Philadelphia Transportation Thread

[hammersklavier]

Simple: 611 happens to be home to the Broad Street Subway, which is underused. By making it more visible (flex-time park-and-ride facilities at Pattison? Improved signage for Fern Rock?), patronage of the line can increase.

Broad Street is, in many ways, perfectly positioned for a heavy rail line, which is the main reason why it got built. Its congestion is due to its critical arterial status, especially from the northern suburbs, and the fact that it nigh-impossible to make it much better than it actually is.

Speaking of ROWs, though, I personally think that a heavy rail line can be routed from Main Street in Manayunk (the terminus near the foot of the Pencoyd Viaduct, of course) to Ridge Avenue, then down 33rd, run alongside the CSX tracks from the bottom of 33rd (approximately at Girard) to Pennsylvania, under Pennsylvania and out into the City Branch Cut (the former site of Noble Street) and along that cut into a new cutoff tunnel connecting it with the Ridge Avenue Spur, down the old cutoff from that Spur to the Chinatown line, and south along 8th towards Washington and (preferably) eventually Oregon. Such a line would enormously improve transit options for a vast swath of the city, including much of eastern South Philly, and in conjunct with a network of light and heavy rail, including heavier lines linking the more far-flung neighborhoods of the city together and the lighter lines connecting into the heavier network and linking together the outer parts of the central city.