36th Street station is a

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 coun ...

trolley station in

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 ...

. It is located at the intersection of Sansom and 36th Streets, and serves Routes 11, 13, 34, and 36 of the SEPTA subway–surface trolley lines. Trolleys serving this station go eastbound to Center City Philadelphia and westbound to the neighborhoods of Eastwick and Angora, as well as the Delaware County suburbs of Yeadon and Darby. The station is located adjacent to the Institute of Contemporary Art and is two blocks away from the

36th Street Portal The 36th Street Portal is a SEPTA subway–surface lines tram, trolley station in Philadelphia serving Route 10 (SEPTA), Route 10. The station is located at the corner of 36th and Ludlow streets, one block from Market Street (Philadelphia), Mark ...

station, which serves the Route 10 trolley.

History

The station was opened in November 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) as part of a larger project to move portions of the elevated Market Street Line and surface trolleys underground.Puckett, John L. and Mark Frazier Lloyd. , accessed May 31, 2020. The original project to bury the elevated tracks between 23rd to 46th streets was announced by the PTC's predecessor, 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), in the 1920s, but was delayed 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 PTC's revised project also included a new tunnel for trolleys underneath the campus of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, continuing from the original western portal at 23rd and Market streets to new portals at 36th and Ludlow streets and 40th Street and Baltimore Avenue. The station is also sometimes known as Sansom Common station, referring to a former name used by the

to market retail in the area.

Station layout

The station has two low-level

side platforms 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 ...

, each capable of platforming two trolleys at a time. Fares are collected manually on board the trolley cars.

References

External links

*{{Commonscat-inline
SEPTA – 36th Street Station (archived)Images at NYCSubway.org
SEPTA Subway–Surface Trolley Line stations Railway stations in Philadelphia Railway stations located underground in Pennsylvania