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The G, formerly known as the Route 15 Trolley, is a streetcar line in the SEPTA Metro network that runs along
Girard Avenue Girard Avenue is a major commercial and residential street in Philadelphia. For most of its length it runs east–west, but at Frankford Avenue it makes a 135-degree turn north. Parts of the road are signed as U.S. Route 13 and U.S. Route 30. ...
through
North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...
and
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 ...
,
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 ...
. Service is operated by the City Transit Division of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. , it is the only trolley line 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 ...
that is not part of the subway–surface trolley lines. SEPTA PCC III vehicles are used on the line. The line was first opened in 1859 as a horse car line operated by the Richmond and Schuylkill River Passenger Railway, and electrified in 1895, with extensions in 1902 and 1903. Service was " bustituted" in 1992, along with Route 23 (Germantown Avenue-11th and 12th Streets) and Route 56 (Torresdale-Erie Avenues). On September 4, 2005, trolley service was restored. On April 29, 2012, east of Frankford Avenue, the line started being operated by buses due to major reconstruction. West of Frankford Avenue, the line was still run by PCC II cars. Trolleys terminated at Frankford and Delaware Avenues (Northern Liberties Loop) while buses terminated at Girard Station under the Market-Frankford Line. , the full line is being substituted by a bus bridge to allow for rolling stock maintenance, track repairs, and a nearby highway expansion. Trolley service was originally anticipated to return in late 2021. As of August 2023, six of the 18 cars were restored but still not enough to resume trolley service. SEPTA expected trolleys would be in service in late 2023. However, that goal was also not met. Trolleys finally returned to service on June 16, 2024.


Route

The G's route runs along
Girard Avenue Girard Avenue is a major commercial and residential street in Philadelphia. For most of its length it runs east–west, but at Frankford Avenue it makes a 135-degree turn north. Parts of the road are signed as U.S. Route 13 and U.S. Route 30. ...
and Richmond Street. The western terminus of the G is at the intersection of Girard Avenue and 63rd Street, and instantly passes by Carroll Park. The next landmark is Cathedral Cemetery, where both the G and Girard Avenue briefly overlap with
US 30 U.S. Route 30 or U.S. Highway 30 (US 30) is an east–west main route of the United States Numbered Highway System, with the highway traveling across the Northern U.S. With a length of , it is the third-longest U.S. Highway, afte ...
( Lancaster Avenue) and the T1 trolley. The line leaves Lancaster Avenue and resumes its way along Girard Avenue. After crossing over the Philadelphia–Harrisburg line at the intersection with Belmont Avenue, the line passes by the
Philadelphia Zoo The Philadelphia Zoo is a zoo located in the Centennial District of Philadelphia on the west bank of the Schuylkill River. It was the first true zoo in the United States; it was chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on March 21, 1859 ...
near Exit 342 on the Schuylkill Expressway before crossing 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 ...
over the Girard Avenue Bridge. After entering Brewerytown, the G loops partially around the south side of Girard College, but rejoins Girard Avenue again, and passes by the former Saint Joseph's Hospital. The first mass transit crossing the line encounters is the Broad Street Line's Girard Station, and two blocks from there crosses the SEPTA Route 23 bus line (which was originally a trolley line that may be restored in the future; however SEPTA has removed all connecting track & overhead wires for Route 23 at this location in 2014 completely ending any connection to the North Philadelphia Trolley Network). Directly east of the SEPTA Main Line overpass at 9th Street, the G passes by the Girard Medical Center. At Front Street the G runs beneath the Market–Frankford Line's Girard Station, and then crosses Frankford Avenue, one of the two streets the line is named after. In 2011, SEPTA completed a new loop for the G at the intersection of Frankford and Delaware Avenues, reached via new trackage down Frankford from Girard. On April 29, 2012, SEPTA began using this loop. This loop is across from the Rivers Casino which opened in September 2010, and is also a natural turnback point due to high ridership turnover at Front Street and Girard for the Market-Frankford Line. The loop was the temporary eastern terminus of the then-Route 15 until SEPTA finished replacing track on Richmond between Girard Ave and Ann Street between spring and late 2012, due to
Interstate 95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...
-related reconstruction along Richmond Street (see section below). With resumption of trolley service on June 16, 2024, this loop was only used for select bus trips. Girard Avenue ends at Exit 23 on I-95, so the G moves beneath the highway onto Richmond Street, parallel to I-95 until it crosses over the street from the north side to the south side before Exit 25, the interchange with Allegheny Avenue, where it connects to the SEPTA Route 60 bus, another former trolley line. The road runs along the Richmond Playground before the G's eastern terminus at the Westmoreland Loop, on the southwest corner of the intersection of Richmond Street and Westmoreland Street. In addition to the Frankford and Delaware loop, two other short-turn loops exist: at 41st & Parkside, just west of the Philadelphia Zoo, and at 26th & Girard (a bidirectional "in-line" cutback utilizing 26th and Poplar Streets and Girard and College Avenues). No scheduled runs use these loops. Another such loop, located at Richmond Street & Cumberland Avenues, was frequently used when Richmond Street was blocked by trucks which failed to heed warning signs and flashing lights for a low bridge underneath the former
Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...
Port Richmond Yard of Conrail Shared Assets Operations. This loop has since been removed. Cars returning to Callowhill Depot turn off Girard at 60th Street.


History


Early years

The Richmond and Schuylkill River Passenger Railway was chartered by the
Pennsylvania General Assembly The Pennsylvania General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The legislature convenes in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. In colonial times (1682–1776), the legislature was known as the Pennsylvani ...
on March 26, 1859, to operate along Girard Avenue between the Girard Avenue Bridge over 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 ...
in Fairmount Park and Norris Street in Richmond, with an extension authorized west over the bridge to Lancaster Avenue.Public Laws 241 and 242 of 1859 and 1862 of 1861, reprinted in Law Department of the City of Philadelphia
A Digest of Laws Relating to the City of Pennsylvania
1865, pp. 111–113 (appendix)
The line opened from Second Street to 31st Street in July 1859. The company was sold at
foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has Default (finance), stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the Collateral (finance), coll ...
and reorganized as the Fairmount Park and Delaware River Passenger Railway on June 14, 1864, and was merged into the Germantown Passenger Railway ( Route 23 Germantown Avenue) on February 15, 1866.American Street Railway Investments
a Supplement to the Street Railway Journal, 1897, p. 198, 200, 204
Extensions were opened east to Palmer Street in 1866 (looping via Palmer, Beach, and Shackamaxon StreetsWilliam B. Atkinson
The Philadelphia Medical Register and Directory
1875
) and to Norris Street in 1875. The People's Passenger Railway leased the line on October 1, 1881, and leased the Girard Avenue Railway (chartered May 17, 1894) on June 22, 1896, extending the line west to 60th Street in 1900. The Union Traction Company leased the People's Passenger Railway on July 1, 1896, giving it control over almost all the street railways in Philadelphia. Girard Avenue cars were extended west to 63rd Street and east to Allegheny Avenue – the latter extension along the ex-Electric Traction Company Bridesburg Line on Richmond Street – in 1903, and eventually replaced the Bridesburg Line entirely to Bridesburg. In 1992, SEPTA replaced trolley service along Routes 15, 23, and 56 with
buses A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...
. PCC cars were first introduced to the then-Route 15 on Sundays (and later on Saturdays as well) in 1948 using postwar cars at Callowhill Depot that would have been otherwise idle on the weekend. They provided all service on the 15 in June 1955 after a cascade of postwar cars from other lines occurred when used PCC cars were purchased from St. Louis and
Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...
. Service was cut back to Richmond & Westmoreland on February 24, 1956. PCCs provided all trolley service until SEPTA replaced the trolleys with buses on September 13, 1992. Trolley service returned briefly to Route 15 later in the 1990s using Kawasaki cars from Route 10 temporarily made surplus by
water main A water distribution system is a part of water supply network with components that carry potable water from a centralized treatment plant or wells to consumers to satisfy residential, commercial, industrial and fire fighting requirements. Defi ...
replacement along the surface portion of Route 10.


2005 trolley restoration

The 15 line returned to trolley service on September 4, 2005, after having been served by buses for thirteen years. To prepare for the resumption of trolley service, SEPTA spent a total of $100 million, including rehabilitating the tracks and repairs to the
overhead wires An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, electric multiple units, trolleybuses or trams. The generic term used by the International Union of Railways for the tec ...
. The rolling stock for then-Route 15 consists of PCC II cars, which are 1947 St. Louis Car-built
PCC streetcar The Presidents' Conference Committee (PCC) is a streetcar (tram) design that was first built in the United States in the 1930s. The design proved successful domestically, and after World War II it was licensed for use elsewhere in the world where ...
s that had been completely rebuilt by the Brookville Equipment Company at a cost of $1.3 million per trolley in 2003-2004. The rebuilt trolley includes the addition of air conditioning and
regenerative braking Regenerative braking is an energy recovery mechanism that slows down a moving vehicle or object by converting its kinetic energy or potential energy into a form that can be either used immediately or stored until needed. Typically, regenerativ ...
, as well as a widened center door with a wheelchair lift for ADA compliance. The restoration of trolley service was delayed because of a long fight with local residents on 59th Street, which the trolleys needed to travel down in order to access the Callowhill Depot, over parking on the street. During the reconstruction of the line the surrounding neighborhoods, through grassroots coalitions, worked to improve the Girard Avenue streetscape through beautification and marketing projects. Since service returned in 2005, the 15 line has spurred various development projects as well as renewed investment along the corridor. In 2018 a comprehensive analysis of SEPTA's surface operations called for the transit agency to consider replacing trolley operations with a high-frequency bus route, citing the rail car's inability to get around double-parked cars and other obstacles.


Port Richmond reconstruction and I-95

The G east of the new Northern Liberties loop is being rebuilt as part of a reconstruction project for
Interstate 95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...
. The components of the I-95 project related to the G include reconstruction of Girard Avenue's bridge over Aramingo Avenue, and widening and partial realignment of Richmond Street. All the tracks in these areas will be replaced, except for the Richmond & Cumberland loop which will be removed. Also part of the project is the construction of four separate bridges for
Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busine ...
tracks over a realigned Richmond Street to replace the low-clearance nuisance bridge left over from the former Port Richmond Yard. The new bridges, rationalized in width to current Conrail trackage, will provide much greater road clearance by virtue of being relocated away from underneath the I-95 viaduct. The then-Route 15 east of Frankford Avenue to the Frankford and Delaware Avenue station and the SugarHouse Casino was be served by a shuttle bus for the duration of the project, which was expected to last through 2018. On January 21, 2020, SEPTA officials announced that buses would be replacing the streetcars along the whole route for a period of at least 18 months.


SEPTA Metro era

In 2021, SEPTA proposed rebranding their rail transit service as " SEPTA Metro" to make the system easier to navigate. Under this proposal, services along the Girard Avenue Line would have been rebranded as the "G" lines with a yellow color, each receiving a numeric suffix. Local service would become the G1 Girard Avenue Local. Following a period of public comment, Route 15's proposed name was simplified to "G." In 2023, SEPTA awarded Alstom Transportation the contract to furbish 130 new low-floor trams for the existing Subway Surface lines, along with the Media–Sharon Hill Line, with an option for 30 more. These 30 extra trams, if ordered, would replace the existing PCC-III trolleys on the G. The trolleys would be of Alstom's Citadis family and would be 80 feet in length and low-floor (and therefore fully ADA-compliant). While the existing PCC-III trolleys are ADA-compliant as a result of their wheelchair lift, this lift is cumbersome and presents a significant source of delays across the line during regular operation. The first trolley is expected to be delivered from Alstom in the Spring of 2027, with the last trolley from the base order to be delivered some time in 2030. SEPTA does not plan on reconstructing the G for its Trolley Modernization Program until 2041 at the earliest. As of July 7, 2023, the I-95 reroute work had been substantially completed, but trolley service not yet restored. WHYY reported that SEPTA officials had stated that several of the now twice refurbished PCC-II cars were in testing on the route and "at least" eight would be ready by "the end of the summer 023" .."The plan is to use trolleys and buses to serve the G, which allows us to deploy the restored trolleys while maintaining frequency on the route,” a SEPTA spokesperson told Billy Penn. As of August 2023, six of the cars had been restored, and SEPTA had announced a partial restoration of trolley service starting September 10, 2023. However, citing the need for more operator training, the agency has delayed the restoration, though still expected to resume trolley service sometime in late 2023. The restoration has since been pushed back to spring 2024. In June, SEPTA announced eight restored trolleys will resume service alongside buses on June 16, 2024.


Stations

All stations are in the
City of 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 ...
.


References


Notes


Citations


External links

*  and  
Photos of SEPTA Route 15 trolleys
{{Crossings navbox, structure=Crossings, place=
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 ...
, bridge=Girard Avenue Bridge, bridge signs= {{ric, SEPTA Metro, G, size=20px, upstream= Pennsylvania Railroad, Connecting Railway Bridge, upstream signs=, downstream= Fairmount Dam, downstream signs= Railway lines opened in 1859 Railway lines closed in 1992 Railway lines opened in 2005 Railway lines closed in 2020 Railway lines opened in 2024 15 Streetcars in Pennsylvania Heritage streetcar systems 5 ft 2¼ in gauge railways in the United States Tram routes in Philadelphia 1859 establishments in Pennsylvania 600 V DC railway electrification Heritage railroads in Pennsylvania