SEPTA Route 36

Starting from its eastern end at the 13th Street, Route 36 runs in a tunnel under Market Street. It stops at underground stations at 15th Street, 19th Street, 22nd Street, 30th Street, and 33rd Street. From 15th to 30th Streets, it runs on the outer tracks in the same tunnel as SEPTA's Market–Frankford Line.

Passengers may transfer free of charge to the Market–Frankford Line at 13th, 15th, and 30th Streets and to the Broad Street Line at 15th Street. Connections to the SEPTA Regional Rail are also available. Underground passageways connect the 13th and 15th Street Stations to Jefferson Station and Suburban Station.

Route 36 surfaces at the 40th Street Portal near 40th Street and Baltimore Avenue (US 13), and then runs southwest along Woodland Avenue along with the Route 11 trolleys, and then turns down 49th Street where the Woodland Maintenance Facility is located and the Route 10 diversion line ends. After 49th Street crosses over the Wilmington/Newark Line, it takes a sharp right curve as the road becomes Grays Avenue. Route 36 runs along Grays south of the Wilmington/Newark Line until it makes a diagonal move southwest onto Lindbergh Boulevard. Shortly after leaving Grays the line intersects with 54th Street and crosses over a bridge for the Philadelphia Subdivision freight line, and immediately intersects with a road running along the line leading to Bartram's Botanical Garden, the oldest surviving botanical garden in North America.[4]

Just before Lindbergh Boulevard becomes a divided highway east of 56th Street, the line moves onto Elmwood Avenue. From there it crosses over the Airport Line, continuing westward until it enters an industrial area and makes a left turn at a five way intersection that includes Elmwood Avenue, Island Road and Passyunk Avenue on the southeast corner. The northeast corner is the location of the Elmwood Depot on Island Road. Tracks runs northward along Island Road as far north as Woodland Avenue, which handles pull-ins/pull-outs for Routes 11 & 13.

Island Road is a wide boulevard with the Route 36 tracks down the middle, until the road divides at Buist Avenue, where the tracks run down the median, and a trolley stop exists. Another stop exists at Tanager Street. South of Tanager Street, the southbound Island Avenue lane crosses over the tracks, and they now run between the main road and southbound frontage road. The next stop is South 76th Street, which intersects with the frontage road, but has a stop along both this and the main road. The Route 36 line crosses Lindbergh Boulevard again, where it has its own stop in the median on both sides of the tracks north of Lindbergh Boulevard. The southwest corner also includes the Penrose Plaza Shopping Center, which spans the west side of Island Road as far down as the terminus of the Route 36 line, the Eastwick Loop, which is accessible from a U-Turn beneath the Island Road bridge over the SEPTA Airport Line, and is four blocks east of Eastwick Railroad Station. SEPTA plans to expand the regional rail station and possibly merge it with the trolley station, transforming it into the Eastwick Transportation Center.[5]

Route 36 was established as the Elmwood Avenue Line in 1904 by the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company. Original streetcar service operated between Island Road and Elmwood Avenue via Center City on Market Street to Front & Market Streets. Service rerouted into the Subway-Surface Tunnel and extended to the Westinghouse Plant in Essington on November 5, 1955 replacing Route 37 trolley service. OWL (24-hour) service transferred from Route 37 to Route 36 at the same time. At the western terminus, service was cut back to 94th Street & Eastwick Avenue on September 9, 1956. Service was cut back again to 88th Street on August 15, 1962, Service was cut back a third time to 84th Street on January 5, 1966, but extended back to 88th Street on December 11, 1972. Service was cut back to 80th Street & Eastwick Avenue on April 26, 1975. In 1985, Island Avenue was converted into a new bridge over the SEPTA Airport Line near the station, and the intersection of 80th Street and Eastwick Avenue was replaced by a frontage road loop on the north side of the tracks.[6] Despite the elimination of the 80th Street intersection, trolleys still sign their destination as 80th Street – Eastwick.

In 2021, SEPTA proposed rebranding their rail transit service as "SEPTA Metro", in order to make the system easier to navigate. Under this proposal, the subway–surface lines will be rebranded as the "T" lines with a green color and numeric suffixes for each service, and Route 36 would be renamed "T5 Elmwood Avenue."[7][8] SEPTA described that "most comments were positive" in the public comment period for this rebranding project.[9]

All are in the City of Philadelphia.

Neighborhood / location	Images	Station or stop	Connections	Notes
Market East		13th Street	MFL Market–Frankford Line 10, 11, 13, 34, 36 27, 31, 32	Closed between 12:30–5:00am
Penn Center		15th Street	all lines (at Suburban) MFL Market–Frankford Line, BSL Broad Street Line (at City Hall) 10, 11, 13, 34, 36 4, 16, 17, 27, 31, 32, 33, 38, 44, 48 124, 125	Late night terminus
		19th Street	10, 11, 13, 34, 36 17, 31, 38, 44, 48, 62, 78 124
Center City West		22nd Street	10, 11, 13, 34, 36 7, 31, 44, 62 124, 125	Replaced 24th Street station
University City		30th Street	Amtrak (at 30th Street) NJ Transit: ACL Atlantic City Line (at 30th Street) all lines (at 30th Street) MFL Market–Frankford Line 10, 11, 13, 34, 36 31, 49, LUCY	No direct passage to 30th Street Station
		33rd Street	10, 11, 13, 34, 36 30, 31, 49, LUCY	Serves Drexel University
		36th Street	11, 13, 34 21	Serves University of Pennsylvania
		37th Street	11, 13, 34 40, 42, LUCY	Serves University of Pennsylvania, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Spruce Hill		40th Street Portal	11, 13, 34 30, 40, 42, LUCY	End of Route 34 concurrency
		Chester & Woodland	11, 13 30	End of Route 13 concurrency
		41st & Woodland (EB)	11 30
		42nd & Woodland	11
		43rd & Woodland (WB) 45th & Woodland (EB)	11
Squirrel Hill		46th & Woodland	11
		47th & Woodland (EB)	11
Kingsessing		48th & Woodland	11
		49th & Woodland	11 12, 52, 64	End of Route 11 concurrency
		Paschall & 49th	12, 64
		49th & Grays (EB)
		51st & Grays
		52nd & Grays (EB) Grays & Lindbergh (WB)
		Lindbergh & Grays (WB) 53rd & Lindbergh (EB)
		54th & Lindbergh
		Wheeler & Lindbergh
		56th & Elmwood
		57th & Elmwood
Elmwood		58th & Elmwood
		59th & Elmwood
		Edgewood & Elmwood
		61st & Elmwood
		62nd & Elmwood	G
		63rd & Elmwood
		64th & Elmwood
		65th & Elmwood	108
		66th & Elmwood	108
		67th & Elmwood
		68th & Elmwood
		69th & Elmwood
		70th & Elmwood
		71st & Elmwood
		72nd & Elmwood
		73rd & Elmwood		Located near Elmwood Depot & overnight terminus
Eastwick		Island & Elmwood	68 108
		Buist & Island	68
		Tanager & Island
		76th & Island
		Lindbergh & Island	37, 68
		Island/Suffolk
		80th Street–Eastwick	Airport Line (at Eastwick)

• Official SEPTA Route 36 schedule and map