Franklin Square | |||||||||||
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General information | |||||||||||
Location | 7th and Race streets Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | ||||||||||
Coordinates | 39°57′17″N75°08′58″W / 39.95465°N 75.14953°W | ||||||||||
Owned by | Delaware River Port Authority | ||||||||||
Platforms | 2 side platforms | ||||||||||
Tracks | 2 | ||||||||||
Construction | |||||||||||
Structure type | Underground | ||||||||||
Accessible | Yes | ||||||||||
Other information | |||||||||||
Website | thefranklinsquarestation | ||||||||||
History | |||||||||||
Opened | June 7, 1936 | ||||||||||
Opening | 2025 (planned) | ||||||||||
Closed | September 9, 1979 | ||||||||||
Future services | |||||||||||
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Franklin Square station is an unused, underground rapid transit station on the PATCO Speedline, operated by the Delaware River Port Authority. It is located under Franklin Square in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Opened on June 7, 1936, the station was the first westbound and final eastbound station in Philadelphia, located just west of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge which carries trains over the Delaware River. The station has been opened for four separate intervals, each time eventually being closed for low ridership. As of 2021 [update] , the station is being refurbished and is expected to reopen by Fall 2024.
The station first opened on June 7, 1936, along with 8th Street in Philadelphia and City Hall and Broadway in Camden, New Jersey, as part of Philadelphia Rapid Transit's Bridge Line service. [1] The station was open for several intervals, each time eventually being closed for low ridership. Most recently, the station was refurbished and reopened as a PATCO station in 1976, coinciding with the United States Bicentennial celebration. The station remained open until 1979, when it was closed again due to low ridership. Approximate years of operation were 1936–1939, 1943–1946, 1952–1953, and 1976–1979, with sources varying on the details. [2] [3] [4]
All PATCO trains pass through Franklin Square upon crossing the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and entering Philadelphia. The platform and walkway are visible when looking out of the left side of the train. From the surface, entrances are visible, but sealed by concrete.
In 2009, the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA, parent agency of PATCO) announced that it was commissioning a design plan for renovating, modernizing and reopening the Franklin Square station. [5] As of December 2016:
Projections now are at about 1,500 [riders] a day… DRPA's CEO, John Hanson, said a five-year, $28.2 million plan is now in place for the eventual reopening. The DRPA board recently approved moving ahead. Design work will come first, beginning in 2017. Requests for quotations from engineering firms are due near the end of January. Then comes a short list. The project will include a modern design, better lighting, improved security, new tile, replacing and securing waterlines, a new entryway on at Race and 7th Streets and an elevator to the station, likely somewhere in Franklin Square Park. The heavy construction work may not happen until 2020, with the opening the following year. [6]
By 2018, it was announced that the station would be rebuilt starting in April 2020. [7] The United States Department of Transportation gave PATCO officials a $12.6 million grant for the project in November 2019. [8] [9] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Pennsylvania, the start of construction was delayed to mid-2021, with an expected opening in Fall 2024. [10] [11] The work involved upgrades to the station's mechanical, electrical, and structural systems. [12] By late 2024, station construction was wrapping up with an expected 2025 opening. [13]
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly four million people throughout five counties in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It also manages projects that maintain, replace, and expand its infrastructure, facilities, and vehicles.
The PATCO Speedline, signed in Philadelphia as the Lindenwold Line and also known colloquially as the PATCO High Speed Line, is a rapid transit route operated by the Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO), which runs between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Camden County, New Jersey.
The Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA), officially the Delaware River Port Authority of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, is a bi-state agency instrumentality created by a congressionally approved interstate compact between the state governments of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The authority is principally charged to maintain and develop transportation links between the two states with four bridges and a mass transit rail line across the Delaware River. Though the DRPA has "port" in its name, it does not own or operate any ports.
The River Line is a hybrid rail line in southern New Jersey that connects the cities of Camden and Trenton, New Jersey's capital. It is so named because its route between the two cities is parallel to the Delaware River.
The Betsy Ross Bridge is a continuous steel truss bridge spanning the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Pennsauken, New Jersey. It was built from 1969 to 1974, and opened in April 1976, during the American Bicentennial Year. It was originally planned to be named as the "Delair Bridge", after a paralleling vertical lift bridge owned by Pennsylvania Railroad, which is now used by Conrail Shared Assets Operations and New Jersey Transit's Atlantic City Line, but was instead later named for Betsy Ross, a Philadelphia seamstress and reputed creator of the first American flag in 1776. It was the first automotive bridge named for a woman in the United States, and the second U.S. bridge overall named for a woman after Iowa's Boone High Bridge was renamed the Kate Shelley High Bridge in 1912.
The Commodore Barry Bridge is a cantilever bridge that spans the Delaware River from Chester, Pennsylvania to Bridgeport, New Jersey, in Logan Township. It is named after John Barry, an American Revolutionary War hero and Philadelphia resident.
The Broad Street Line (BSL), currently rebranding as the B, is a rapid transit line in the SEPTA Metro network in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The line runs primarily north-south from the Fern Rock Transportation Center in North Philadelphia through Center City Philadelphia to NRG station at Pattison Avenue in South Philadelphia; the latter station provides access to the stadiums and arenas for the city's major professional sports teams at the South Philadelphia Sports Complex, about a quarter mile away. It is named for Broad Street, under which the line runs for almost its entire length.
Interstate 676 (I-676) is an Interstate Highway that serves as a major thoroughfare through Center City Philadelphia, where it is known as the Vine Street Expressway, and Camden, New Jersey, where it is known as the northern segment of the North–South Freeway, as well as the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Highway in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Its western terminus is at I-76 in Philadelphia near the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Fairmount Park. From there, it heads east and is then routed on surface streets near Franklin Square and Independence National Historical Park, home of the Liberty Bell, before crossing the Delaware River on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. On the New Jersey side of the bridge, the highway heads south to its southern terminus at I-76 in Gloucester City near the Walt Whitman Bridge. Between the western terminus and downtown Camden, I-676 is concurrent with U.S. Route 30 (US 30).
8th Street station is a subway station complex in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the intersection of 8th Street and Market Street in Center City. It is served by SEPTA's Market–Frankford and Broad–Ridge Spur lines, as well as the PATCO Speedline. The entire complex is owned by SEPTA, while the PATCO areas are leased by the Delaware River Port Authority, which operates that line. 8th Street is the only station in Philadelphia where these three subway lines interchange.
Transportation in Philadelphia involves the various modes of transport within the city and its required infrastructure. In addition to facilitating intracity travel, Philadelphia's transportation system connects Philadelphia to towns of its metropolitan area and surrounding areas within the Northeast megalopolis.
The Atlantic City Line (ACL) is a commuter rail line operated by NJ Transit (NJT) in the United States between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Atlantic City, New Jersey, operating along the corridor of the White Horse Pike. It runs over trackage that was controlled by both the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines. It shares trackage with SEPTA and Amtrak on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) until it crosses the Delaware River on Conrail's Delair Bridge into New Jersey.
Lindenwold station is a train station in Lindenwold, New Jersey, United States, served by the NJ Transit Atlantic City Line regional rail service and the rapid transit PATCO Speedline. Lindenwold is the eastern terminus of PATCO; the system's headquarters and maintenance facility are located adjacent to the station in neighboring Voorhees.
Penn's Landing is a waterfront area of Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, situated along the Delaware River. Its name commemorates the landing of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, in 1682. The actual landing site is farther south, in Chester. The city of Philadelphia purchased the right to use the name. Penn's Landing is bounded by Front Street to the west, the Delaware River to the east, Spring Garden Street to the north, and Washington Avenue to the south, and is primarily focused on the Christopher Columbus Boulevard corridor.
City Hall station is an underground rapid transit station on the PATCO Speedline, operated by the Delaware River Port Authority. It is located in Camden, New Jersey, one block from Camden City Hall, after which the station is named, at North 5th and Market Streets. Opened on June 7, 1936, the station is the first eastbound and final westbound station in New Jersey, located just east of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge which carries trains over the Delaware River.
The Walter Rand Transportation Center is a transportation hub located at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Broadway in Camden, New Jersey. It is served by the River Line, New Jersey Transit buses and Greyhound intercity buses and also includes the Broadway station of the PATCO Speedline.
Interstate 95 (I-95) is a major north–south Interstate Highway that runs along the East Coast of the United States from Miami, Florida, north to the Canada–United States border at Houlton, Maine. In the state of Pennsylvania, it runs 51.00 miles (82.08 km) from the Delaware state line near Marcus Hook in Delaware County in the southeastern part of the state northeast to the Delaware River–Turnpike Toll Bridge at the New Jersey state line near Bristol in Bucks County, closely paralleling the New Jersey state line for its entire length through Pennsylvania.
Franklin Square is one of the five original open-space parks planned by William Penn when he laid out the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1682. It is located in the Center City area, between North 6th and 7th streets, and between Race Street and the Vine Street Expressway (I-676).
The Benjamin Franklin Bridge, originally named the Delaware River Bridge and known locally as the Ben Franklin Bridge, is a suspension bridge across the Delaware River connecting Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Camden, New Jersey. Owned and operated by the Delaware River Port Authority, it is one of four primary vehicular bridges between Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, along with the Betsy Ross, Walt Whitman, and Tacony-Palmyra bridges. It carries Interstate 676/U.S. Route 30, pedestrians/cyclists, and the PATCO Speedline.
The Glassboro–Camden Line (GCL) is a planned 18-mile (29 km) diesel multiple unit (DMU) light rail system to be located in South Jersey.
One Port Center is an office building in Camden, New Jersey located in the Camden Waterfront. The building, opened in 1996, was designed by Michael Graves and is headquarters to the Delaware River Port Authority.
Media related to Franklin Square station at Wikimedia Commons