13th Street station is a

SEPTA SEPTA, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly four million people througho ...

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT) or heavy rail, commonly referred to as metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport that is generally built in urban areas. A grade separation, grade separated rapid transit line below ground su ...

station in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, located under Market Street between 13th and Juniper streets in Center City. The station serves the

SEPTA Metro SEPTA Metro is an urban rail transit network in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, operated by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). The network includes two rapid transit lines, a light metro line, ...

L and is the eastern terminal station for all five routes of the T. 13th Street is located on the east side of

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

and Penn Square and is connected to the Downtown Link concourse, a collection of underground passageways serving multiple stations on the L, B,

PATCO Speedline The PATCO Speedline, signed as the Lindenwold Line in Philadelphia and commonly referred to as the PATCO High Speed Line, is a rapid transit route operated by the Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO), connecting Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ...

, and Regional Rail lines. The station is also served by bus routes operated by SEPTA's City Transit Division and Suburban Division, as well as

NJ Transit Bus NJ Transit Bus Operations is the bus division of NJ Transit, providing local and commuter bus service throughout New Jersey and adjacent areas of New York State (Manhattan in New York City, Rockland County, and Orange County) and Pennsylvania ...

routes. The T platform was known as Juniper Street until 2011. The station was signed as 13th/Juniper Streets on maps at the time.

History

The station opened on August 3, 1908, as part of the first extension of the

Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company The Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC) was the main public transport, public transit operator in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1940 to 1968. A Privately held company, private company, PTC was the successor to the Philadelphia Rapid Tr ...

's Market Street subway. The line had originally opened a year earlier between 69th Street and 15th Street stations. The Downtown Link and associated underground corridors surrounding the station are expected to undergo a two-year renovation project in conjunction with renovations to the B

15th Street/City Hall station 15th Street/City Hall station is a SEPTA Metro rapid transit complex in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The station is located beneath Philly's City Hall building. It is served by the L, the B, and the T. Each of the three lines have their own ...

platforms.

L platforms

The L platforms are located one floor below ground level, connected to the Downtown Link concourse. The south concourse, accessible from the eastbound platform, features direct underground access to SEPTA's headquarters and transit museum, located at 1234 Market Street. Market–Frankford trains continue west via Market Street across the

Schuylkill River The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river in eastern Pennsylvania. It flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map(). accessed April 1, 2011. from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Pottsville ...

to serve

West Philadelphia West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Although there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the n ...

and

Upper Darby Upper Darby Township, often shortened to Upper Darby, is a home rule township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, the township had a total population of 85,681, making it the state's sixth-most populated mun ...

, and continue east along Market until Front Street, turning north towards

Northeast Philadelphia Northeast Philadelphia, nicknamed Northeast Philly, the Great Northeast, and known colloquially as simply "the Northeast", is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the 2000 census, Northeast Philadelphia has a population of betw ...

T platform

The platform for all T routes is located two stories below ground level. The station is located at the end of the subway–surface line on a

balloon loop A balloon loop, turning loop, or reversing loop ( North American Terminology) allows a rail vehicle or train to reverse direction without having to shunt or stop. Balloon loops can be useful for passenger trains and unit freight trains. Bal ...

parallel to Juniper Street and features a single track with all trolleys operating in the same direction. Inbound trolleys discharge passengers on the southernmost portion of the platform. The trolleys then proceed to pick up passengers at either Berth 1 or Berth 2. Routes 10, 11 and 13 board at Berth 1, which is located on the northernmost portion of the platform. Routes 34 and 36 board at Berth 2, which is in the center of the platform. Upon departure of the station, the track wraps around and heads west towards

15th Street 15th Street may refer to: * 15th Street station (SEPTA), an American rapid transit station in Philadelphia * 15th Street – Prospect Park (IND Culver Line), a local station on the IND Culver Line of the New York City Subway * Fifteenth Street, a ...

station. It also features a short spur track to the northeast that was formerly used to park occasional stranded or dead trolleys. The track was recently disconnected from the main line due to unsuccessful attempts to tie it into the trolleys'

communications-based train control Communications-based train control (CBTC) is a railway signaling system that uses telecommunications between the train and track equipment for traffic management and infrastructure control. CBTC allows a train's position to be known more accura ...

signaling system.

Station layout

The stations has two high-level

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platforms, ...

s for the Market–Frankford trains and one low-level side platform for subway–surface trolleys. Fare control and Downtown Link concourse access are both on the upper platform level.

Image gallery

File:13th Street Subway Entrance 2017h.jpg, Headhouse and bus stop on the northeast corner of 13th & Market streets File:13thSt L1 Platform jpg.jpg, L1 Eastbound Platform File:13thSt L1 platform T banner jpg.jpg, alt=L1 Eastbound Platform File:13thSt L1 Turnstile jpg.jpg File:13thSt L1 Eastbound banner jpg.jpg

References

External links

Juniper Street entrance from Google Maps Street View

13th Street entrance from Google Maps Street View

12th Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
{{SEPTA Metro stations, L1=y, T1=y, T2=y, T3=y, T4=y, T5=y, state=autocollapse SEPTA Metro L stations SEPTA Metro T stations 13th Juniper Railway stations in the United States opened in 1908 Railway stations located underground in Pennsylvania 1908 establishments in Pennsylvania