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Route 37 is a
bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
and former streetcar route operated by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.


Route description

Starting at Snyder station on the Broad Street Line, the route follows Passyunk Avenue and Essington Avenue to the Eastwick Industrial Park. Some peak hour trips bypass the Park via 61st Street, Lindbergh Boulevard, and 84th Street. It then continues along Bartram Avenue, loops counterclockwise through
Philadelphia International Airport Philadelphia International Airport is the primary airport serving Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The airport served 19.6 million passengers annually in 2021, making it the 21st busiest airport in the United States. The airport is located from t ...
, and reaches the Chester Transportation Center via Industrial Highway / PA 291 and local streets, with a short detour along Morton Avenue to Harrah's Philadelphia Casino & Racetrack.


History


Street car service

The original trolley service, nicknamed the ''"Chester Short Line"'', ran between
Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
and 3rd & Jackson Streets in South Philadelphia. On February 15, 1911, the service was extended to Center City via the Subway-Surface tunnel. The route ran from Chester via Essington Avenue (now Industrial Highway), through a swampy area (now the John Heintz-Tinicum Wildlife Refuge Center), along the former Eastwick Avenue, then turned up Island Road (now Island Avenue), and east onto Woodland Avenue where it joined Route 11 and . Overnight service operated via Elmwood Avenue instead of Woodland, replacing Route 36 between Island Road and 49th Street. During World War II, Route 37 carried thousands of industrial workers to jobs at Westinghouse Electric, the
Baldwin Locomotive Works The Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) was an American manufacturer of railroad locomotives from 1825 to 1951. Originally located in Philadelphia, it moved to nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania, in the early 20th century. The company was for decades t ...
, and
Sun Shipbuilding Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Company (1917–1989) was a major shipbuilding company in Chester, Pennsylvania on the Delaware River. Its primary product was tankers, but the company built many types of ships over its 70-year history. During World W ...
. Six special shift-change branches ran to and from Sun Shipbuilding (37A, 37B, 37C and 37D) and Westinghouse (37E and 37F) from destinations not on the regular Route 37.


Bus service

At 1:18 a.m. on August 28, 1946, a crowded trolley collided with a truck on the Crum Creek Bridge. Both vehicles caught fire; fortunately all the passengers escaped without injury. However, the bridge was destroyed, severing the trolley line to Chester. Buses replaced trolleys between Westinghouse Loop (Lester Road) and Chester. The remainder of the route was converted to bus operation on November 5, 1955. The new service ran to station in South Philadelphia instead of Center City, replacing the Route 81 bus on Passyunk Avenue. Trolley service between Center City and Westinghouse Loop was transferred to Route 36. In the mid-1970s, due to Airport expansion and construction of I-95, service in the Airport area was rerouted via Lindbergh Boulevard, 84th Street and Bartram Avenue. New service was introduced to the Eastwick Industrial Park on June 21, 1981, and then rerouted past the nearby Auto Mall on September 9, 1990. Service to the
PNC PNC may refer to: Government and politics * Congolese National Police, in French: ''Police nationale congolaise'' * Colombian National Police, in Spanish: ''Policía Nacional de Colombia'' * National Civil Police of El Salvador, in Spanish: '' ...
Eastwick Center began on September 13, 1988. A stop for Harrah's Philadelphia (the former site of Sun Shipbuilding) was added on September 3, 2006.


References


External links

* {{authority control 5 ft 2¼ in gauge railways in the United States Railway lines closed in 1955 37 37 Streetcars in Pennsylvania Tram routes in Philadelphia Transportation in Philadelphia