Bryn Athyn station is a former railroad station in

Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania Bryn Athyn is a home rule municipality in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It was formerly a borough, and its official name remains "Borough of Bryn Athyn". The population was 1,375 at the 2010 census. It was formed for religious reasons fro ...

. Built by the

Reading Railroad The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and commercial rail transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states that operated from 1924 until its 1976 acquisition by Conrail. Commonly calle ...

, it later served

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 ...

's Fox Chase/Newtown Line. It is located on Fetters Mill Road near the

Pennypack Creek Pennypack Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 creek in southeastern Pennsylvania in the United States. It runs southeast through lower Bucks County ...

. The station is a contributing property to the

Fetter's Mill Village Historic District Fetter's Mill Village Historic District is a national historic district located in Bryn Athyn and Lower Moreland Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It encompasses five contributing buildings and three contributing structures. They ar ...

History

Bryn Athyn station, built in 1902, was a stop on the

's Newtown Line. On December 5, 1921, the stretch of single track between the Bryn Athyn and

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

stations was the site of the Reading Railroad's deadliest accident at that time. Two trains met in a head-on collision in a narrow gully after the signals for the northbound train were ignored. The crash killed 26 and injured 70 train passengers and crewmen. The route later became a part of

Fox Chase Rapid Transit Line The Fox Chase Line SEPTA Regional Rail service connecting Center City Philadelphia with Fox Chase. It uses the Fox Chase Branch, which branches off from the SEPTA Main Line at Newtown Junction north of the Wayne Junction station. It runs entirel ...

. The station and all of those north of Fox Chase were closed on January 18, 1983. In addition, a labor dispute began within the SEPTA organization when the transit operator inherited 1,700 displaced employees from

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...

. SEPTA insisted on using transit operators from the

Broad Street Subway The Broad Street Line (BSL), also known as the Broad Street subway (BSS), Orange Line, or Broad Line, is a subway line owned by the city of Philadelphia and operated by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). The line r ...

to operate Fox Chase-Newtown diesel trains, while Conrail requested that railroad engineers run the service. When a federal court ruled that SEPTA had to use Conrail employees to offer job assurance, SEPTA cancelled Fox Chase-Newtown trains. Service in the diesel-only territory north of Fox Chase was cancelled at that time, and Bryn Athyn station still appears in publicly posted

tariffs A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and polic ...

. Though rail service was initially replaced with a Fox Chase-Newtown shuttle bus, patronage remained light, and service was later cancelled. Surviving trackage was replaced with the

Pennypack Trail The Pennypack Trail is a rail trail located in eastern Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The trail runs from Rockledge, Pennsylvania, Rockledge north to the County Line Road border with Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Bucks County ...

rail trail.http://www.septa.org/about/board/agenda-12-10-13.pdf SEPTA Board meeting minutes; December 10, 2013

Station building

The building is currently used as a post office and community building. The former station canopy retains SEPTA signage installed in 1984 — one year after train service had ended.

References

External links

Newtown Line.pa-tec.org – PA-TEC study on resuming SEPTA commuter service between Fox Chase and Newtown
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryn Athyn (Septa Station) Railway stations in the United States opened in 1902 Former SEPTA Regional Rail stations Former Reading Company stations 1902 establishments in Pennsylvania 1983 disestablishments in Pennsylvania Former railway stations in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania Railway stations in the United States closed in 1983