30th Street station is an underground

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

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be ...

and trolley station in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

. It is located on

Market Street Market Street may refer to: *Market Street, Cambridge, England *Market Street, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia * Market Street, George Town, Penang, Malaysia *Market Street, Manchester, England *Market Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia ...

between 30th and 31st Streets in the University City neighborhood, adjacent to

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 ...

and Drexel University. The station features four tracks – the inner pair serving the

Market–Frankford Line The Market–Frankford Line (MFL) (also called the Market–Frankford Subway–Elevated Line (MFSE), the Market–Frankford El (MFE), the El (), or the Blue Line) is one of three rapid transit lines in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; it and the Broad ...

and the outer pair for subway–surface trolleys.

History

30th Street station opened on November 6, 1955 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 ...

(PTC), built as a replacement for the elevated 32nd Street station that had opened in 1907 as part of 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 ...

's original Market Street subway–elevated line from to , which was elevated west of 23rd Street. 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 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 opposing ...

. The PRT went bankrupt in 1939 and was reorganized as the PTC, which began building the rest of the tunnel in 1947. The underground station is half a block southwest of

, the city's main intercity rail and commuter rail station. A tunnel previously connected the two stations, but was closed in the 1980s, reportedly due to safety concerns.

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

and SEPTA considered reopening the tunnel in the early 2000s, but the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

ended those plans. In December 2018, SEPTA received a $15 million grant from the

United States Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States a ...

to make significant improvements to the station. The improvement project was projected to cost over $37 million, with remaining funds contributed by SEPTA's capital budget and the developer

Brandywine Realty Trust Brandywine Realty Trust is a real estate investment trust that invests in office buildings in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Austin. As of December 31, 2019, the company owned interests in 173 properties containing 24.3 million net rentab ...

, which owns 3000-3020 Market Street directly above the subway station and is planning the

Schuylkill Yards __NOTOC__ Schuylkill Yards is a $3.5 billion, masterplanned development project by Brandywine Realty Trust in West Philadelphia. The project was announced in a press conference in March 2016. The project is being designed in phases. Groundbreaki ...

megaproject. The project calls for improvements to the station's mezzanine, as well as reopening and renovating the underground concourse connecting the subway station with the main 30th Street Station building. A second access point to the station at the corner of 31st and Market streets reopened in late 2019, which includes a staircase and new elevator. The full project was expected to be completed in 2021, but as of January 2023, is ongoing. The

30th Street Station District The 30th Street Station District, also referred to as the 30th Street District, is a proposed urban development located in West Philadelphia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The area will be home to eight modern skyscrapers or highri ...

, a proposed development plan, calls for the station house at the northwest corner of 30th and Market streets to be rebuilt. 30th Street Trolley Station 2

Station layout

The station has a high-level

island platform An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...

for Market–Frankford trains and two low-level

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 platform ...

s for subway–surface trolleys.

Bus connections

In addition to rail services at 30th Street Station, the station is also served by numerous bus routes, including routes 9, 30, 31, 44, 49, 62, and LUCY operated by the SEPTA City Transit Division, as well as routes 124 and 125 operated by the SEPTA Suburban Division.

Image gallery

30th Street MFL.jpg, Market–Frankford line platform File:30thStreetTransferArra.jpg, Free transfer zone in 30th Street station File:30thStreetTrolleyStation.jpg, 30th Street Trolley station File:SEPTA30thSt2017-trolley.jpg, 30th Street trolley station File:SEPTA30thSt.jpg, 30th Street station entrance

References

External links

SEPTA – 30th Street Station

Images at NYCSubway.org30th Street entrance from Google Maps Street View31st Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
{{SEPTA Rapid Transit Stations SEPTA Market-Frankford Line stations SEPTA Subway–Surface Trolley Line stations 30th Street MFL SSTL Railway stations in the United States opened in 1956 University City, Philadelphia Railway stations located underground in Pennsylvania 1956 establishments in Pennsylvania SEPTA Rapid Transit stations located underground