Newtown station (SEPTA)

Newtown station is a defunct railroad station in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Built by the Reading Railroad, it later served SEPTA Regional Rail's Fox Chase/Newtown Line. SEPTA closed the station in 1983.

Newtown
Former railroad station
Newtown station site in July 2012. Platform and signage remain.
General information
LocationPenn Street
Newtown, Pennsylvania.
Coordinates40.2266°N 74.9312°W / 40.2266; -74.9312
Owned bySEPTA
Platforms1 side platform
Tracks3
ConnectionsTerminal station
Construction
Structure typestation shed (demolished)
Parking20
History
Opened1873 (RDG)
ClosedJanuary 18, 1983[1]
Electrifiedno
Former services
Preceding station SEPTA Following station
George School
toward Reading Terminal
 Newtown Line Terminus
Preceding station Reading Railroad Following station
George School
toward Philadelphia
 Newtown Branch Terminus

History

Reading Railroad built the station in 1873 as the terminus of its line. In the railroad's original plans, the line was to continue to the north, but this expansion was never built. The building was torn down in 1960, and a new shelter was constructed in 1976. It later became a part of SEPTA's Fox Chase Rapid Transit Line. The station, and all of those north of Fox Chase station, was closed on January 18, 1983, due to failing diesel train equipment.[1]

SEPTA experimented with the line by operating the Fox Chase-Newtown diesel segment as the Fox Chase Rapid Transit Line. SEPTA insisted on utilizing transit operators from the Broad Street Subway as a cost-saving factor, while Conrail requested that railroad engineers run the service. This was a result of a labor dispute that began when SEPTA inherited approximately 1,700 displaced employees from Conrail. When a federal court ruled that SEPTA had to use Conrail employees in order to offer job assurance, SEPTA cancelled Fox Chase-Newtown trains.[2]

Service in the diesel-only territory north of Fox Chase was cancelled at that time, and the Newtown station still appears in publicly posted tariffs.[3]

Although rail service was initially replaced with a Fox Chase-Newtown shuttle bus, patronage remained light, and the Fox Chase-Newtown shuttle bus service ended in 1999. The Newtown station shelter was torn down in 2004.[4]

References
  1. Kennedy, Sara (October 21, 1983). "SEPTA to Boost Rail Service 13%". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 1–2. Retrieved July 14, 2020 – via Newspapers.com. open access
  2. Tulsky, Fredric N. (January 29, 1982). "Conrail Staff Must Run Trains: court ruling bars SEPTA takeover". The Philadelphia Inquirer. SEPTA must use Conrail workers rather than its own personnel to run trains over the region's 13 commuter lines, a special federal court has ruled in a decision that offers some job assurance for 1,700 Conrail employees next year. The special court, in an opinion issued Wednesday, ruled that SEPTA had acted legally in October when it replaced Conrail workers with its former subway operators on the line.
  3. SEPTA Tariff No. 154; effective July 1, 2013
  4. Bucks Views website, documenting out-of-service Newtown train line
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