at both stations and when you get off the train you have to make your way around their activities. God forbid they move!!!! Fox Chase station is so deplorable looking they should just knock it down!

Yep that'd be my neighborhood :D Actually, I'd say knock down Ryers first... but there's nothing to knock down. Something should seriously be done about that situation. The first thing that can be done is elevating the line between Ryers and Fox Chase, to eliminate the grade crossing, making it a tiny bit harder to access the tracks. Also, I think Fox Chase should be outfitted with high platforms. Sadly, this is the nicest station on the entire line. The whole line should be rebuilt, I think.

Elevating the line and building new stations with high platforms for the small ridership of the line would be a hard sell. Now, if that line were extended to - - Newtown......... What a great idea!

queenlnr8 wrote:I have yet to see a single car train arrive at Queen Lane on the weekends, but if this keeps up, that may be the case pretty soon.

Ain't gonna happen. Amtrak does not let single MUs on their rails, AFAIK.

Matthew Mitchell wrote:Ain't gonna happen. Amtrak does not let single MUs on their rails, AFAIK.

Ok. Well, don't R8 CHW trains go through to Fox Chase? So, that makes me think that the original poster meant a single married pair EMU rather than a single car. Because if they always go through, then there would have to be some single car running on the NEC.

BTW, isn't the R6 Cynwyd the ONLY line to run single car EMUs?

queenlnr8 wrote:there is an abandoned station building just past the current 'station' on the outbound side. Along with the abandoned building is a HUGE parking lot!

Are you sure that was an abandoned station building? I know there is an abandoned beer distributor on the northbound side that comes very close to the tracks and has a large parking lot that is owned by the adjacent ShopRite, but I don't know about any abandoned station/parking lots near Chelten.

At least I never saw them when I lived pretty much next door...

Sorry, I was just corrected about what that building actually is. It is not an abandoned station. Rather, it is the abandoned Adams Express freight house and their parking lot. (Thanks, Westernfalls!)

Doesn't the R6 Cynwyd run on Amtrak tracks for a short distance with their single car units?

SubwaySurface wrote:Doesn't the R6 Cynwyd run on Amtrak tracks for a short distance with their single car units?

Yes, the R6 Cynwyd Trains run along the R5 Thorndale line until a manual switch onto a single tracked line, right before the Wynnefeld Av. station (or something like that).

The Cynwyd line used to be among the busiest until diesel service was ended and the line was cut back to Cynwyd.

I'm sure SEPTA is trying to kill the final remnant of the Newtown Branch. I'm sure they would love to knock down Newtown Juntion, put up a big fence so that no one can see the CSX trains headed to Neshaminy.

This line in effect is probablly the "Reading equivilant" of the R6 Cynwyd branch. The line used to be much longer, much heavier, and a combination of freight and passenger service until the Conrail era ended. I'm still trying to find info on freight services on the Newtown portion of the line as many sidings exist for warehouses that were built in the 60's and 70's.

Now that the R8 is only a handful of stations, with some of them being in less than desireable neighborhoods, it is becoming harder to justify keeping the line open for a handful of passengers.

I think this is done intentionally as well. Once the parking lots leave, the access leaves so the riders stay in their cars, or as SEPTA loves to tell us "SEEK ALTERNATE MEANS OF TRANSPORTAION". Fox Chase is the only station with a respectable number of parking spaces, after that it might as well be an express to Temple.

SEPTA will never realize that in order for a line to be successful and to reduce its subsidy, you must have lots of riders and you won't get riders if there are no stations. Their ultimate goal is to close every station on the line except for the very last one, then they'll say, oh look how ridership has fallen, well bring in the buses! Finally, since SEPTA has no idea how to coordinate the arrival and departure of buses that do intersect rail stations (which needs to be bi-directional meaning the bus actually needs to wait a few minutes) most people's only option of using a train is to drive there.

Stay tuned....SEPTA IS gearing up for further service reductions this summer. Expect to see Saturday service on most regional lines replaced with Sunday frequency, and a possible termination of service on some regional lines. Either that or a hefty fare hike, but it is coming.