Cynwyd Line

The Cynwyd Line is a SEPTA Regional Rail line from Center City Philadelphia to Cynwyd in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Originally known as the Ivy Ridge Line, service was truncated on May 17, 1986, at its current terminus at Cynwyd.

Track between Cynwyd and Ivy Ridge was dismantled between 2008 and 2010 for conversion as an interim rail trail, preventing service restoration for the foreseeable future. The Cynwyd Line is the shortest of the SEPTA regional rail lines, and is the second-shortest regional rail line in the United States after New Jersey Transit's Princeton Branch. It is by far the least ridden SEPTA Regional Rail Line. It is fully grade-separated.

Route

The Cynwyd Line runs from Suburban Station to the 52nd Street Junction, where it diverges from Amtrak's Philadelphia-to-Harrisburg line. It makes station stops at Wynnefield Avenue, Bala, and Cynwyd before stopping just short of the Schuylkill River.

History

The Cynwyd Line is the truncated remnant of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Schuylkill Branch, which ran from Philadelphia to Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Electrified service was opened between Philadelphia and Norristown (Haws Avenue) on June 20, 1930. Plans for electrification beyond Norristown, to Phoenixville, were not carried out. Passenger service ended between Manayunk and Norristown on October 29, 1960 and the line beyond Manayunk was de-electrified, although the pylons remain.

In 1980 SEPTA extended service from Manayunk to a new park-and-ride station at Ivy Ridge.

Service beyond Cynwyd was suspended on May 27, 1986, because of poor track conditions and concerns about the Manayunk Bridge over the Schuylkill River.

Between 1984–2010, the route was designated R6 Ivy Ridge (later R6 Cynwyd) as part of SEPTA's diametrical reorganization of its lines. Ivy Ridge Line trains operated through the city center to the Manayunk/Norristown Line on the ex-Reading side of the system. The R-number naming system was dropped on July 25, 2010.

In the late 1990s and up to 2003, SEPTA funded a study called the Schuylkill Valley Metro which included plans to extend both sides of the R6 line to Pottstown, Reading and Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. The project suffered a major setback when it was rejected by the FTA New Starts program, which cited doubts about the ridership projections and financing assumptions used by the study.

Though there have been repeated calls to restore the "temporarily" discontinued service between Cynwyd and Ivy Ridge, SEPTA permanently dropped plans for restoration in 2008 when all trackage north of Cynwyd to Ivy Ridge was removed between 2008 and June 2010 to make way for the Cynwyd Heritage Trail and Ivy Ridge Trail.

On October 29, 2010, the Cynwyd Line was where the Silverliner V rail cars made their first run in revenue service, and, on June 29, 2012, where the final Silverliner IIs and IIIs ran in revenue service before being fully retired.

SEPTA activated positive train control on the Cynwyd Line on November 21, 2016.

On April 9, 2020, the line was suspended indefinitely due to a staff shortage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Limited service resumed on September 7, 2021.

Stations

The Cynwyd Line includes the following stations north of 30th Street Station; stations indicated with gray background are closed.

Ridership

From fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2019, yearly ridership on the Cynwyd Line has ranged from 130,000 to 180,000, peaking at 184,138 in fiscal 2014. Ridership dipped to 122,510 in fiscal 2017 but recovered the following year.

Notes

References

External links

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{{Delaware Valley transit

SEPTA Regional Rail
Pennsylvania Railroad lines