Whitford station is a

commuter rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are con ...

and former

intercity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...

passenger rail station located in the western suburbs of

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 ...

at South Whitford Road and Spackman Lane,

Exton, Pennsylvania Exton is a census-designated place (CDP) in West Whiteland Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. Its population was 5,622 at the 2020 census. The Exton Square Mall and Main Street at Exton are both located within Exton along wi ...

. It is served by most ''

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 ...

Paoli/Thorndale Line The Paoli/Thorndale Line, or R5 commonly known as the Main Line, is a SEPTA Regional Rail service running from Center City Philadelphia through Montgomery County and Delaware County to Thorndale in Chester County. It operates along the far east ...

trains and until 1998 some of '' Amtrak's'' ''

Keystone Service Amtrak's ''Keystone Service'' provides frequent regional rail, regional passenger train service between the Harrisburg Transportation Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, running along the Philadelphia to ...

'' trains.

Whitford Flyover

Whitford station is best known for the abandoned railway bridge that sits directly above the station site. The current station sits along the once-busy former

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

(PRR) four-track

Main Line Mainline, ''Main line'', or ''Main Line'' may refer to: Transportation Railway * Main line (railway), the principal artery of a railway system * Main line railway preservation, the practice of operating preserved trains on an operational railw ...

, which, in its prime, hosted a constant flow of commuter and long distance trains. To circumvent constant bottlenecks near Philadelphia, the PRR constructed a low-grade double-track electrified line in 1906 to host its freight traffic. This was done to bypass the steep grades and busy Philadelphia suburbs. Known as the Philadelphia and Thorndale Branch, the line ran alongside the current Paoli/Thorndale Line, crossing (or "flying") over it via a massive truss directly above the Whitford station. After the sharp decline in rail traffic in the 1970s, the freight line was abandoned outright by

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 ...

in 1989. In addition, the current passenger line was reduced from four tracks to three in the 1960s. In its heyday, the PRR produced a series of calendars that included paintings of scenes throughout the extensive rail system. Artist

Grif Teller Griffith Harold "Grif" Teller (December 9, 1899 – April 8, 1993) was an artist best known for his paintings for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Early life Teller was born on December 9, 1899 in Newark, New Jersey. Teller attended the Barringer H ...

captured a busy moment at Whitford in his "Main Lines—Freight and Passenger" painting from 1949, when the overhead trestle was still in use.

Current station

On August 2, 1984, the station house was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

.NRHP.gov
/ref> There is no ticket office at the station. There are 229 parking spaces at the station for daily parking, some of which sit on the abandoned freight line that crosses over the station site. This station is 28.7 track miles from

Suburban Station Suburban Station is an art deco office building and underground commuter rail station in Penn Center, Philadelphia. Its official SEPTA address is 16th Street and JFK Boulevard. The station is owned and operated by SEPTA and is one of the three ...

. In 2017, the average total weekday boardings at this station was 408, and the average total weekday alightings was 420.

Station layout

Whitford has 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 platforms ...

s. A center track is not used for passenger service.

References

External links

* Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. PA-522,
Pennsylvania Railroad, Whitford Bridge

{{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania, state=collapsed SEPTA Regional Rail stations Former Pennsylvania Railroad stations Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Railway stations in the United States opened in 1880 1880 establishments in Pennsylvania Former Amtrak stations in Pennsylvania Railway stations in Chester County, Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Chester County, Pennsylvania Stations on the Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line