6 trolley lines. The 10, 11, 13, 15, 34, and 36.
The 15 is currently being restored/extended by about 3 miles to its original terminus of Richmond and Westmoreland. Trolley service will resume following completion of an overhaul of the PCC IIs and when I-95 construction is finished.
There are talks to restore the 23 (Chestnut Hill to Oregon Ave via Germantown Avenue) and 56 (Erie Avenue). I could see the 56 happening in the semi-near future, but the 23 probably isn’t coming back. The most I could see would be Chestnut Hill to Broad, with a transfer to the BSL.
There are limited talks to construct new trolley routes along the following routes:
1) Delaware Avenue. There was a trolley run by volunteers in the nineties along the Philadelphia Harbor Belt, but when the city took over the Cherry Street Pier they packed up shop and moved to Scranton. DRPC is in charge of this. It’s unknown whether it’ll be SEPTA or PATCO providing the service.
2) Belmont Avenue. In the city’s recent
Transit Plan, they highlighted the need for service to City Line from Center City. While they admitted that this may be achievable through better utilization of the Cynwyd Line, I suspect that a trolley running from USciences to SJU now might sound quite appealing.
3. Centennial District/Zoo. In the above transit plan, the city also highlights the need for better access to the Centennial District and the Zoo. While the 15 already serves the Zoo, its routing is circuitous for anyone trying to get there from Southwest Philly, and most of the city for that matter. A line running from 34th northward seems to be what they have planned, however I do not know how serious they are about it.
4. Airport. They’ve talked about extending the 13 to the Airport for decades now. We’ll see.
It’s also important to note that the trolley modernization is still happening, albeit slowly. Recent setbacks have pushed it back even further, but there is still a serious push at SEPTA to update both the trolleys and the busses. Both networks are being completely redesigned both from a graphic design and routing standpoint, along with the subways. This is in addition to new LRVs that SEPTA is getting to replace all six existing lines.
I’ve seen the proposed redesign. It’s quite nice, unless you’re especially attached to the numbers the trolleys and busses currently have. It’s just a shame, because SEPTA’s graphic design and maps used to be pretty good, but feel off somewhere around the turn of the millennium.
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