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{{Infobox Public transit|name = SEPTA Regional Rail|image = RegionalRailR5Paoli.jpg|imagesize = 250px|locale = Delaware Valley|transit_type = Regional rail 8½ [inch (1435 millimetre||operator = Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority-->The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) Regional Rail Division provides Regional rail service on thirteen branches to over 150 active stations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and its suburbs. Service on most lines runs from 5:30 AM to midnight. The core of the Regional Rail system is the Center City Commuter Connection and the Center City, Philadelphia stations 30th Street Station, Suburban Station, and Market East Station. All trains stop at these Center City stations, and most also stop at Temple University (SEPTA station) on the campus of Temple University in North Philadelphia.

The 13 branches can be divided into those originally owned and operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), which would become Penn Central, and those of the Reading Company. Before the Center City Commuter Connection opened in November 1984, the Pennsylvania Railroad commuter lines and the Reading commuter lines were two completely separate railroads. Each had a separate Center City terminal, with the Pennsylvania Railroad lines terminating at Suburban Station, while the Reading lines terminated at Reading Terminal.

Reading Terminal was replaced by Market East Station, which is part of the Center City Commuter Connection and sits partially under the former Reading Terminal. The Center City Commuter Connection united the two systems by turning the two terminal stations into through-stations, resulting in a more efficient system with most inbound trains from one line continuing on as outbound trains on another line. (Some limited/express trains terminate on one of the stub-end tracks at Suburban Station.)

Routes There are 13 branches on the Regional Rail system, with seven on the PRR side and six on the Reading Company side. Each PRR branch is paired up with a Reading branch and numbered from R1 to R8, except for R4, so that one route number describes two branches, one on the PRR side and one on the Reading side. This can lead to some confusion when referring to branches and finding which train to board, since there are two outlying endpoints for each route, and one has to remember the side or direction in addition to the R-number.

The Pennsylvania Railroad lines

The Reading Company lines

Stations There are 153 active stations on the Regional Rail system (as of 2006), of which 51 are in the city of Philadelphia, 41 are in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 29 are in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, 16 are in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 10 are in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and 6 are outside the state of Pennsylvania. Passenger boardings within Philadelphia account for 61% of all trips on a typical weekday in 2003, with 45% from the three Center City stations and Temple University station.

{| align="center"|- align="right" style="background:#efefef;"| width="40%" | County| width="20%" | Stations| width="20%" | Boardings in 2003| width="20%" | Boardings in 2001|- align="right"| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania| 51 || 60 967 || 61 970|- align="right"| Montgomery County, Pennsylvania| 41 || 17 228 || 18 334|- align="right"| Delaware County, Pennsylvania| 29 || 8 310 || 8 745|- align="right"| Bucks County, Pennsylvania| 16 || 5 332 || 5 845|- align="right"| Chester County, Pennsylvania| 10 || 5 154 || 5 079|- align="right"| Outside Pennsylvania| 6 || 2 860 || 3 423|- align="right"| total| 153 || 99 851 || 103 396|}

Equipment SEPTA utilizes a mixed fleet of "Silverliner" multiple-unit (m.u.) cars and push-pull equipment consisting of coaches built by Bombardier and hauled by EMD AEM-7 electric locomotives identical to those used by Amtrak on its Northeast Corridor Line. The "Silverliner" coaches, first used by the PRR in the 1950's as the "Pioneer III (railcar)," were purchased by SEPTA in the early 1960's for both the PRR and Reading lines and were built by the Budd Corporation in Philadelphia. In 1967, the PRR took delivery of the "Silverliner III" cars, which featured left-hand side controls (railroad cars traditionally have right-hand side controls), and were used primarily for Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-Philadelphia service.

The bulk of the fleet, the "Silverliner IV", were built by General Electric in Philadelphia, and were delivered in 1974-76, prior to the formation of Conrail. The "Silverliner II", "Silverliner III", and "Silverliner IV" cars are used on all Regional Rail lines, while the Bombardier push-pull equipment is used exclusively for R3 (SEPTA), R5 (SEPTA), and R7 (SEPTA) peak express service. The push-pull equipment is used only for express runs because its slow acceleration, compared to the Silverliner m.u. equipment (each car, including the "married pair" units, have its own motors), making it less suitable for local service with its close station spacing and frequent stops and starts. Some "Silverliner III" cars were even converted for exclusive R1 (SEPTA) use – they featured special luggage racks (still in use), yellow window paintings, and the "PHL" logo used for the Philadelphia International Airport. Currently, all cars have a blended red and blue SEPTA logo. SEPTA also owns an "Arrow III" m.u. car built by Budd, but has not seen service on any of its lines. The "Arrow III" car is nearly identical to that of the "Silverliner IV", but lacks the distinctive dynamic brake roof "hump" on the car, and has a "diamond" pantograph (rail) instead of the "T" pantograph used on the "Silverliner."

With the exception of the "Pioneer III" coaches, which have since been retired and (except for one, which is on display at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, Pennsylvania) and scrapped, all three Silverliner models are compatible with one another. As of 2006, SEPTA has plans to retire the "Silverliner II" and "Silverliner III" models in favor of a new "Silverliner V" model, which will have many differences from the current models. One major change is that the doors will be located at the quarter-points of the car instead of at the ends. There will be three doors on each side, two of which will have steps to allow them to be used at both low level and high level stations. The interiors will have a wider aisle in the center section of seats and have a space for wheelchairs. The interior layout of the new "Silverliner V" cars are based on the Budd "Arrow" m.u. cars owned and operated by New Jersey Transit, hence the purchasing of the lone "Arrow III" car by SEPTA. The new cars will be built by the South Korean firm Rotem with final assembly to be done at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in South Philadelphia, near the former GE assembly facility where the "Silverliner IV" cars were built. In addition to the new "Silverliner V" cars, the "Silverliner IV" cars have been upgraded with silicone-based transformers (the original transformers used polychlorinated biphenyl) and now sport new red-colored pantographs that will allow both the "Sliverliner IV" and "Silverliner V" cars to look aesthetically and functionally alike.

All current SEPTA equipment is compatible with the power supplies on both the ex-PRR (Amtrak-supplied) and ex-Reading (SEPTA-supplied) sides of the system. The entire system uses 12,000-volt/25 Hz power lines that were erected by the PRR and Reading Railroads between 1915 and 1935, with the system "phase break" being located at the northern entrance to the Center City commuter tunnel between the Market East Station and the Temple University Station.

Speed limits All SEPTA locomotive-hauled push-pull coaches, the current Silverliner IV, and planned Silverliner V m.u. cars are designed for a maximum speed of 100 mph, while the Silverliner II and III cars, despite their original design speed of 90 mph, are now, due to their age, operated at 85 mph. However, most of SEPTA trackage is limited to a lower speed due to track conditions such as sharp curves.

These speed limits only apply to passenger trains. Freight trains have much lower limits. Also, slow orders and switch speed limits are not included below.

SEPTA Main Line This line runs from 30th Street Station to Lansdale.

Branch lines Generally, routes which take diverging routes at switches or use slip switches must slow down to 30 mph or 45 mph, depending on the switch design.

History SEPTA was created to provide government subsidies to passenger railroads and transit operations, and in 1966 had contracts with the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Reading Company to continue commuter rail services in the Philadelphia region.

The Pennsy and the Reading The Pennsylvania Railroad ("The Pennsy", or PRR) and the Reading Company (RDG) operated both passenger and freight trains along their tracks in the Philadelphia region. To improve the efficiency of their commuter passenger lines, both companies added Railway electrification system to their busiest lines. The system used is an overhead catenary trolley wire that is energized at 11,000 volt single-phase alternating current at 25 Hertz (Hz), very uncommon by today's standards as regular American households use double-phase AC at 60 Hz. The Pennsylvania Railroad started using this system on the Paoli line in 1915, the Chestnut Hill West line in 1918, and the Media/West Chester and Wilmington lines in 1928. Both the Pennsy and the Reading Company continued their electrification projects into the 1930s, replacing trains pulled by steam locomotives with electric multiple unit cars and locomotives. PRR electrification reached Trenton and Norristown in 1930. Reading began electrified operation in 1931 to West Trenton, Hatboro and Doylestown, and in 1933 to Chestnut Hill East and Norristown.

Carrying passengers had been unprofitable for the railroads since about 1950, due to the rise in automobile ownership and the building of the Interstate Highway System. Because of this, the city of Philadelphia undertook a partnership with the Reading and Pennsylvania Railroads in the late 50s to subsidize commuter service. This, however, was not enough to counter the deterioration of the railroad infrastructure. The city did purchase new commuter equipment starting in the 60s, the Silverliners. The railroads were losing money in general and were keen to get rid of their passenger operations so that they could focus on more profitable freight service. Plus, the noticeable neglect of their passenger service was becoming an issue with commuters and local governments.

On February 1, 1968, the Pennsylvania Railroad merged with the New York Central railroad to become Penn Central, in an effort to remain solvent. Only two years later, Penn Central filed for bankruptcy on June 21, 1970.

In 1971, the Reading Company filed for bankruptcy after being unprofitable for several years, mostly due to the selling, by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad (now CSX) of its minority stakes in the Reading system after the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was absorbed by the C & O in the 1960s. The B & O used the Reading's (and its Jersey Central Railroad subsidiary) tracks from Philadelphia to Jersey City, New Jersey for its Washington-New York service, but eliminated passenger service in 1951.

Conrail In 1976, Conrail took over the railroad-related assets and operations of the bankrupt Pennsylvania and Reading railroads, including the commuter rail operations. Conrail provided commuter rail services under contract to SEPTA until 1983, when SEPTA took over.

The SEPTA takeover was overseen by David L. Gunn, general manager from 1979 to 1984. When SEPTA assumed operations of the commuter lines, they attempted to impose transit (bus and subway driver's) pay scales and work rules, which was met by resistance by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, who called a strike that lasted for 108 days. In the end, SEPTA would treat them as proper railroad workers, but their pay scale is still lower than that of other Northeast commuter railroads such as NJ Transit. SEPTA's Regional Rail also suffered ridership losses which would take several years to rebuild.

The end of diesel routes SEPTA's current regional rail system is entirely run with electric-powered multiple unit cars and locomotives. Diesel trains were last run in 1983, on the Fox Chase-Newtown line.

In the 1970s, Conrail, under contract to SEPTA, operated diesel-hauled trains on the former Reading lines from Philadelphia's Reading Terminal to:

Most trains were either Budd Rail Diesel Cars, or locomotive-hauled push-pull trains with former Reading F7's.

Expansion and cutbacks in the 1980s commuter rail service prior to 1981, with the Fox Chase-Newtown section being abandoned in 1983 and service cutbacks on the electrified West Chester and Ivy Ridge lines by 1990In November 1984, the Center City Commuter Connection, an underground connection between the Pennsy and Reading lines, along with a new station at Market East, opened. Previously, Pennsy commuter trains would terminate at Suburban Station and Reading trains at Reading Terminal. The connection converted Suburban Station into a through-station and rerouted Reading trains down a steep incline and into a tunnel which turns sharply west near the new Market East Station. Converting terminals into through station increases the efficiency of and reduces the number of tracks needed for the trains.

On April 28, 1985, the R1 Airport line opened, providing service from Suburban Station via 30th Street Station to the Philadelphia International Airport. This line runs along Amtrak's NEC to a bridge which carries it over the NEC and onto Reading trackage which passes close to the airport. At the airport, a new bridge carries it over I-95 and into the airport terminals between the baggage claim in arrivals and the check-in counters in departures.

Declining ridership, a series of track and bridge washouts, and other results of deferred maintenance resulted in additional service cutbacks in the 1980s:

RailWorks Because of decades of deferred maintenance on the Reading Viaduct between the Center City Commuter Connection and Wayne Junction, in 1992 and 1993, SEPTA undertook a 10-month, $354 million project to overhaul the viaduct. Labeled "RailWorks," by SEPTA, the project, spurred by an emergency bridge replacement project in 1983 shortly after the tunnel opened, resulted in the replacement of several dilapidated bridges, new continuous-welded rail and overhead catenary, and new rail stations at Temple University and North Broad Street (Philadelphia), and improved signals.

Built by the Reading Company and opened in 1898 along with Reading Terminal, the Reading Viaduct is a series of bridges and embankments that allows trains to run on elevated railroad tracks, separated from road traffic and pedestrians. The 1983 bridge replacement, over Columbia (now Cecil B. Moore) Avenue near Temple University, was in such poor condition that the bridge inspector actually saw the structure sag every time a train passed over the bridge, and along with further inspection, saw the bridge was in immenent danger of collapsing. The viaduct was completely shut down during each phase, with the R6 Norristown, R7 Chestnut Hill East, and R8 Fox Chase lines suspended during the shutdown. Other Reading lines only came as far into the city as Fern Rock station, where riders had to transfer to the Broad Street Subway.

During RailWorks, SEPTA ran a few diesel trains during peak-hours from the Reading side branches, along non-electrified Conrail trackage, to 30th Street Station. Upon the completion of RailWorks, the Reading Viaduct became the "newest" piece of railroad owned by SEPTA, although other projects have since allowed improved service on the ex-Reading side of the system.

Original route numbering plan Regional Rail lines are numbered from R1 to R8, with the notable omission of R4. The reasons for this are rather complicated, going back to the original planning stages.

Part of the planning for the Center City Commuter Connection was to decide on how trains would be routed through the tunnel and which branches would be paired up.

The original plan for the system was made by University of Pennsylvania professor Vukan Vuchic, based on the S-Bahn commuter rail systems in Germany. Numbers were assigned to the PRR-side lines in order from south (Airport) to northeast (Trenton), and the RDG-side matches were chosen to roughly balance ridership, to attempt to avoid trains running full on one side and then running mostly empty on the other. The following lines were recommended:



In addition to the Center City Commuter Connection, it was assumed that SEPTA would build one more connection, the Swampoodle Connection. This would allow PRR-side trains from Chestnut Hill West to join the RDG Norristown line instead of the PRR mainline at North Philadelphia station. The Chestnut Hill West line and the Norristown line run adjacent to each other at that point, in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Swampoodle. The Swampoodle Connection was never built, leading (among other factors) to the following changes:

One of the assumptions in this plan was that ridership would increase after the connection was open. Instead, ridership dropped after the 1983 strike and has to this day never regained the 1970s levels. Because of this, most trains are 2 or 3 car lengths, with trains on many routes running mostly empty during the midday and evenings, and pairing up based on ridership is less relevant today.

Several expansion plans have proposed using the R4 designation for a new line.

At a later time, R1 was applied to the former RDG tracks, shared with the R2 and R5 lines to Glenside (SEPTA station), and R3 to Jenkintown-Wyncote (SEPTA station), and R1-Airport trains ran to Glenside rather than becoming R3 trains to West Trenton. In later years, SEPTA became more flexible, and now a decent number of trains change number designations downtown to cope with differences in ridership on various lines.

Since the original service, the following termini have changed:

Ridership

Overall ridership on SEPTA peaked in 1980, with over 373 million unlinked trips per year. The Regional Rail Division also had its highest ridership in 1980, with over 32 million passengers. Regional Rail ridership declined to a low of just under 13 million passengers in 1983, partly due to a drawn-out strike by the railroad unions, partly due to discontinuing service to many stations and outlying points, and partly due to the decreasing price of gasoline and its effect of increasing automobile usage.

In 1992, ridership dipped again due to economic factors and due to SEPTA's RailWorks project, which shut down half of the railroad over two periods of several months each in 1992 and 1993. A mild recession in 1992-94 also dampened ridership, but a booming economy in the late 1990s helped increase ridership to near the peak level of 1980.

In 2000, ridership started a slight decline due to the slow economy, but in 2003 ridership started increasing again. The average weekday passenger counts have not increased at the same rate as the total annual passenger counts, which may mean that weekend ridership is increasing.

The total unlinked trips on each division for each fiscal year are:{| class="wikitable"!Fiscal year!City Transit!Victory!Frontier!Railroad!Total|-|1979|| 306,662,954|| 17,449,413|| 1,305,566|| 31,539,688|| 356,957,621|-|1980|| 320,857,512|| 18,560,506|| 1,445,188|| 32,194,460|| 373,057,666|-|1981|| 278,866,193|| 14,295,933|| 1,367,800|| 27,109,824|| 321,639,750|-|1982|| 296,536,691|| 17,001,555|| 1,434,986|| 21,826,854|| 336,800,086|-|1983|| 312,995,769|| 18,119,737|| 1,675,764|| 12,856,207|| 345,647,477|-|1984|| 322,918,885|| 18,518,234|| 2,026,374|| 15,960,307|| 359,423,800|-|1985|| 327,605,093|| 17,877,740|| 2,063,000|| 18,788,437|| 366,334,270|-|1986|| 312,094,571|| 14,136,264|| 2,126,953|| 22,522,596|| 350,880,384|-|1987|| 311,444,133|| 15,279,639|| 1,979,042|| 22,932,834|| 351,635,648|-|1988|| 309,784,121|| 15,865,410|| 2,027,073|| 23,797,289|| 351,473,893|-|1989|| 302,525,081|| 15,906,774|| 2,117,211|| 24,143,591|| 344,692,657|-|1990|| 290,138,705|| 14,501,181|| 2,317,932|| 24,381,416|| 331,339,234|-|1991|| 271,584,306|| 14,869,870|| 2,467,555|| 23,312,199|| 312,233,930|-|1992|| 260,260,020|| 14,660,266|| 2,469,902|| 21,128,888|| 298,519,076|-|1993|| 272,089,292|| 14,730,858|| 2,558,299|| 19,185,111|| 308,563,560|-|1994|| 267,920,532|| 14,662,759|| 2,676,023|| 20,875,493|| 306,134,807|-|1995|| 252,499,436|| 14,086,164|| 2,566,229|| 22,558,492|| 291,710,321|-|1996|| 251,950,239|| 13,169,533|| 2,658,166|| 22,545,896|| 290,323,834|-|1997|| 252,309,545|| 13,680,103|| 3,035,456|| 23,012,000|| 292,037,104|-|1998 || colspan=5 align=center | missing data|-|1999|| || || || 25,088,000|||-|2000|| || || || 29,437,000|||-|2001|| || || || 28,671,000|||-|2002 || colspan=5 align=center | missing data|-|2003|| || || || 28,058,200|||-|2004|| || || || 28,234,986|||-|2005|| || || || 28,632,658|||}Source: SEPTA 1997 Ridership Census, Annual Service Plans FY 2001 through 2005.

Timeline

External links

{{Infobox Public transit|name = SEPTA Regional Rail|image = RegionalRailR5Paoli.jpg|imagesize = 250px|locale = Delaware Valley|transit_type = Regional rail 8½ [inch (1435 millimetre||operator = Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority-->The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) Regional Rail Division provides Regional rail service on thirteen branches to over 150 active stations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and its suburbs. Service on most lines runs from 5:30 AM to midnight. The core of the Regional Rail system is the Center City Commuter Connection and the Center City, Philadelphia stations 30th Street Station, Suburban Station, and Market East Station. All trains stop at these Center City stations, and most also stop at Temple University (SEPTA station) on the campus of Temple University in North Philadelphia.

The 13 branches can be divided into those originally owned and operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), which would become Penn Central, and those of the Reading Company. Before the Center City Commuter Connection opened in November 1984, the Pennsylvania Railroad commuter lines and the Reading commuter lines were two completely separate railroads. Each had a separate Center City terminal, with the Pennsylvania Railroad lines terminating at Suburban Station, while the Reading lines terminated at Reading Terminal.

Reading Terminal was replaced by Market East Station, which is part of the Center City Commuter Connection and sits partially under the former Reading Terminal. The Center City Commuter Connection united the two systems by turning the two terminal stations into through-stations, resulting in a more efficient system with most inbound trains from one line continuing on as outbound trains on another line. (Some limited/express trains terminate on one of the stub-end tracks at Suburban Station.)

Routes There are 13 branches on the Regional Rail system, with seven on the PRR side and six on the Reading Company side. Each PRR branch is paired up with a Reading branch and numbered from R1 to R8, except for R4, so that one route number describes two branches, one on the PRR side and one on the Reading side. This can lead to some confusion when referring to branches and finding which train to board, since there are two outlying endpoints for each route, and one has to remember the side or direction in addition to the R-number.

The Pennsylvania Railroad lines

The Reading Company lines

Stations There are 153 active stations on the Regional Rail system (as of 2006), of which 51 are in the city of Philadelphia, 41 are in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 29 are in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, 16 are in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 10 are in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and 6 are outside the state of Pennsylvania. Passenger boardings within Philadelphia account for 61% of all trips on a typical weekday in 2003, with 45% from the three Center City stations and Temple University station.

{| align="center"|- align="right" style="background:#efefef;"| width="40%" | County| width="20%" | Stations| width="20%" | Boardings in 2003| width="20%" | Boardings in 2001|- align="right"| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania| 51 || 60 967 || 61 970|- align="right"| Montgomery County, Pennsylvania| 41 || 17 228 || 18 334|- align="right"| Delaware County, Pennsylvania| 29 || 8 310 || 8 745|- align="right"| Bucks County, Pennsylvania| 16 || 5 332 || 5 845|- align="right"| Chester County, Pennsylvania| 10 || 5 154 || 5 079|- align="right"| Outside Pennsylvania| 6 || 2 860 || 3 423|- align="right"| total| 153 || 99 851 || 103 396|}

Equipment SEPTA utilizes a mixed fleet of "Silverliner" multiple-unit (m.u.) cars and push-pull equipment consisting of coaches built by Bombardier and hauled by EMD AEM-7 electric locomotives identical to those used by Amtrak on its Northeast Corridor Line. The "Silverliner" coaches, first used by the PRR in the 1950's as the "Pioneer III (railcar)," were purchased by SEPTA in the early 1960's for both the PRR and Reading lines and were built by the Budd Corporation in Philadelphia. In 1967, the PRR took delivery of the "Silverliner III" cars, which featured left-hand side controls (railroad cars traditionally have right-hand side controls), and were used primarily for Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-Philadelphia service.

The bulk of the fleet, the "Silverliner IV", were built by General Electric in Philadelphia, and were delivered in 1974-76, prior to the formation of Conrail. The "Silverliner II", "Silverliner III", and "Silverliner IV" cars are used on all Regional Rail lines, while the Bombardier push-pull equipment is used exclusively for R3 (SEPTA), R5 (SEPTA), and R7 (SEPTA) peak express service. The push-pull equipment is used only for express runs because its slow acceleration, compared to the Silverliner m.u. equipment (each car, including the "married pair" units, have its own motors), making it less suitable for local service with its close station spacing and frequent stops and starts. Some "Silverliner III" cars were even converted for exclusive R1 (SEPTA) use – they featured special luggage racks (still in use), yellow window paintings, and the "PHL" logo used for the Philadelphia International Airport. Currently, all cars have a blended red and blue SEPTA logo. SEPTA also owns an "Arrow III" m.u. car built by Budd, but has not seen service on any of its lines. The "Arrow III" car is nearly identical to that of the "Silverliner IV", but lacks the distinctive dynamic brake roof "hump" on the car, and has a "diamond" pantograph (rail) instead of the "T" pantograph used on the "Silverliner."

With the exception of the "Pioneer III" coaches, which have since been retired and (except for one, which is on display at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, Pennsylvania) and scrapped, all three Silverliner models are compatible with one another. As of 2006, SEPTA has plans to retire the "Silverliner II" and "Silverliner III" models in favor of a new "Silverliner V" model, which will have many differences from the current models. One major change is that the doors will be located at the quarter-points of the car instead of at the ends. There will be three doors on each side, two of which will have steps to allow them to be used at both low level and high level stations. The interiors will have a wider aisle in the center section of seats and have a space for wheelchairs. The interior layout of the new "Silverliner V" cars are based on the Budd "Arrow" m.u. cars owned and operated by New Jersey Transit, hence the purchasing of the lone "Arrow III" car by SEPTA. The new cars will be built by the South Korean firm Rotem with final assembly to be done at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in South Philadelphia, near the former GE assembly facility where the "Silverliner IV" cars were built. In addition to the new "Silverliner V" cars, the "Silverliner IV" cars have been upgraded with silicone-based transformers (the original transformers used polychlorinated biphenyl) and now sport new red-colored pantographs that will allow both the "Sliverliner IV" and "Silverliner V" cars to look aesthetically and functionally alike.

All current SEPTA equipment is compatible with the power supplies on both the ex-PRR (Amtrak-supplied) and ex-Reading (SEPTA-supplied) sides of the system. The entire system uses 12,000-volt/25 Hz power lines that were erected by the PRR and Reading Railroads between 1915 and 1935, with the system "phase break" being located at the northern entrance to the Center City commuter tunnel between the Market East Station and the Temple University Station.

Speed limits All SEPTA locomotive-hauled push-pull coaches, the current Silverliner IV, and planned Silverliner V m.u. cars are designed for a maximum speed of 100 mph, while the Silverliner II and III cars, despite their original design speed of 90 mph, are now, due to their age, operated at 85 mph. However, most of SEPTA trackage is limited to a lower speed due to track conditions such as sharp curves.

These speed limits only apply to passenger trains. Freight trains have much lower limits. Also, slow orders and switch speed limits are not included below.

SEPTA Main Line This line runs from 30th Street Station to Lansdale.

Branch lines Generally, routes which take diverging routes at switches or use slip switches must slow down to 30 mph or 45 mph, depending on the switch design.

History SEPTA was created to provide government subsidies to passenger railroads and transit operations, and in 1966 had contracts with the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Reading Company to continue commuter rail services in the Philadelphia region.

The Pennsy and the Reading The Pennsylvania Railroad ("The Pennsy", or PRR) and the Reading Company (RDG) operated both passenger and freight trains along their tracks in the Philadelphia region. To improve the efficiency of their commuter passenger lines, both companies added Railway electrification system to their busiest lines. The system used is an overhead catenary trolley wire that is energized at 11,000 volt single-phase alternating current at 25 Hertz (Hz), very uncommon by today's standards as regular American households use double-phase AC at 60 Hz. The Pennsylvania Railroad started using this system on the Paoli line in 1915, the Chestnut Hill West line in 1918, and the Media/West Chester and Wilmington lines in 1928. Both the Pennsy and the Reading Company continued their electrification projects into the 1930s, replacing trains pulled by steam locomotives with electric multiple unit cars and locomotives. PRR electrification reached Trenton and Norristown in 1930. Reading began electrified operation in 1931 to West Trenton, Hatboro and Doylestown, and in 1933 to Chestnut Hill East and Norristown.

Carrying passengers had been unprofitable for the railroads since about 1950, due to the rise in automobile ownership and the building of the Interstate Highway System. Because of this, the city of Philadelphia undertook a partnership with the Reading and Pennsylvania Railroads in the late 50s to subsidize commuter service. This, however, was not enough to counter the deterioration of the railroad infrastructure. The city did purchase new commuter equipment starting in the 60s, the Silverliners. The railroads were losing money in general and were keen to get rid of their passenger operations so that they could focus on more profitable freight service. Plus, the noticeable neglect of their passenger service was becoming an issue with commuters and local governments.

On February 1, 1968, the Pennsylvania Railroad merged with the New York Central railroad to become Penn Central, in an effort to remain solvent. Only two years later, Penn Central filed for bankruptcy on June 21, 1970.

In 1971, the Reading Company filed for bankruptcy after being unprofitable for several years, mostly due to the selling, by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad (now CSX) of its minority stakes in the Reading system after the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was absorbed by the C & O in the 1960s. The B & O used the Reading's (and its Jersey Central Railroad subsidiary) tracks from Philadelphia to Jersey City, New Jersey for its Washington-New York service, but eliminated passenger service in 1951.

Conrail In 1976, Conrail took over the railroad-related assets and operations of the bankrupt Pennsylvania and Reading railroads, including the commuter rail operations. Conrail provided commuter rail services under contract to SEPTA until 1983, when SEPTA took over.

The SEPTA takeover was overseen by David L. Gunn, general manager from 1979 to 1984. When SEPTA assumed operations of the commuter lines, they attempted to impose transit (bus and subway driver's) pay scales and work rules, which was met by resistance by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, who called a strike that lasted for 108 days. In the end, SEPTA would treat them as proper railroad workers, but their pay scale is still lower than that of other Northeast commuter railroads such as NJ Transit. SEPTA's Regional Rail also suffered ridership losses which would take several years to rebuild.

The end of diesel routes SEPTA's current regional rail system is entirely run with electric-powered multiple unit cars and locomotives. Diesel trains were last run in 1983, on the Fox Chase-Newtown line.

In the 1970s, Conrail, under contract to SEPTA, operated diesel-hauled trains on the former Reading lines from Philadelphia's Reading Terminal to:

Most trains were either Budd Rail Diesel Cars, or locomotive-hauled push-pull trains with former Reading F7's.

Expansion and cutbacks in the 1980s commuter rail service prior to 1981, with the Fox Chase-Newtown section being abandoned in 1983 and service cutbacks on the electrified West Chester and Ivy Ridge lines by 1990In November 1984, the Center City Commuter Connection, an underground connection between the Pennsy and Reading lines, along with a new station at Market East, opened. Previously, Pennsy commuter trains would terminate at Suburban Station and Reading trains at Reading Terminal. The connection converted Suburban Station into a through-station and rerouted Reading trains down a steep incline and into a tunnel which turns sharply west near the new Market East Station. Converting terminals into through station increases the efficiency of and reduces the number of tracks needed for the trains.

On April 28, 1985, the R1 Airport line opened, providing service from Suburban Station via 30th Street Station to the Philadelphia International Airport. This line runs along Amtrak's NEC to a bridge which carries it over the NEC and onto Reading trackage which passes close to the airport. At the airport, a new bridge carries it over I-95 and into the airport terminals between the baggage claim in arrivals and the check-in counters in departures.

Declining ridership, a series of track and bridge washouts, and other results of deferred maintenance resulted in additional service cutbacks in the 1980s:

RailWorks Because of decades of deferred maintenance on the Reading Viaduct between the Center City Commuter Connection and Wayne Junction, in 1992 and 1993, SEPTA undertook a 10-month, $354 million project to overhaul the viaduct. Labeled "RailWorks," by SEPTA, the project, spurred by an emergency bridge replacement project in 1983 shortly after the tunnel opened, resulted in the replacement of several dilapidated bridges, new continuous-welded rail and overhead catenary, and new rail stations at Temple University and North Broad Street (Philadelphia), and improved signals.

Built by the Reading Company and opened in 1898 along with Reading Terminal, the Reading Viaduct is a series of bridges and embankments that allows trains to run on elevated railroad tracks, separated from road traffic and pedestrians. The 1983 bridge replacement, over Columbia (now Cecil B. Moore) Avenue near Temple University, was in such poor condition that the bridge inspector actually saw the structure sag every time a train passed over the bridge, and along with further inspection, saw the bridge was in immenent danger of collapsing. The viaduct was completely shut down during each phase, with the R6 Norristown, R7 Chestnut Hill East, and R8 Fox Chase lines suspended during the shutdown. Other Reading lines only came as far into the city as Fern Rock station, where riders had to transfer to the Broad Street Subway.

During RailWorks, SEPTA ran a few diesel trains during peak-hours from the Reading side branches, along non-electrified Conrail trackage, to 30th Street Station. Upon the completion of RailWorks, the Reading Viaduct became the "newest" piece of railroad owned by SEPTA, although other projects have since allowed improved service on the ex-Reading side of the system.

Original route numbering plan Regional Rail lines are numbered from R1 to R8, with the notable omission of R4. The reasons for this are rather complicated, going back to the original planning stages.

Part of the planning for the Center City Commuter Connection was to decide on how trains would be routed through the tunnel and which branches would be paired up.

The original plan for the system was made by University of Pennsylvania professor Vukan Vuchic, based on the S-Bahn commuter rail systems in Germany. Numbers were assigned to the PRR-side lines in order from south (Airport) to northeast (Trenton), and the RDG-side matches were chosen to roughly balance ridership, to attempt to avoid trains running full on one side and then running mostly empty on the other. The following lines were recommended:



In addition to the Center City Commuter Connection, it was assumed that SEPTA would build one more connection, the Swampoodle Connection. This would allow PRR-side trains from Chestnut Hill West to join the RDG Norristown line instead of the PRR mainline at North Philadelphia station. The Chestnut Hill West line and the Norristown line run adjacent to each other at that point, in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Swampoodle. The Swampoodle Connection was never built, leading (among other factors) to the following changes:

One of the assumptions in this plan was that ridership would increase after the connection was open. Instead, ridership dropped after the 1983 strike and has to this day never regained the 1970s levels. Because of this, most trains are 2 or 3 car lengths, with trains on many routes running mostly empty during the midday and evenings, and pairing up based on ridership is less relevant today.

Several expansion plans have proposed using the R4 designation for a new line.

At a later time, R1 was applied to the former RDG tracks, shared with the R2 and R5 lines to Glenside (SEPTA station), and R3 to Jenkintown-Wyncote (SEPTA station), and R1-Airport trains ran to Glenside rather than becoming R3 trains to West Trenton. In later years, SEPTA became more flexible, and now a decent number of trains change number designations downtown to cope with differences in ridership on various lines.

Since the original service, the following termini have changed:

Ridership

Overall ridership on SEPTA peaked in 1980, with over 373 million unlinked trips per year. The Regional Rail Division also had its highest ridership in 1980, with over 32 million passengers. Regional Rail ridership declined to a low of just under 13 million passengers in 1983, partly due to a drawn-out strike by the railroad unions, partly due to discontinuing service to many stations and outlying points, and partly due to the decreasing price of gasoline and its effect of increasing automobile usage.

In 1992, ridership dipped again due to economic factors and due to SEPTA's RailWorks project, which shut down half of the railroad over two periods of several months each in 1992 and 1993. A mild recession in 1992-94 also dampened ridership, but a booming economy in the late 1990s helped increase ridership to near the peak level of 1980.

In 2000, ridership started a slight decline due to the slow economy, but in 2003 ridership started increasing again. The average weekday passenger counts have not increased at the same rate as the total annual passenger counts, which may mean that weekend ridership is increasing.

The total unlinked trips on each division for each fiscal year are:{| class="wikitable"!Fiscal year!City Transit!Victory!Frontier!Railroad!Total|-|1979|| 306,662,954|| 17,449,413|| 1,305,566|| 31,539,688|| 356,957,621|-|1980|| 320,857,512|| 18,560,506|| 1,445,188|| 32,194,460|| 373,057,666|-|1981|| 278,866,193|| 14,295,933|| 1,367,800|| 27,109,824|| 321,639,750|-|1982|| 296,536,691|| 17,001,555|| 1,434,986|| 21,826,854|| 336,800,086|-|1983|| 312,995,769|| 18,119,737|| 1,675,764|| 12,856,207|| 345,647,477|-|1984|| 322,918,885|| 18,518,234|| 2,026,374|| 15,960,307|| 359,423,800|-|1985|| 327,605,093|| 17,877,740|| 2,063,000|| 18,788,437|| 366,334,270|-|1986|| 312,094,571|| 14,136,264|| 2,126,953|| 22,522,596|| 350,880,384|-|1987|| 311,444,133|| 15,279,639|| 1,979,042|| 22,932,834|| 351,635,648|-|1988|| 309,784,121|| 15,865,410|| 2,027,073|| 23,797,289|| 351,473,893|-|1989|| 302,525,081|| 15,906,774|| 2,117,211|| 24,143,591|| 344,692,657|-|1990|| 290,138,705|| 14,501,181|| 2,317,932|| 24,381,416|| 331,339,234|-|1991|| 271,584,306|| 14,869,870|| 2,467,555|| 23,312,199|| 312,233,930|-|1992|| 260,260,020|| 14,660,266|| 2,469,902|| 21,128,888|| 298,519,076|-|1993|| 272,089,292|| 14,730,858|| 2,558,299|| 19,185,111|| 308,563,560|-|1994|| 267,920,532|| 14,662,759|| 2,676,023|| 20,875,493|| 306,134,807|-|1995|| 252,499,436|| 14,086,164|| 2,566,229|| 22,558,492|| 291,710,321|-|1996|| 251,950,239|| 13,169,533|| 2,658,166|| 22,545,896|| 290,323,834|-|1997|| 252,309,545|| 13,680,103|| 3,035,456|| 23,012,000|| 292,037,104|-|1998 || colspan=5 align=center | missing data|-|1999|| || || || 25,088,000|||-|2000|| || || || 29,437,000|||-|2001|| || || || 28,671,000|||-|2002 || colspan=5 align=center | missing data|-|2003|| || || || 28,058,200|||-|2004|| || || || 28,234,986|||-|2005|| || || || 28,632,658|||}Source: SEPTA 1997 Ridership Census, Annual Service Plans FY 2001 through 2005.

Timeline

External links



SEPTA
Serving Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties. Provides schedules, fares, and maps.

SEPTA
Schedules are available in text-only and PDF formats. Some service notes that appear on the printed timetables are not available in the text schedule format.

SEPTA
Schedules are available in text-only and PDF formats. Some service notes that appear on the printed timetables are not available in the text schedule format.

SEPTA Regional Rail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The SEPTA Regional Rail Division provides commuter rail service on thirteen branches to over 150 active stations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and its suburbs.

SEPTA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is a regional public authority that operates various forms of public transit — bus, subway and elevated rail ...

Category:SEPTA Regional Rail - Wikimedia Commons
Media in category "SEPTA Regional Rail" The following 46 files are in this category, out of 46 total.

Train View
Origination: Train # Destination: Status: Airport: 1106: Warminster: 4 mins Warminster: 1111: Airport: 4 ... Inside SEPTA | Careers | Doing Business | Transit Store | Copyright 2007, SEPTA | Site ...

Septa Regional Rail
FMP Website ... Directions From Septa Regional Rail (R6 Norristown Line): Take R6 Norristown line to Spring Mill stop.

RAILSIM Database - SEPTA
Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) Regional Rail System Database. Geographic view of the entire SEPTA RAILSIM database (left), and a ...

Regional Rail - Philadelphia
SEPTA's Regional Rail lines provide service within Philadelphia and in the surrounding areas. The following lines are currently in service: ... SEPTA 's Regional Rail lines provide ...

 

Septa Regional Rail



 
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