22nd Street station is an underground trolley station in Center City

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

that serves the

SEPTA Subway–Surface Trolley Lines The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is a regional public transportation authority that operates transit bus, bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly 4 million people ...

. Similar to 19th Street station, three blocks east of it, the station has two

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 and a total of four tracks. The station serves only subway–surface trolleys on the two outer tracks; the Market-Frankford Line subway uses the two inner tracks and bypasses the station as it travels between 15th Street and

30th Street station 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...

. The station was constructed by the

Philadelphia Transportation Company The Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC) was the main public transit operator in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1940 to 1968. A private company, PTC was the successor to the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company (PRT), in operation since 19 ...

in 1955, a replacement for the nearby 24th Street station just north of Market Street at the east end of the now-removed shared train and trolley bridge over the

Schuylkill River The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river running northwest to southeast in eastern Pennsylvania. The river was improved by navigations into the Schuylkill Canal, and several of its tributaries drain major parts of Pennsylvania's Coal Region. It fl ...

. The former station site is now the Crown Lights Building (a tall rectangular black skyscraper topped with 4 large LED message boards atop its upper sides), the headquarters of

PECO Energy PECO, formerly the Philadelphia Electric Company, is an energy company founded in 1881 and incorporated in 1929. It became part of Exelon Corporation in 2000 when it merged with Commonwealth Edison's holding company Unicom Corp. The company has ...

History

22nd Street trolley station Philadelphia-2018

22nd Street station was opened October 15, 1955 by the

(PTC), built to replace the elevated 24th Street station that was opened in 1905 by the

Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company The Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC) was the main public transit operator in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1940 to 1968. A private company, PTC was the successor to the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company (PRT), in operation since 19 ...

(PRT) and for the first two years formed part of a subway–surface trolley loop operating underground between and the Schuylkill River. In 1907, the

(PRT) completed the Market Street subway–elevated line from to . It featured a bridge – located north of Market Street and south of Filbert Street – that carried both the subway and subway–surface lines over the

. The PRT bridge connected surface trolley lines in

West Philadelphia West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Alhough 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 nort ...

to the underground subway–surface loop in Center City. The station at 24th Street was constructed of wood and built atop an embankment. It was the only subway–surface station not physically underground and was located one block from the Philadelphia station of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, which served B&O tracks running north-south along the east bank of the Schuylkill. The PRT announced a project to bury the elevated tracks between 23rd to 46th streets in the 1920s. The tunnel from 23rd to 32nd streets was completed by 1933, but construction on the remaining segment was put on hiatus due to the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The PRT went bankrupt in 1939, and was reorganized as the PTC, which began building the rest of the tunnel in 1947. The tunnel opened for service on October 15 1955, marking the closure of the eastbound elevated station and the opening of the current underground station. The following month, on November 6, the westbound side elevated station closed. The PRT bridge that formerly had carried subway cars and subway–surface trolleys over the river was torn down by June 20, 1956. Nothing remains of the 24th Street station. Instead, the

PECO Building The PECO Building is a modernist office highrise in Center City, Philadelphia, Center City Philadelphia. The building is the current headquarters of the PECO Energy Company, formerly the Philadelphia Energy Company (PECo), and one of the compani ...

, headquarters of

division of

Exelon Exelon Corporation is an American Fortune 100 energy company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and incorporated in Pennsylvania. It generates revenues of approximately $33.5 billion and employs approximately 33,400 people. Exelon is the larges ...

, now occupies the site. The station originally served Routes 10, 11, 31, 34, 37 and 38. Route 31 was rerouted out of the tunnel in 1949 and buses replaced trolleys on routes 37 and 38 in 1955. Routes 13 and 36 began serving the station (and the subway–surface tunnel) in 1956.

Modernization

Turnstiles were constructed on the westbound platform for all-door boarding in the

SEPTA Key The SEPTA Key card is a smart card that is used for automated fare collection on the SEPTA public transportation network in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. It can be used throughout SEPTA's transit system (bus, trolley, subway, high speed l ...

fare collection system. As such, fares are paid prior to system entry and no fares are collected on trolleys outbound (westbound) from Center City, but still must be paid at the trolley fare box inbound (eastbound) to Center City.

Station layout

The station has two low-level

s, each capable of platforming two trolleys.

References

External links

{{Commons category
SEPTA – 22nd Street Station (archived)
SEPTA Subway–Surface Trolley Line stations Railway stations in Philadelphia Railway stations in the United States opened in 1955 Railway stations located underground in Pennsylvania 1955 establishments in Pennsylvania SEPTA Rapid Transit stations located underground