Wilmington / Newark Line

Wilmington / Newark Line
Silverliner railcar train of the Wilmington / Newark Line in Prospect Park
Route length:	66.5 km
Power system :	12.5 kV 25 Hz  ~
Dual track :	continuous
Legend Amtrak to Washington, DC Newark Churchmans Crossing Wilmington Claymont Fare Zone 4, Pennsylvania / Delaware border Marcus Hook formerly Linwood Coach lifted Thurlow replaced with Highland Avenue Highland Avenue Lamokin Street repealed on July 1, 2003 Chester Eddystone Baldwin repealed on July 29, 1981 Crum Lynne Ridley Park Tariff zone 3 Prospect Park until April 1, 1932 Moore Norwood Glenolden Folcroft Sharon Hill Academy replaced by Curtis Park in April 1949 Curtis Park from April 1949 Darby Paschall 72nd Street, repealed April 5, 1903 Bonaffon 68th Street, repealed Mount Moriah 62nd Street, repealed 58th Street lifted Gray's Ferry canceled 42nd Street repealed Tariff zone 2 Airport Line , Media / Elwyn Line University City South Street repealed on April 5, 1903 30th Street Station Center City Commuter Connection Suburban station Jefferson Station Temple University to Norristown, Pennsylvania , Chestnut Hill, West Trenton

The Wilmington / Newark Line is a SEPTA- operated mass transit line for the city of Pennsylvania in the USA . The line runs roughly parallel to the bank of the Delaware River in a southwestern direction to the state of Delaware of the same name . It connects the towns of Newark , Wilmington , Marcus Hook and Chester to the city center.

course

The Wilmington / Newark Line runs over Amtrak's Northeast Corridor . In Philadelphia, the line leaves the long-distance route at 30th Street Station and is routed via the Commuter Tunnel to Temple University Station on the old Reading Railroad route.

history

As early as July 1837, the Wilmington and Susquehanna Railroad Company , coming from Baltimore , reached Wilmington terminus via Newark. The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (PW&B) opened the remainder of the route to Philadelphia on January 17, 1838.

Contemporary representation of the railway bridge over the Schuylkill River. Behind the trees you can see the field designed as a push bridge .

The Grays Ferry Bridge opened in 1899. The panels on the left are no longer covered.

The Gray's Ferry Bridge - also known as the Newkirk Viaduct - was an elaborate engineering structure , which led rail and road across the Schuylkill River . The bridge was built as a steel truss bridge with wooden cladding, with one of the six fields being designed as a shear bridge . In order to clear the passage for the ships, the uncovered fifth field could be pushed into the sixth.

Broad and Prime Street Station, the first station in Philadelphia for trains to Wilmington / Newark.

In the beginning, the load-bearing capacity of the bridge was not sufficient for a locomotive operation, so that the carriages were pulled by horses over the bridge and on to the station on the corner of Broad Street and Washington Avenue. At this end point, a six-track terminus was built in 1840, called Broad and Prime Street Station because Washington Street was still called Prime Street at that time. In the first year of operation, the bridge over the Schuylkill River was damaged by the floods of snowmelt, but it was repaired immediately. From 1846 onwards, the first telegraph line between New York and Washington also used the bridge to cross the river, but to the annoyance of users, the connection was broken when the bridge was open. It was not until 1852 that the bridge was reinforced so that it could also be used by locomotives.

During the Civil War , the railway was of great importance because it brought supplies and troops to the front, but also brought the wounded back to medical care in the military hospital opposite Broad and Prime Street Station. With the Junction Railroad , which opened in 1860, passenger trains from Wilmington and Washington could for the first time be directed north past the city center, so that connections between Washington and New York could be offered without changing trains, although they no longer served Broad and Prime Street Station.

In 1873, the route to Wilmington south of Grays Ferry was moved further inland to avoid the swampy bank of the Delaware River. The new route was called Darby Improvement , the old route was only used again in connection with the airport connection.

In the 1880s, the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad came under the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), which had to prevent the company from being taken over by the competing Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O). The passenger trains ran from then on to Broad Street Station , which was opened in 1881, the old route was only used by freight trains for access to the port facilities. In 1902, the PRR merged its two subsidiaries Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad and Baltimore and Potomac Railroad  (B&P) to form the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad (PB&W).  

The PRR introduced electrical operation on the Philadelphia – Wilmington section in 1928, which was extended to Washington in 1935. For the electrification, 12.5 kV 25 Hz alternating current was used. In the 1930s, the new stations, Suburban Station for suburban traffic and 30th Street Station for long-distance traffic, replaced Broad Street Station. Due to the Great Depression and the Second World War , there were delays in the construction of the 30th Street Station, so that the Broad Street Station could not be closed until 1952 because the long-distance traffic from the 30th Street Station could not be completely taken over by then.

From 1960 the regional trains on the Wilmington / Newark Line were subsidized by the Passenger Service Improvement Corporation (PSIC), which was funded by the City of Philadelphia and a predecessor of SEPTA, which took over the function of this company in 1963.

In 1968 the parent company of the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad, the Pennsylvania Railroad, merged with the New York Central Railroad (NYC) to form Penn Central (PC), whereby the PB&W was transferred to the new company, but still remained independent. After the parent company went bankrupt in 1970, the Wilmington / Newark Line tracks came to Amtrak as part of the Northeast Corridor , which Amtrak still owns in 2015. The operation of the regional trains financed by SEPTA went after the bankruptcy of Penn Central to Conrail until 1983 SEPTA took over the operation itself.

Line designation until 2010

In 1984 the Commuter Tunnel was opened, which connects the Pennsylvania Railroad lines ending in Suburban Station with the former Reading Railroad line ending in Reading Terminal . For this purpose, the tracks south of Brown Street, which previously ended in Reading Station, will continue to run parallel to the south along 8th Street. The tunnel begins at the level of Spring Street, which turns west at the level of Filbert Street and leads in a straight line to Suburban Station. The underground station Market East was set up in place of the Reading Terminal . From then on, local trains from Newark no longer ended at Suburban Station, but continued to Temple University Station and on to Warminster . The line designation was R2 with the corresponding end goal, the color code of the line was pink.

In the summer of 2010, SEPTA introduced a new line numbering, so that the connection was henceforth called Wilmington / Newark Line and was given a green color code. The connected trains no longer run to Warminster, but mostly to Norristown .

In September 2014, Market East Station was renamed Jefferson Station after the adjacent Thomas Jefferson University Hospital , which bought the station's naming rights. The contract is initially valid until 2019, but can be extended.

business

In 2015, 29 pairs of trains ran on the Wilmington / Newark Line, with only 10 trains starting in Newark, the remaining trains starting either in Wilmington or Marcus Hook. In addition to the trains that continue on the Manayunk / Norristown Line, there are two pairs of trains that continue on the Chestnut Hill East Line and one that continues to West Trenton . Some trains run out of town without stopping between University Street and Chester. On Saturday only 17 pairs of trains run, on Sunday the 14th. On working days from 19:00, as well as on weekends and public holidays, a reduced fare applies. Operation on the Delaware section is funded by the Delaware Department of Transportation. In 2013, 9700 passengers used the Wilmington / Newark Line on an average working day, and 2.7 million passengers were counted throughout the year.

vehicles

Pennsylvania Railroad MP54

The Silverliner IV railcars purchased by SEPTA in the 1970s are used on the Wilmington / Newark Line . These units, delivered as single and double railcars, can be put together to form trains with several cars. The predecessors of the Silverliner were the MP54 cars from the early days of electrification, which were procured by the Pennsylvania Railroad in the 1930s .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rail Station at Broad and Washington. In: Philadelphia Reflections. December 30, 2007, accessed January 18, 2015 . 
2. ^ Northeast Corridor Infrastructure Master Plan. NEC Master Ploan Working Group, May 2010, p. 1 (pdf file on page 20) , accessed on January 17, 2015 (English). 
3. ↑ Next Stop, Jefferson Station! SEPTA, September 4, 2014, accessed January 17, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Timetable Wilmington / Newark Line. SEPTA, December 14, 2014, accessed January 18, 2015 . 
5. ↑ SEPTA (ed.): Fiscal Year 2015 Annual Service Plan . 2014, p. 60 .