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Media–Sharon Hill Line

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Media–Sharon Hill Line (D)
Route 102 at Sharon Hill station
Overview
LocaleDelaware County, Pennsylvania
Termini
Stations52
Websitesepta.org/schedules/D
Service
TypeLight rail
SystemSEPTA Metro
Services
  •  Route 101
  •  Route 102
Operator(s)SEPTA Suburban Division
Rolling stockSEPTA Series 100
Daily ridershipRoute 101: 3,844
Route 102: 3,888
(FY 2019)[1]
History
Opened1906
Technical
Line length11.9 miles (19.2 km)
CharacterSurface (at-grade)
Track gauge5 ft 2+12 in (1,588 mm) Pennsylvania trolley gauge[2][3]
ElectrificationOverhead lines
Route map
Map
69th Street T.C.
to 69th Street Yard / Shops
Fairfield Avenue
Walnut Street
Avon Road
Hilltop Road
Beverly Boulevard
Congress Avenue
Lansdowne Avenue
Drexel Park
Irvington Road
Drexel Hill Junction
Route 101 LowerLeft arrow
LowerRight arrow Route 102
Huey Avenue
Garrettford
School Lane
Drexel Manor
Aronimink
Marshall Road
Anderson Avenue
Creek Road
Drexelbrook
Drexeline
Baltimore Avenue
Penn Street
Scenic Road
Springfield Road
Springfield Road
Clifton–Aldan WAW
Saxer Avenue
Shisler Avenue
closed
Leamy Avenue
Providence Road
Woodland Avenue
Magnolia Avenue
Thomson Avenue
North Street
Springfield Mall
Bartram Avenue
Paper Mill Road
Andrews Avenue
I-476.svg I-476
MacDade Boulevard
Pine Ridge
Sharon Hill
Beatty Road
Providence Road
Manchester Avenue
Edgemont Street
Monroe Street
Jackson Street
Olive Street
Veterans Square
Media–Orange Street

The Media–Sharon Hill Line (MSHL), currently rebranding as the D,[a] is a light rail line in the SEPTA Metro network serving portions of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The line compromises two services which terminate at 69th Street Transportation Center in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania: Route 101 (currently rebranding as D1) to Media and Route 102 (currently rebranding as D2) to Sharon Hill. Service is operated by the Suburban Transit Division of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). Altogether, the two services operate on approximately 11.9 miles (19.2 km) of route.[5] The line is one of the few remaining interurban systems in the United States, along with the South Shore Line in Illinois and Indiana, the River Line in New Jersey, and the Norristown High Speed Line, also in the Philadelphia area.

Along with the Norristown High Speed Line, formerly the Philadelphia and Western Railroad, the routes are the remaining lines of the Red Arrow Lines Trolley System once operated by the Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company (successor to the Philadelphia and West Chester Traction Company); some local residents still call them "Red Arrow".

The line uses 29 Kawasaki Heavy Industries Rolling Stock Company Type K LRV cars similar to those used on the SEPTA subway–surface trolley lines. However, unlike the city cars, the Type K cars on Routes 101 and 102 are double-ended and use pantograph collection instead of trolley poles.

Route

[edit]
Route Length[6] South Terminal North Terminal
D1/101 8.6 miles (13.8 km) Media
Orange Street at State Street
Upper Darby
69th Street Transportation Center
D2/102 5.3 miles (8.5 km) Sharon Hill
Sharon Hill

The 101 and 102 run together on their exclusive right-of-way in Upper Darby to Drexel Hill Junction for approximately 2 miles (3.2 km), at which point they diverge.

Map of Routes 101 and 102 (red), as well as former trolley (now bus) Routes 103 and 104 (orange), and Route 100 (blue)

Route 101 continues on its own right-of-way traveling west and southwest through Drexel Hill and Springfield with an important stop at the Springfield Mall before entering the street in Media. The 101 has double tracks to Woodland Avenue, then a single track to just before Pine Ridge, then enters the street at Providence Road in Media and runs on a single track the rest of the way. Cars in the street must yield to the trolley. The line terminates in the middle of the street just west of the Delaware County Courthouse.

Route 102 runs southeast from Drexel Hill Junction through Drexel Hill and Clifton Heights and then goes into the street in Aldan. After Aldan, it returns to its own right-of-way, then passes through Collingdale before terminating at Chester Pike in Sharon Hill. The 102 has double tracks until up to North Street in Collingdale, where the 102 returns to its own right-of-way, and after North Street, there is a single track until the end of the line.

Springfield Road has one stop on each line. Route 101 stops at Springfield Road in Springfield. Route 102 stops at Springfield Road in Clifton Heights, then runs within this street until it moves onto Woodlawn Avenue through Aldan.

History

[edit]
Heavy steel interurban cars like this ran on the Red Arrow until the 1970s

The Sharon Hill Line (Route 102) was originally built by the Philadelphia and West Chester Traction Company, and opened on March 15, 1906, and the Media Line (Route 101) was originally built by the same company, opening on April 1, 1913.[7] The lines were later bought by the Philadelphia Suburban Transit Company in 1954.

Besides Routes 101 and 102, there were also two other, now defunct, Red Arrow trolley lines. The direct ancestor of the SEPTA Route 104 bus line went to West Chester, splitting off from the rest of the system right after 69th Street Transportation Center onto West Chester Pike. The tracks continued all the way up West Chester Pike. West Chester trolleys were replaced by buses in 1954 due to widening of West Chester Pike; rush-hour trips to Westgate Hills lasted until 1958. Tracks remained in use for access to the Red Arrow's carbarn in Llanerch until SEPTA closed the barn in 1971; all tracks were soon removed except for a portion near 69th Street that SEPTA occasionally uses to store out-of service trolleys. The other now-defunct Red Arrow trolley line went to Ardmore until December 1966. It split from the West Chester line at Llanerch and continued on its own exclusive right-of-way. Much of the right-of-way still remains between Schauffele Plaza in Ardmore (the former terminus of the line) and Eagle Road in Havertown, although the tracks were removed and the right-of-way paved for dedicated use by the replacement bus line, now SEPTA Route 103. The 103 still uses this private right-of-way, although much of its other street routing has changed.

On April 1, 2020, service on Route 102 was suspended while Route 101 was substituted with buses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trolley service on both routes resumed June 1, 2020.[8][9][10]

In 2021, SEPTA proposed rebranding their rail transit service as "SEPTA Metro", to make the system easier to navigate. Under this proposal, the Media and Sharon Hill lines will be rebranded as the "D" lines (for "Delaware", the county in which the trolley routes are located) with a pink color and numeric suffixes for each service. The 101 and 102 will respectively be rebranded as the D1 69th St / Orange St and D2 69th St / Sharon Hill.[12][11] After a period of public comment, SEPTA revised its plans to primarily refer to the line as the "D," as well as to rethink the name of the Route 101's "Orange Street" terminal station name.[13]

Future rolling stock

[edit]

In 2023, SEPTA awarded Alstom Transportation the contract to furbish 130 new low-floor trolleys, with an option for 30 more. The trolleys will be of Alstom's Citadis family and will be 80 feet in length and fully ADA-compliant, which the current Kawasaki trolleys from the early 1980s are not.[14] The trolleys will be distributed among SEPTA's Routes 101 and 102 in Delaware County, and its subway-surface lines and Route 15 in neighboring Philadelphia. The first trolley is expected to be delivered from Alstom in the Spring of 2027, with the last trolley to be delivered sometime in 2030.

With SEPTA Trolley Modernization happening, SEPTA is proposing to extend Route 102 to Darby Transportation Center. This extension would connect Route 102 with SEPTA Route 11 and SEPTA Route 13.

Media stops

[edit]

Media is the western terminus of the Route 101 trolley line just west of the Orange Street intersection with State Street, the latter of which the trolley runs down the center line. Despite being located in the town, there is no direct connection to the Media station of the Media/Wawa Line which is a mile to the south on Orange Street and partly through a wooded area.

Stations and stops

[edit]
Location Station/stop Connections Notes
Route 101 (D1; Media branch)
Media Orange Street SEPTA Suburban Division bus routes SEPTA Suburban Bus: 110 Route D1 western terminus
Veterans Square
Olive Street
Jackson Street SEPTA Suburban Division bus routes SEPTA Suburban Bus: 118
Monroe Street
Edgemont Street
Manchester Avenue
Car parking Providence Road Begin right-of-way and two-track operation
Formerly known as Bowling Green
Beatty Road
Springfield Car parking Pine Ridge Tracks converge east of here
Paper Mill Road Serves Smedley Park
SEPTA's least used station[15][16]
Car parking Springfield Mall SEPTA Suburban Division bus routes SEPTA Suburban Bus: 107, 109, 110 Formerly known as Sproul Road
Thomson Avenue
Woodland Avenue Resume two-track operation east of here
Leamy Avenue
Saxer Avenue
Car parking Springfield Road
Car parking Scenic Road
Drexel Hill Car parking Drexeline
Drexelbrook
Anderson Avenue
Aronimink
School Lane
Huey Avenue
Route 102 (D2; Sharon Hill branch)
Sharon Hill Sharon Hill SEPTA Suburban Division bus routes SEPTA Suburban Bus: 114, 115 Route D2 western terminus
Collingdale MacDade Boulevard SEPTA Suburban Division bus routes SEPTA Suburban Bus: 113 Formerly known as Collingdale
Andrews Avenue
Bartram Avenue
North Street Tracks leave right-of-way and merge with Woodlawn Avenue north of here
Aldan Magnolia Avenue
Providence Road
Shisler Avenue Station closed on March 15, 2010
Clifton Heights Clifton-Aldan SEPTA Regional Rail:      Media/Wawa Line Tracks transition onto Springfield Road
Springfield Road Tracks leave Springfield Road for right-of-way south of here
Penn Street
Baltimore Avenue SEPTA Suburban Division bus routes SEPTA Suburban Bus: 109
Drexel Hill Creek Road Located in Indian Rock Park
Formerly known as Oakview
Marshall Road
Drexel Manor
Garrettford
Routes 101 & 102 (D1 & D2; Common section)
Drexel Hill Drexel Hill Junction SEPTA Suburban Division bus routes SEPTA Suburban Bus: 107 Also known as Shadeland Avenue
Routes D1 and D2 diverge west of here
Irvington Road Bypassed by D1 rush hour express service
Drexel Park Bypassed by D1 rush hour express service
Also called Fairfax Road
Upper Darby Lansdowne Avenue SEPTA Suburban Division bus routes SEPTA Suburban Bus: 107, 115
Congress Avenue Bypassed by D1 rush hour express service
Beverly Boulevard Bypassed by D1 rush hour express service
Formerly known as Beverly Hills
Hilltop Road Bypassed by D1 rush hour express service
Avon Road Bypassed by D1 rush hour express service
Formerly known as Bywood
Walnut Street Bypassed by D1 rush hour express service
Fairfield Avenue Bypassed by D1 rush hour express service
Tracks merge with street east of here
69th Street T.C. SEPTA Metro: Market–Frankford Line, Norristown High Speed Line
SEPTA City Transit Division surface routes SEPTA City Bus: 21, 30, 65
SEPTA Suburban Division bus routes SEPTA Suburban Bus: 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 120, 123, 126

References

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Conventions for future line names state they are to be referred to by letter only (i.e. "the D", not "the D line")[4]

Citations

[edit]
  1. ^ "Fiscal Year 2021 Service Plan Update". SEPTA. June 2020. p. 24. Retrieved March 11, 2022.
  2. ^ "The history of trolley cars and routes in Philadelphia". SEPTA. June 1, 1974. p. 2. Retrieved June 11, 2014. An early city ordinance prescribed that all tracks were to have a gauge of 5' 214".
  3. ^ Hilton, George W.; Due, John Fitzgerald (January 1, 2000). The Electric Interurban Railways in America. Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804740142. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
  4. ^ "SEPTA Metro: Unification and Reorganization". SEPTA. Retrieved May 18, 2024.
  5. ^ Demery, Leroy W. Jr. (November 2011). "U.S. Urban Rail Transit Lines Opened From 1980" (PDF). publictransit.us. pp. 37–40. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 4, 2013. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
  6. ^ "SEPTA – Spring 2012 Route Statistics" (PDF). Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. 2012. Retrieved June 28, 2013.
  7. ^ "Philadelphia Suburban Transit Routes". ChicagoRailFan.net. Archived from the original on September 28, 2018. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  8. ^ "Service Information". SEPTA. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  9. ^ "SEPTA Transit Network Lifeline Service Schedule" (PDF). SEPTA. April 2020. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  10. ^ "Service Temporarily Suspended" (PDF). SEPTA. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  11. ^ a b c d "Wayfinding Recommendations". SEPTA. Archived from the original on September 7, 2021. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  12. ^ Vitarelli, Alicia; Staff (September 7, 2021). "SEPTA Metro? Transit agency mulling big changes including new name, map, and signage". Philadelphia, PA: WPVI-TV. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
  13. ^ "Design Concept Feedback". planning.septa.org. SEPTA. Retrieved March 19, 2023.
  14. ^ "SEPTA contracts Alstom for Citadis light-rail vehicles". MassTransit. June 6, 2023. Retrieved September 15, 2023.
  15. ^ Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) (May 2018). "Modern Trolley Station Design Guide - SEPTA Suburban Transit Division" (PDF). DVRPC. p. A-28. Retrieved March 14, 2024.
  16. ^ "Fiscal Year 2021 Service Plan Update". SEPTA. June 2020. Retrieved March 14, 2024.
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