SEPTA Route 15

The Girard Avenue Line's 8.4 miles (13.5 km)[2][3][10] route runs along Girard Avenue and Richmond Street. The western terminus of Route 15 is at the intersection of Girard Avenue and 63rd Street, at the Haddington Loop, and instantly passes by Carroll Park. The next landmark is Cathedral Cemetery, which is on the corner of US 30 (Lancaster Avenue), where both Girard Avenue and Route 15 briefly overlap, along with the SEPTA Route 10 trolley. The line leaves Lancaster Avenue and resumes its way along Girard Avenue. After crossing over the Philadelphia–Harrisburg line at the intersection with Belmont Avenue, the line passes by the Philadelphia Zoo near Exit 342 on the Schuylkill Expressway before crossing the Schuylkill River over the Girard Avenue Bridge.

After entering Brewerytown, Route 15 loops partially around the south side of Girard College, but rejoins Girard Avenue again, and passes by St. Joseph's Hospital. The first mass transit crossing the line encounters is the Broad Street Line's Girard Station, and two blocks from there crosses the SEPTA Route 23 bus line which was originally a trolley line that may be restored in the future, however SEPTA has removed all connecting track & overhead wires for Route 23 at this location in 2014 completely ending any connection to the North Philadelphia Trolley Network. Directly east of the SEPTA Main Line at 9th Street, Route 15 passes by the Girard Medical Center. At Front Street Route 15 runs beneath the Market–Frankford Line's Girard Station, and then crosses Frankford Avenue, one of the two streets the line is named after.

In 2011, SEPTA completed a new loop for Route 15 at the intersection of Frankford and Delaware Avenues, reached via new trackage down Frankford from Girard. On April 29, 2012, SEPTA began using this loop. This loop is across from the Rivers Casino which opened in September 2010, and is also a natural turnback point due to high ridership turnover at Front Street and Girard for the Market-Frankford Line. The loop will be the temporary eastern terminus of Route 15 when SEPTA finishes replacing track on Richmond between Girard Ave and Ann Street between spring and late 2012, due to Interstate 95-related reconstruction along Richmond Street (see section below).[11]

Girard Avenue ends at Exit 23 on I-95, so Route 15 moves beneath the highway onto Richmond Street, parallel to I-95 until it crosses over the street from the north side to the south side before Exit 25, the interchange with Allegheny Avenue, where it connects to the SEPTA Route 60 bus, another former trolley line. The road runs along the Richmond Playground before Route 15's eastern terminus at the Westmoreland Loop, on the southwest corner of the intersection of Richmond Street and Westmoreland Street.

In addition to the Frankford and Delaware loop, two other short-turn loops exist: at 41st & Parkside, just west of the Philadelphia Zoo, and at 26th & Girard (a bidirectional "in-line" cutback utilizing 26th and Poplar Streets and Girard and College Avenues). No scheduled runs use these loops. Another such loop, located at Richmond Street & Cumberland Avenues, was frequently used when Richmond Street was blocked by trucks which failed to heed warning signs and flashing lights for a low bridge underneath the former Reading Port Richmond Yard of Conrail Shared Assets Operations. This loop has since been removed. Cars returning to Callowhill Depot turn off Girard at 60th Street.

The Richmond and Schuylkill River Passenger Railway was chartered by the Pennsylvania General Assembly on March 26, 1859 to operate along Girard Avenue between the Girard Avenue Bridge over the Schuylkill River in Fairmount Park and Norris Street in Richmond, with an extension authorized west over the bridge to Lancaster Avenue.[12] The line opened from Second Street to 31st Street[13] in July 1859. The company was sold at foreclosure and reorganized as the Fairmount Park and Delaware River Passenger Railway on June 14, 1864, and was merged into the Germantown Passenger Railway (Route 23 Germantown Avenue) on February 15, 1866.[14]

Extensions were opened east to Palmer Street in 1866 (looping via Palmer, Beach, and Shackamaxon Streets[15]) and to Norris Street in 1875.[13] The People's Passenger Railway leased the line on October 1, 1881, and leased the Girard Avenue Railway (chartered May 17, 1894) on June 22, 1896,[14] extending the line west to 60th Street in 1900.[13] The Union Traction Company leased the People's Passenger Railway on July 1, 1896, giving it control over almost all the street railways in Philadelphia.[14] Girard Avenue cars were extended west to 63rd Street and east to Allegheny Avenue – the latter extension along the ex-Electric Traction Company Bridesburg Line on Richmond Street – in 1903,[13] and eventually replaced the Bridesburg Line entirely to Bridesburg. In 1992, SEPTA replaced trolley service along Routes 15, 23, and 56 with buses.

PCC cars were first introduced to Route 15 on Sundays (and later on Saturdays as well) in 1948 using postwar cars at Callowhill Depot that would have been otherwise idle on the weekend. They provided all service on the 15 in June 1955 after a cascade of postwar cars from other lines occurred when used PCC cars were purchased from St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri.[16] Service was cut back to Richmond & Westmoreland on February 24, 1956. PCCs provided all trolley service until SEPTA replaced the trolleys with buses on September 13, 1992. Trolley service returned briefly to Route 15 later in the 1990s using Kawasaki cars from Route 10 temporarily made surplus by water main replacement along the surface portion of Route 10.

2020 redesign plans

Proposed new logo for the Girard Avenue Line under the SEPTA Metro wayfinding project[24]

In 2021, SEPTA proposed rebranding their rail transit service as "SEPTA Metro", in order to make the system easier to navigate. Under this proposal, services along the Girard Avenue Line will be rebranded as the "G" lines with a yellow color, with each service receiving a numeric suffix. Local service would become the G1 Girard Avenue Local.[25][24] In addition, there are plans to extend the 15 from 63rd Street and Girard Avenue further west to 69th Street Transportation Center. This route would follow the 30 route along Haverford Avenue and Cardington Road between 63rd-Girard and 69th Street Transportation Center. [26] Following a period of public comment, Route 15's proposed name was simplified to "G Line."[27]

All stations are in the City of Philadelphia.

Neighborhood	Station or stop	Connections	Notes
Haddington– Carroll Park line	63rd & Girard (EB)	SEPTA City Bus: 31
	63rd & Haverford (WB)	SEPTA City Bus: 30, 31
	62nd & Girard (EB)
	62nd & Haverford (WB)	SEPTA City Bus: 30
	61st & Girard (EB)
	61st & Haverford (WB)	SEPTA City Bus: 30
	60th & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: 30, 46
	59th & Girard
	57th & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: G
	56th & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: G
	54th & Girard
	52nd & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: 52
Mill Creek– Cathedral Park line	51st & Girard
	49th & Girard
	Girard & Lancaster (EB)	SEPTA Trolleys: 10
	Merion & Girard
	Belmont & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: 43
Parkside	42nd & Girard
	41st & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: 40
	40th & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: 38, 40
	39th & Girard
	34th & Girard		Access to Philadelphia Zoo
Fairmount– Brewerytown line	33rd & Girard (WB)	SEPTA City Bus: 32
	31st & Girard
	29th & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: 7, 48, 49
	28th & Girard
	27th & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: 7
	26th & Girard
	Poplar & 26th (EB)	SEPTA City Bus: 32
	Stillman & Poplar (EB)
	25th & Poplar (WB)
Fairmount– Cecil B. Moore line	24th & College
	Corinthian & Girard
	20th & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: 33
	19th & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: 33
	Ridge & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: 61
	17th & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: 2
	16th & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: 2
	Broad & Girard	SEPTA Rapid Transit: BSL Broad Street Line (at Girard) SEPTA City Bus: 4, 16
West Poplar– Yorktown line	12th & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: 23
	11th & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: 23
Poplar– Ludlow line	8th & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: 47
	7th & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: 47
	5th & Girard
Northern Liberties– Olde Kensington line	4th & Girard (WB)	SEPTA City Bus: 57
	3rd & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: 5, 57
	2nd & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: 5
	Front & Girard	SEPTA Rapid Transit: MFL Market–Frankford Line (at Girard) SEPTA City Bus: 5
Fishtown	Frankford & Girard	SEPTA City Bus: 5, 25
	Richmond & Frankford	SEPTA City Bus: 25
	Frankford & Delaware	SEPTA City Bus: 25, 43	Access to The Fillmore

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tram route 15 (SEPTA).

• "schedule" (PDF). (84.7 KB) and "maps" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-01-07. Retrieved 2010-10-31. (23.7 KB)
• Photos of SEPTA Route 15 trolleys