bend to the north to rise up and tie in with the old elevated Reading main line near Spring Garden Street. The tunnel presented some unique engi- neering challenges, as it had to go above the Broad Street Subway and underneath the Ridge Avenue Subway and required additional underpinning to keep the old Reading Terminal train- shed operational during construction. As part of the tunnel project a new operational
plan was developed by
Vukan Vuchic, a professor at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania and was based on the “S-bahn” suburban trains in Germany. SEPTA printed seven new color coded timetables each based on a PRR-Reading route pair and given a number preceeded by an “R” which was later adjusted after the line to Philadel- phia International Airport was opened. On July 25, 2010, SEPTA introduced new operating changes and dropped the old R-numbering scheme. The new line segments have a color-coding scheme which applies to the map on page 37.
Due to delays in completing the tun- nel, the PRR-side trains started to op- erate into Market East after the 1984 Labor Day holiday to help struggling merchants recover from a lack of traf- fic. November 6, 1984, was the final day of 91 years of trains into Reading Ter- minal. The Philadelphia Chapter of the NRHS ran a “Last Train from Reading Terminal” fan trip at 8:00 p.m. as part of the last day ceremonies. The Termi- nal was shut down between November 7 and 10 to allow for track and signal cutover to the new tunnel alignment. The new $338 million Center City Tunnel finally opened on November 10, 1984, with train 1408 on the R6 route to Norristown having the honors of the first revenue train through the tunnel. The first full week of operations in the new tunnel were trying to even veteran commuters, as delays up to 30 minutes were common due to power failures, track work, and equipment problems. Train delays at Roberts Yard added to the problem, as there was only one track connection to the main line for trains arriving and departing. Prob- lems on the Reading side now carried over to the other lines due to the paired line-operating plan. All of these prob- lems seemed to pale in comparison to what happened next.
Avoiding a Crisis with RailWorks
On Friday evening November 16, a SEPTA inspector closed one track over the bridge at Ninth Street and Colum- bia Avenue in North Philadelphia due to unsafe conditions. Further inspec- tion revealed that the steel supports in the entire four-track bridge were struc-
40 APRIL 2013 •
RAILFAN.COM
ABOVE: An eastbound crew familiarity run prepares to depart Newark, Del., the western extremity of SEPTA service offered along the Northeast Corridor. MIKE BURKHART PHOTO RIGHT: New standard signage is appearing throughout the system.
turally unsound and visibly flexed when a train passed overhead. Part of the structural steel was covered over by a ceiling in the R.W. Brown Communi- ty Center, which was previously the waiting room for the Columbia Avenue station located underneath the bridge. The
deterioration was caused terminated
trapped moisture behind the ceiling. SEPTA immediately
by all
Reading side trains at North Broad Street and passengers had to transfer to the Broad Street Subway for contin- uation of their journey to center city. Governor
Thornburgh asked the
State Legislature for emergency fund- ing for SEPTA to rebuild the Columbia Avenue Bridge and for bridge inspec- tions on the rest of the regional rail net- work. SEPTA officials discovered that at least 24 other bridges were in seri- ous need of repairs but were not yet deemed unsafe to operate. SEPTA and the city managed to work together and around the clock to rebuild the Colum- bia Avenue bridge and reopen the tun- nel in just 22 days. While the Center City Tunnel work
was underway, a second large capital project extended service from Center City to the Philadelphia International Airport. SEPTA became the first agency to provide direct airport com- muter rail service (though Chicago and Cleveland had instituted rapid transit service years previously). A mix of new construction and rebuilding part of the old Reading Chester Branch was re- quired for the new 5.9-mile line; the Chester Branch would still be shared with Conrail freight trains late at night
or in the early morning. A bridge over the Northeast Corridor was built south of “Arsenal” interlocking to avoid con- gestion with Amtrak and other SEPTA trains. The major landmark of the proj- ect however, was the 4000-foot steel and concrete viaduct that curves high above Interstate 95, local roads and the Tinicum marshes. The line opened on Sunday morning April 28, 1985, pro- viding riders with half hourly service seven days a week with trains alternat- ing between Warminster and West Trenton endpoints.
In June 1991 SEPTA formally an- nounced the $354 million “RailWorks” campaign to address the badly deterio- rating bridges between Wayne Junc- tion and CP Brown (near the Center City tunnel portal). The project was a mammoth undertaking of rebuilding four miles of the four-track main line with welded rail, signal system up- grades, replacement of 20 bridges and the
rebuilding of five additional
bridges. In addition, a new station would be built at 10th and Berk Streets
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