COLLINGDALE - SEPTA officials held a community meeting last night at the St. Joseph's Parish hall to brief residents on the the fourth and final phase of reconstruction on the Media and Sharon Hill trolley lines. All trolley service will be replaced with shuttle buses starting on June 14. The meeting, attended by nine residents - and at least 11 officials from SEPTA and the consulting firm Portfolio Associates, Inc. - lasted under an hour.
Crews will be working on the trunk line between 69th Street Terminal and Shadeland Avenue/Drexel Hill Junction, resulting in a shuttle bus operation along the entire length of both lines. Crews have already completed work on the Sharon Hill portion of the line and are completing work along the Media branch.
SEPTA Project Manager Brian Woodburn told residents that crews will be:
- Installing 3.55 miles of continuous welded rail track,
- Installing 8,000 new wooden rail ties,
- Replacing five warning signals - three in Nether Providence Township, and one each in Springfield and Upper Darby,
- Completing tree trimming and brush cutting,
- Complete fiber optic backbone cabe installation,
- Complete catenary structure repair and painting, and
- Upgrading of several stations, including Sharon Hill, Andrews Avenue, and Collingdale/MacDade Blvd.
John Calnan of SEPTA's Suburban Service Planning department then explained the shuttle bus operation that would be in effect throughout the summer for both lines. Instead of boarding at the West Terminal, shuttle buses would board passengers at the South Terminal at 69th Street.
Shuttle buses would serve almost all trolley stops, however, seven stops on the Media branch, four stops on the Sharon Hill branch, two stops on the trunk line between 69th Street and Shadeland Avenue, and six inbound stops within Collingdale and Aldan would not have direct service. The affected stops in Collingdale and Aldan are due to inbound buses operating along Clifton Avenue instead of Woodlawn Avenue.
The meeting ended with some concerns raised by residents regarding lack of notice of the hearings and drainage issues. One resident of the 100 block of Andrews Avenue claimed that she had not recieved a postcard advertising the meeting. Another resident expressed concerns over drainage issues near his home, however, the project staff indicated that it might be a municipal issue as opposed to a SEPTA issue.
Comments