I am fairly certain that the tracks will not be removed in this repaving effort. I have seen the official PennDot plans and all they call for is for a mill and overlay job on the outer four feet of the road. This entails a diamond tipped drill chewing up the road down a few inches and then new asphalt placed over it. The tracks will not be touched by Penndot, but it seems that even SEPTA will not remove them, only the wires and uprights for them. This isn't a wholly bad thing, since the wires are in terrible shape as it is, if the 56 is to be reinstated it'd only make sense to completely rebuild the wire structure, it's falling apart as is from oversized trucks driven by the iliterate.
You do realize that more business would come to Torresdale if the trolleys were reinstated, correct? Paving over the tracks will do nothing more than encourage the people on the street and in the surrounding neighborhoods to drive to the nearest supermarkets and big box stores. This is the exact wrong thing for such an urban, close packed community. Look at what has happened in West Philadelphia, the Subway Surface lines have kept their neighborhoods solvent where others have burst, this is what could happen if the 56 was reinstated along it's whole length. Admittedly the whole route would have to be rebuilt like the Subway Surface lines, with rubber encased standard rail and such, but in the end it'd be more than worth it. If SEPTA could order some low floor LRVs then the whole system might have a fighting chance. I like the
Skoda Astra 10T for the 15, 23 and 56 (as well as a future 60), especially a single ended, unidirectional version. It seems to me that contrary to the problems encountered with Bredas and Boeings in San Fransisco and Boston, the Skoda's light weight and lack of a no-axle idler truck in the middle of the car would lend itself to SEPTA's old streetcar trackage.