My buddy John and I needed to visit SEPTA to renew our senior citizen card.
They don't yet do senior cards via the internet - only in person, they no
longer do senior cards at the Reading terminal, and you now need to make an
appointment at the SEPTA HQ at 1234 Market Street. The process is quick,
and only took about 10 minutes, and if you're already in the system, there
is no need to take another picture if you look the same :-)
As I've mentioned on numerous occasions this card is perhaps
one of the greatest bargains out there for senior citizens, for it allows
"us" to ride on anything SEPTA
has for free, including commuter rail!
As usual, we try to fit as much riding around on the rails as we can,
usually taking a trip on NJT's River Line light rail - it's a rather
peaceful ride up New Jersey at a can't beat it price of 75 cents. We
wish there were more food options when you get into Trenton, but it's not
that unusual for most railroad stations. We were going to try to fit
in a trip on the West Trenton line, but it is probably easier to take the
line out and catch a bus over the Trenton Transportation Center, since you
have more options to get back to Philadelphia from there.
Another reason to ride the system as much as you can, now, is that SEPTA is
planning on replacing the trolleys with new-fangled light rail style double
car "things", which will take away the charm of riding the 40 year old
Kawasaki's. So as you have heard me say on many of my pages, "get em
while you can" :-)
BTW, it just so happened by chance that we wound up riding on a #13 trolley
for the three segments we rode on them.
Not wanting to waste time driving, we opted to take Amtrak up to
Philadelphia, booking far enough ahead to get one way tickets for the
equivalent of $10 a pop using Amtrak points.
We tried everything we could to trade the tickets in on an earlier trip
back, but Amtrak is VERY unforgiving these days, and want you to fork over
unreasonable sums of money to change things at the last minute... so yes, in
this instance, we wish for the old days of the Pennsy when a ticket was a
ticket, and you decided which train you were going to use it on :-).
Besides, I'm old enough to remember tickets on the Pennsy for 6 bucks to go
from Baltimore to NYC in the 60's!
Train #112, scheduled to depart 08:27 - Lv Baltimore 09:03, Ar 30th St 10:12, ACS-64 #632
Amtrak train #112 is one of the many NORTHEAST REGIONAL trains. The
map of their routes is below, as well as the cities it services.
Cities alongside the blue stripe are NOT on the NE Corridor.
The station in Perryville MD, and some of the signals there.
Always impressed by the catenary supports in the Wilmington area.
Signals on the approach to 30th St.
SEPTA is replacing the older Pennsy PL signals with newer "RDG" style tri-light types.
We JUST missed a NB train, so we had a half hour to kill at the Walter
Rand Transportation Center station. We were able to catch two SB
trains during the wait, but still, the half hour long wait drags on without
the activity of say, 30th St station, or Trenton.
the Camden City Hall building.
The Rutgers
Nursing and Science Center building, kinda reminds me of a Sandcrawler from Starwars.
The Double Crossover adjacent to the Transportation Center station.
Additional LRV shots.
A few of the NJT busses you can find here.
Even if it appears that it is kinda "unsafe" around the Transportation
Center, there is a huge Police presence.
Train activity in Trenton is brisk most of the time, if you're into
passenger, commuter, and light rail trains. Trenton is the northern
terminus for SEPTA commuter trains coming up from Philadelphia, and the
southern terminus for most NJT commuter trains - a few of them do go into
Philadelphia.
You can find some CSX activity a few miles northwest on the Trenton
Sub-Division line, which carries SEPTA's West Trenton service.
The light rail comes in across the street from the station, so access is
very easy. Trains run every 30 minutes, and they STILL require you to
validate the stupid tickets.
If you enjoy riding the various lines the transit companies have, you can
ride to the end of either the Trenton or the West Trenton
line, and take the #608 bus between the two (if you wanna stay with using
public transit). If you are going from the Trenton station, make sure
you are waiting at the bus stop across the street and a couple of hundred
feet down Raoul Wallenburg Ave, otherwise you will miss the buss. The
bus picture below is the bus you're looking for, BTW - and the destination
sign will say EWING, not West Trenton.
As far as food goes in the station, the station lost it's McDonalds years
ago because of Covid. For food, you have Dunkin Donuts, Auntie Ann's,
and a pizza joint at the far end of the station bordering Walnut Ave.
If you're looking for a McDonalds, there is one right next to the light rail
station at Cass Street.
The McDs at Cass Street, two stops away.
Representative trains you can catch here, including a Harrisburg train with
a Metroliner Cab Car (yellow/black front). It's too bad they scrapped
most of the old Metroliner cars, for they could have made a lot more train
sets like this :-) 50 years and still going!
NB signal for platform 1
A couple of dwarf PL's and a view looking north which includes FAIR tower and the signal adjacent to it
As you approach the 30th St Station, you will notice SEPTA's Powelton Yard
off to your left. This is a former PRR suburban MU layover yard now
used by SEPTA to store trains coming to/from the Reading side of the system
during the mid-day period.
Admittedly, there isn't that much along the ride worth taking pictures of if
you not into urban landscapes, but a few buildings here and there pop out at you....
This is typical of what supports the EL.
At the 69th St Transportation Center
There's a lot going on here, between the Market-Frankford EL/Heavy Rail line, the
Norristown High Speed Light Rail line, the busses, and the #101/102 Trolley lines.
It's guaranteed to keep you busy for a while, especially if it's your first visit!
I cover 69th St in detail
here.
Segment 8 - SEPTA #102 Trolley line, 69th St to Clifton-Aldan
Lv 69th St 16:53, Ar Clayton-Aldan 17:13, Trolley #118
Not really a whole lot to take pictures of along the route that I haven't
already taken pictures of and presented on other pages....
It's always interesting to look up, at least for me since I belong to the Baltimore
Streetcar Museum :-)
Bad rail at 49th St and Kingsessing Ave.
At the 40th St Portal
We took a break for a while and grabbed us some iced tea and sat in a small
patio area overlooking the loop. It was a gorgeous day, so why not? :-)
There is almost never a boring moment here!
Since the train originates in St Albans VT, a lot can happen between there
and Philadelphia. The scheduled departure time is 20:16 (8:16pm), but didn't leave until 20:37.
By the time we boarded (I was busy taking pictures :-), the train was almost filled
-completely-. Due to the kindness of Suzanne, the Cafe Car Hostess, she
allowed us to sit with her in the Cafe Car (I know, we're not supposed to). We arrived in Baltimore at
21:52, 26 minutes late - so it looks like the train lost an additional 5
minutes :-(. Not sure how, because there weren't any slow spots that
we could notice.
Train 55 coming in 30th St.
The rear of train 55 in Baltimore.
Train 55 leaving Baltimore, the signal changes to APPROACH fairly quickly.
Last, but not least, a few pictures of the new CPL signal at night: