52nd Street station (SEPTA Regional Rail)

52nd Street is a closed train station that was located at the intersection of North 52nd Street & Merion Avenue (just north of Lancaster Avenue (US-30)) in the West Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.[2] It was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) at the junction of its Main Line and its Schuylkill Branch. Today, these lines are the SEPTA Regional Rail Paoli/Thorndale Line and Cynwyd Line, respectively.

Not to be confused with 52nd Street station (Market–Frankford Line).
52nd Street
Westbound train at 52nd Street station in 1973
General information
LocationNorth 52nd Street & Merion Avenue
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Coordinates39.9779°N 75.2263°W / 39.9779; -75.2263
Owned byPennsylvania Railroad
Line(s)Pennsylvania Main Line
Paoli Line
Schuylkill Branch
Construction
Structure typeElevated
Platform levels2
History
Opened1902
ClosedAugust 23, 1980[1]
Electrified1930
Former services
Preceding station Amtrak Following station
Overbrook
toward Harrisburg
 Silverliner Service
One westbound trip only
 Philadelphia–30th Street
toward Philadelphia–Suburban
Preceding station SEPTA Following station
Overbrook
toward Thorndale
 Paoli/​Thorndale Line 30th Street Station
toward Temple University
Wynnefield Avenue
toward Ivy Ridge
 Ivy Ridge Line 30th Street Station
toward Suburban Station
Preceding station Pennsylvania Railroad Following station
Cynwyd
toward Pottsville
 Schuylkill Branch Philadelphia
toward Suburban Station
Wynnefield Avenue
toward Norristown–Haws Avenue
 Norristown Line
Overbrook
toward Paoli
 Paoli Line
40th Street
toward Suburban Station

History
The abandoned 52nd Street station in 1999

At 52nd Street, the Main Line is on an embankment at-grade, while the Schuylkill Branch is on an elevated structure including a Parker through truss spanning 388 feet (118 m) over the Main Line on an extreme skew.[3] A lit sign informed inbound passengers which platform the next train to Center City, Philadelphia would depart from. Only a few trains in each direction stopped at this station, mostly serving reverse commuters heading out to jobs in the Main Line suburbs in the morning and returning home to the city in the evening.

Through merger and bankruptcy, the station and the trains serving it passed from the PRR to the Penn Central to Conrail (the later under contract to SEPTA). The first westbound morning trip of Amtrak's Silverliner Service also stopped at the station.[4]

The station was burned by vandals on August 16, 1980. Conrail bused passengers until the 23rd, when SEPTA chose to outright close the station.[1] The station came down in 1995 as part of revitalization efforts.[5]

Proposals have been made to reopen the station, either in conjunction with projects such as the Schuylkill Valley Metro, or as part of community revitalization efforts.

References
  1. Baer, Christopher T. (April 2015). "A GENERAL CHRONOLOGY OF THE SUCCESSORS OF THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD COMPANY AND THEIR HISTORICAL CONTEXT: 1980-1989" (PDF). Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society.
  2. Amtrak All-American Schedules. Amtrak. April 29, 1973. p. 7 – via The Museum of Railway Timetables.
  3. Spivey, Justin M. (April 2001). "Pennsylvania Railroad, 52nd Street Bridge" (PDF). Historic American Engineering Record. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
  4. All-America Schedules. Amtrak. November 30, 1975. p. 30 – via Museum of Railway Tmetables.
  5. Twyman, Anthony S. (April 5, 1995). "Improving the View". The Philadelphia Daily News. p. 23. Retrieved August 28, 2019 – via Newspapers.com. open access
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