Problem 1: The Parkway, the Art Museum Area and Fairmount are poorly served by public transportation. I know, of course that huge swaths of the city are poorly served by an organization which at its best serves poorly – but for the areas mentioned, there seems to be a solution. Which brings us to problem 2.
Problem 2: The abandoned rail line, starting at the abandoned Reading Viaduct near 11th and Vine and ending under Pennsylvania Avenue a few blocks past the art museum. Most of which sits either recessed below or completely under the street. The dead line blights everything around it.
So what’s the plan?
If you haven’t figured it out yet, my idea is to build a new subway line from Broad Street and Callowhill/Spring Garden, running west to Pennsylvania Ave. and then following a parallel path to the Parkway to the Art Museum. The tunnel ends roughly at that point, but ideally I’d love to see the line continue on along the eastern edge of Fairmount Park, past Laurel Hill cemetery and through Strawberry Mansion, before meeting up with Ridge Avenue and running straight into Manayunk.
But for now, that’s just crazy. The Parkway plan is actually feasible. Half the construction is already done. It’s really just a matter of acquiring the land, the proper usage rights, squaring it with the neighbors, finding funding… and a million other impossible obstacles. But a city of the size and scale of Philadelphia should be able to pull off the impossible from time to time. And anyway, we’re not talking the big dig here, we’re talking about slapping a couple miles of track down on an existing rail bed and throwing up some stations. Besides that, a city of the size and scale of Philadelphia should boast a stellar world-class public transit system.
Illustrated Edition
Philadelphia’s subway system is pathetic. The Broad street line, runs directly north/south; from the stadiums to Fern Rock station. The Market/Frankford el runs east/west, turning north as it hits the eastern edge of the city. To give you a better idea, here’s what it looks like in center city:
A subway starting at the Inquirer building on North Broad Street could take advantage of this existing abandoned and overgrown rail bed.
At 19th street, the rail line heads completely underground, running parallel to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway:
The tunnels run underneath Pennsylvania Avenue, a large and heavily trafficked road. They are stable and safe.
To serve the public and to bring Philadelphia to the level of New York, Washington D.C. London, Paris or (at least in the realm of public transportation) we need to expand our subway system. With much of the infrastructure already in place along the abandoned, recessed rail line between the Reading Viaduct and the Art Museum, a subway line here would serve a neglected and enormously important section of the city. With several world-class museums, (with more on the horizon) parades, festivals, concerts, fireworks, old condos, new condos, planned condos as well as an existing existing neighborhood along or near the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, building a new line here just makes sense.
SEPTA and the Viaduct
There's already a SEPTA+Community plan (schuylkill valley metro) researching use of the viaduct but it is only a planning commitee and who knows when it will ever see the light of day. There are various routes discussed with either termination in the city at 69th street station (horrible idea) or a route similar to the one you have proposed.
Like the Route 100 (norristown) - I think any system that terminates at 69th street won't be received well by the city-bound suburban public.
Anyway, fun to see other people talking about mass-transit routes around here. SEPTA's inability to improve is primarily driven by organization issues/politics (SEPTA's non-rail division is so anti-trolley and subway... I think they'd rather operate a fleet of buses and nothing else.) but also there is lack of public outcry about anything SEPTA but the fare rates. (and of course labor issues during strikes)
Actually it looks like the
Actually it looks like the Viaduct was consider by the 52nd street project - sorry about that. Here's a list of SEPTA/PATCO project in planning, proposed, in progress, etc:
http://www.svmetro.com/projects.html
Wubway
I think that Philly needs to undertake a Big Dig type of project to extend subway lines throughout all of Center City to make it less of a driving city and more of a pedestrian city. This requires some foresight because it will lay the groundwork for many years to come. Ignoring a project like this because of cost will only serve to keep Philly in its place as a driving city of blue collar and low income people.
Subway Idea
SEPTA had a plan to convert this Reading right-of-way into a usable line in the 1970s.
Yet the 1970s were not a good time for SEPTA what with ridership sapped by strikes ('71, '75 and '77) and the state reluctant to make outlays aside from the Broad Street Line extension -- which was expensive.
Here's an image of SEPTA chairman James McConnon's putative total transit complex. You can see the line clearly marked.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/150/426326002_163dff8c3f_o.jpg
Great Vision!
It is great to see other individuals who share my vision of what Philadelphia can be! In order to be the great city that it has the potential to be again, it needs a great transit system. I have often thought that the line you propose is much needed (especially providing that much needed subway to Manayunk). Even better such a line should be extended down Spring Garden St. and eventually down 4th or 5th street to reach the thousands of people living in Society Hill, Bella Vista, Queen Village, Southwark and points south! Of course, if it were up to me, we would also be looking into lines to Grays Ferry, Point Breeze, and South Jersey (seriously, it has over a million people to come spend money in Philly).
Expansion plans for this
Expansion plans for this line were shelved earlier this year because it was seen to have limited ridership and SEPTA didn't have dedicated funding. Unfortunately, it was supposed to end in a loop around Parkside, rather than heading up through Strawberry Mansion where it would have much higher ridership.
SEPTA now has funding...lets talk this line up as much as possible!
Start on PhillyBlog or any other place you can. Write Nutter a letter. Write SEPTA a letter. Contact the DVARP and get them involved.
Let's start with the "low hanging fruit" for expansion and push this to be America's Next Great City's next big capital improvement project!
LET'S KEEP THIS ALIVE !!!
Expansion plans for this line (then called "City Branch Line" were shelved earlier this year as a light rail line because it was seen to have limited ridership and SEPTA didn't have dedicated funding. Unfortunately, it was supposed to end in a loop around Parkside, rather than heading up through Strawberry Mansion where it would have much higher ridership.
SEPTA now has funding...lets talk this line up as much as possible!
Start on PhillyBlog or any other place you can. Write Nutter a letter. Write SEPTA a letter. Contact the DVARP and get them involved.
Let's start with the "low hanging fruit" for expansion and push this to be America's Next Great City's next big capital improvement project!
does anyone know.
I have wondered about this unused rail line for years, Many years ago I had a customer near the art museum, And I saw the remains of it and wondered what it was...
Does anyone know the history of it??
Did it use to be used???
Where did it go?? Does it just dead end??
is it from the "Chinese wall" Days???
I thought the same thing
I thought the same thing about extending the City Branch line down 4th, but I could see making it another subway surface system, extend the subway as as far as feasible, then run trolley lines up the diagonal streets in South Philly. And considering that the line to Parkside wouldn't need too much track, they should build this and the Strawberry Mansion/Manayunk line. Manayunk first though.
It belonged to the Reading
It belonged to the Reading Railroad. The Reading's main line along the Schuylkill was their access point to their lines in the west and south. The City Branch was a subterranean line that connected their Schuylkill main line to their main passenger terminal (Reading Terminal). Look at the cut via satellite photos in google, and you'll be able to trace it as it is subterranean until Broad, then starts rising until it comes above ground around 13th St and takes a curve around 12th Street to head into the Terminal. The Reading's main passenger service ran north, some of which is currently in use by SEPTA, but this very short branch enabled them to provide passenger service from Center City to everywhere else they went (like to Reading, of all places...).
The "Chinese Wall" you are referring to is the old Pennsylvania Railroad's viaduct that was almost a complete wall straight from the Schuylkill to their primary passenger terminal in Philadelphia: Broad Street Station. This was in the days before 30th Street Station and Suburban Station were built (although both were built before the viaduct was dismanteled, and pieces of it still exist).