The City That Might Be the US’s Transit Capital | Philadelphia's Railways

Philly doesn't get nearly enough credit for having an extensive transit system with all kinds of different transit modes and fascinating history. Learn more about this gem of a transit city in today's video!

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[RMTransit]

Correction: The Broad Street Line actually uses up to 8-car trains!

[alanthefisher]

For having a historic budget of $3, SEPTA still continues to make that money go far. Great video, glad to have helped!

[katherinespezia]

"Lots of potential" is definitely the way to describe SEPTA. We have the bones of a world-class transit network but there's no meat on them.

[russelldinkins]

As a Philly native who has also lived in Seattle, I would often get frustrated by the amount of coverage/praise Seattle's transit gets amongst the transit enthusiasts crowd whereas Philly seems to be all but forgotten in comparison. I love what Seattle's doing but Philly has objectively better transit in terms of coverage. Glad you made this video!

[salakasto]

SEPTA is a remarkable well run system for how awful its budget has been historically.

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

Thanks for describing the River Line as an interurban! Yup, the River LINE as an interurban definitely provides a crucial connection for the Delaware River communities! A cool community along the River LINE is Bordentown. Bordentown is one of my favorite places in NJ. Bordentown is a colonial suburb, Bordentown's first recorded European settlement was made in 1682, and then it was renamed after Joseph Borden in 1717! Bordentown is filled with transportation and revolutionary history! In 1734, Joseph Borden started a stage line and packet service between Bordentown and Philly. In the 1830s, the Camden and Amboy Railroad (NJ's first railroad) used the John Bull locomotive which is now in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History! And In 1834, the Delaware and Raritan Canal (which helped transport anthracite coal to NYC during much of the 19th and early 20th centuries) had their Lock 1 at Bordentown. Bordentown was once the home of many revolutionaries. Patience Lovell Wright, the US's first female sculptor, was creating wax busts in King George's court in England. Patriots like Francis Hopkinson (a signer of the US Declaration of Independence) and Thomas Paine (who authored Common Sense and The American Crisis) also lived in Bordentown. Thomas Paine's home in Bordentown between 1783 until his death in 1809 was the only house he ever bought. Besides American patriots, Bordentown was also the home of Napoleon's older brother Joseph Bonaparte and Joseph's daughter Charlotte who did landscape paintings while in NJ. But more importantly, Bordentown was home to NJ's first free school by Clara Barton in 1852, who later founded the American Red Cross in 1881!

When the River Line first opened in 2004, it didn't have a connection with the ACL at Pennsauken! The Pennsauken Transit Center wouldn't open until 2013! Here's a little more history on the Atlantic City Line: The line's Delair Bridge was built by the PRR and opened in 1896, it was the first bridge of any sort between Philly and NJ! By its height in the 1920s, there were no fewer than three competing railroad Main Lines connecting the Atlantic City resort with Philadelphia, the Atlantic City Railroad, owned by the Reading Company, the Camden and Atlantic, and the West Jersey and Seashore (WJ&S), with the latter two owned by the PRR. Competition was fierce and the ACRR and C&A lines boasted some of the fastest trains in the world, while the WJ&S was a pioneering example of railroad electrification. The Great Depression caused the first consolidation of the various competing lines into the new Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines. By the late 1960s, the surviving former Camden and Atlantic City Main Line was reduced to a commuter service funded by the NJDOT. After Conrail took over PRSL rail services in South Jersey in 1976 (which also included Ocean City and Cape May) and NJDOT ceased these services in 1981, Amtrak and NJT struck a deal where the main line to Atlantic City would be upgraded by Amtrak, Amtrak would run an Atlantic City Express to AC from places like NYC, Philly, and DC, while also building commuter stations for a NJT service on the line. The line reopened in 1989, and during this time, NJT rail service was between Lindenwold and Atlantic City. Cherry Hill opened in 1994 as Amtrak switched their local stop from Lindenwold to Cherry Hill due to low ridership at Lindenwold. After Amtrak discontinued the AC Express in 1995, NJT extended its service from Lindenwold to Philadelphia, now stopping at Cherry Hill and of course later Pennsauken in 2013.

[SpeedbirdFan]

SEPTA is probably the closest system to an S-Bahn in the US, it through runs in the city and is fully electrified. (it still has major problems like frequency)

[johnnichols]

Patco doesn’t run in the lower level of the Ben. It runs on the outer edges of the bridge. There is no lower level

[bagenstb]

As one who grew up just outside the city, I am very impressed you know how to pronounce Reading.

[mygetawayart]

literally yesterday i was wondering if you'd ever made a comprehensive look at Philly's system exactly like this

[ericbruun]

Talk to Bill Vigrass about the Glassboro line. 14 studies, only 13 of which suggested the line be built.

[CallMeInfinite]

I live in Pittsburgh, PA and we would KILL to have this system! Instead most of our train infrastructure is rotting away and is in desperate need of an upgrade. Along with new mediocre BRT projects, get our regional rail back, and a absolute overhaul of our T network, Pittsburgh can become amazing again.

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

Philly was a city of transportation firsts! According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Frankford Avenue Bridge in the Holmesburg neighborhood was the first stone arch bridge built in the country and is the oldest surviving roadway bridge in the US as well! It was built in 1697 at the request of William Penn to connect his mansion with the then new city of Philadelphia and was an important link on the King's Highway that linked Philly with cities like Trenton, NYC, and Boston. So famous politicians like John Adams and George Washington used the bridge, like Washington when he crossed it on his way to his inauguration in NYC in 1789. The first steam-ferry service in the world was actually in Philly and went to Burlington, NJ. It was created by John Fitch! The first successful trial run of his steamboat Perseverance was made in August 1787, in the presence of delegates from the Constitutional Convention. With this boat, he carried up to 30 paying passengers on numerous round-trip voyages between Philadelphia and Burlington during the summer of 1790. Basically he wanted to make his own version of a Watt engine (there were no Watt engines in North America as the British refused to export them) and he got Henry Voigt to help him build a working model and place it on the boat

The first hot air balloon flown in the Americas was launched from the former Walnut Street Jail in Philly on January 9, 1793, witnessed by George Washington, James Monroe, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Madison! It was piloted by the French aeronaut Jean-Pierre Blanchard, who was also the first to cross the English Channel in a hot air balloon with American co-pilot John Jeffries in 1785! It landed in Deptford, NJ. And just outside Philly, the Crum Creek was once home to the Leiper Railroad, the continent's first chartered railway, first operational non-temporary railway, first well-documented railroad, and first constructed railroad also meant to be permanent! It was a 'family business–built' horse drawn railroad of 0.75 miles that was constructed in 1810 after quarry owner, Thomas Leiper, failed to obtain a charter with legal rights-of-way to instead build his desired canal along Crum Creek. It went from Crum Creek to Ridley Creek where quarry stone where it would then be loaded on boats to Chester for market.

[HessianHunter]

Philly could be the single most urbanist and walkable city in the US if the politicians and influencers didn't have terminal car brain. It kills me to see such great bones rot like this.

[ericbruun]

If the PATCO line had been in any other country it would have been extended to the U Penn Medical Center decades ago. Instead, both the city and Penn agreed to slow down an extremely busy bus route so that upper middle class working at the hospital complex can use a massive parking garage. Also destroyed the famous Civic Center building for these parking buildings.

[antonnurwald]

If this one doesn't feature Alan ... oh there it is 😂.

[brian_brennan]

Not NRG Stadium…it’s NRG station which serves the South Philadelphia Sports Complex which has multiple stadiums (Citizens Bank Park, Lincoln Financial Field, Wells Fargo Center)

[paulbrommer]

It's nice to hear somebody say nice things about Philadelphia, especially Philadelphia transit. Like the old saying goes, "Philadelphia isn't as bad as Philadelphians say it is."

I must a small correction: Broad Street Subway Cars have a maximum length of eight cars, as the cars are 67 1/2' long and the platforms 550' long. At present they are only run in five-car sets and SEPTA has only 125 BIV cars. When the line was originally planned, and when City Hill Station was originally built, the system was to have the same loading gauge as the Market Street Subway-Elevated, but would operate ten-car trains of 55' car trains. City Hall Station Station was built before the rest of the line to the Market Street line's standards, but when the rest was built, it was to a standard similar to the BMT lines in New York City.

PATCO has its origins in the Bridge Line built by the Delaware Bridge Commission, which built the original route from Broadway to 8th & Market. For a time, Bridge Line trains would run from Broadway to 8th & Market, then along the Broad-Ridge Spur and Broad Street Line express tracks to Girard. The 8th - Locust Subway that PATCO uses was originally built by the city to connect to the Broad-Ridge Spur, then continue west across the River to eventually become an elevated line over Woodland Avenue. It never got further than 18th Street and was eventually handed over to PATCO. (N.b. The City of Philadelphia still owns the Broad Street Subway and 8th - Locust Subway, but leases them to other operators, hence why one may see the city's shield on Broad Street Line cars) There's a whole convoluted history behind the development of Philadelphia's rapid transit system, most of which through 1974 was well-chronicled by Robert P. Sechler in his monograph "Speed lines to city and suburbs, " which you can find easily enough searching around the internet.

Incidentally, PATCO will add, or perhaps more accurately regain, a fifth Philadelphia station when Franklin Square reopens later this year.

I truly hate to think so, but I believe that the prospects for the Roosevelt Boulevard Subway are dim. SEPTA has committed to Trolley Modernization and extensive fleet replacements with Reimagining Regional Rail waiting next in line. That's all going to be incredibly expensive and SEPTA remains a pauper among large city transit operators. Adding the gargantuan expensive of the Roosevelt Boulevard Subway will require a nigh-miraculous increase in capital funding, which would require support from the City of Philadelphia and Commonwealth of Philadelphia in excess of what they are likely to offer. It's a superb proposal that people quickly become enthusiastic for in abstract, but funding it will be a monstrous challenge, even with Capital Investment Grant program funding. I wish it the best, but it will be very hard to get.

And remember, you can't get the Heaven on the Frankford El, because the Frankford El goes straight to Frankford.

[ItsJustStevesWorld]

One thing. Newark DE isn’t pronounced the same way as the city with the same name in NJ. The Delaware city is pronounced as if it were two separate words. New Ark. As in ‘The old one broke, so Noah went to the Canadian Tire and bought a New Ark’. 😁

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

Newark, DE isn't pronounced the same way as Newark, NJ! It's pronounced "New-ark". As mentioned, PATCO was one of the first in the world to have ATO, it was the first to have ATO in North America, as PATCO opened in 1969 while BART opened in 1972! And not only does PATCO have commuter rail-style seating, but also, many PATCO features were actually included in the M1/M3s that were built for the LIRR and MNR (MNR's predecessors Penn Central and Conrail), like similar motors! Both the original PATCO rolling stock and the M1/M3s were made by the Budd Company, with both rolling stock being built in 1968 (M3s entered service in the 1980s), while GE designed the motors. The M1/3s were designed for 100 mph, but they only achieved 80 mph in service due to track and signaling limitations. The M1/3s even included support for ATO like PATCO, however, ATO was never used on those trains on the LIRR. The M1/3s were the catalyst of change for the LIRR and MNR systems as it required all stations in the electrified zone to be rebuilt for high-level boarding between 1966 and 1968 (stations in the LIRR's diesel zone wouldn't have high-level boarding until the 1990s for the C3s), and the increased power demand forced the LIRR to update its third rail power supply from 650 V DC to 750 V DC to take advantage of the car's performance. The PATCO ATO is an analog system that makes use of pulse code cab signaling supplied by Union Switch & Signal. The cab signals supply one of five different speeds (20 mph, 30 mph, 40 mph, 65 mph or full stop) and the on-board ATO gear supplies maximum acceleration or maximum braking force to reach that target speed. GE wasn't prepared for the constant rapid acceleration and deceleration of PATCO, this caused the motors to easily break down during its early days, with GE having to repeatedly work with PATCO's shops to overhaul motors.

And yup, the entirety of SEPTA's network is electrified, but it used to have diesel services! It became a fully electrified system because simply, they cut all their diesel services instead of electrifying. The electrical system on the former PRR side is owned and operated by Amtrak, while the electrification on the Reading side is owned by SEPTA. The Amtrak system was originally built by the PRR between 1915 and 1938. The SEPTA-owned system was originally built by the Reading starting in 1931. The two systems are not electrically connected. After construction of the Center City Commuter Connection, the two electrical systems now meet near Girard Avenue at a “phase break, ” a short section of unpowered track, which trains coast across. This gap is needed because the two electrical systems are not kept in synchronization with each other. For the diesel services, Conrail operated four diesel SEPTA-branded routes under contract throughout the 1970s! There used to be an Allentown via Bethlehem, Quakertown, and Lansdale service and this was gradually cut back. Allentown–Bethlehem service ended in 1979, Bethlehem-Quakertown service ended in early July 1981, and Quakertown–Lansdale service ended later that month. Pottsville line service to Pottsville, via Reading and Norristown, ended in late July 1981. West Trenton service previously ran to Newark Penn and this was cut back to West Trenton in early July 1981. The final service, Fox Chase-Newtown service, initially also ended in early July 1981, re-established in October of that year as the Fox Chase Rapid Transit Line, which then ended in 1983, thus today's Fox Chase Line just ends at Fox Chase. The services were phased out due to low ridership, a lack of funding outside the five-county area of SEPTA, withdrawal of Conrail as a contract carrier, aging equipment that needed replacement, and a lack of SEPTA-owned diesel maintenance infrastructure. The death knell for any resumption of diesel service was the Center City Commuter Connection, which lacks the necessary ventilation for exhaust-producing locomotives!