The SEPTA Main Line is the section of the
SEPTA Regional Rail system from the
Zoo Interlocking in
West Philadelphia to
Lansdale Station in
Lansdale, Pennsylvania. The line is long, and serves all 13 SEPTA Regional Rail lines.
Service
Service on the Main Line segment between Glenside and
Center City Philadelphia is given a special combined public timetable known as the Glenside Combined, allowing riders to see the schedules of all trains on the Main Line without having to look at multiple schedules. This is a partial legacy of SEPTA's former
diametrical reorganization route number designations, which had the R1 Glenside designation for trains that terminated at the station, paired with the
Airport Line. A contributing factor to the elimination of the R-number naming system came in the fact that few trains actually terminated there, instead continuing on to stations farther out.
, northbound trains on the Main Line that do not terminate at Glenside continue as
Lansdale/Doylestown Line,
Warminster Line, or
West Trenton Line trains.
History
The Main Line was mostly built by the
North Pennsylvania Railroad. However, the oldest section was part of the
Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad (PG&N), the first railroad in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
. The first section of it opened on June 7, 1832, from downtown to
Germantown (now on the Chestnut Hill East Line). Later a new alignment was built to
Norristown, leaving the old route from North Philadelphia to Germantown as a branch; this is now the Manayunk/Norristown Line. The PG&N south of Wayne Junction, the
Ninth Street Branch, is now part of the Main Line.
The
North Pennsylvania Railroad (North Penn) opened south of
Gwynedd
Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...
(north of Glenside) on July 2, 1855, and the continuation to
Lansdale (including the branch to
Doylestown, now the
Lansdale/Doylestown Line) opened October 7. The short part of the Main Line from Wayne Junction northeast to north of
Newtown Junction was built as a connection to the PG&N at Wayne Junction.
On December 1, 1870, the
Philadelphia and Reading Railway (later the
Reading Company) leased the PG&N. The North Penn was leased May 1, 1879, placing the future "Reading side" of the SEPTA Main Line under Reading control. Electrification to Glenside, Hatboro, Lansdale, Doylestown and West Trenton was completed on July 26, 1931. In 1976
Conrail took over the Reading, and in 1983 SEPTA gained control of the commuter operations. The
Center City Commuter Connection was tied into the former Reading Ninth Street Branch on November 12, 1984, completing the SEPTA Main Line as it is defined today.
SEPTA activated
positive train control
Positive train control (PTC) is a family of automatic train protection systems deployed in the United States. Most of the United States' national rail network mileage has a form of PTC. These systems are generally designed to check that trains a ...
on the Main Line from Glenside to Fern Rock on December 12, 2016 and from Fern Rock to 30th Street on January 9, 2017.
Other uses
The term "Main Line" is also sometimes used on the SEPTA Regional Rail system to refer to the
Paoli/Thorndale Line, which runs along the original main line of the
Pennsylvania Railroad, which is now
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
's
Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line.
References
External links
*
{{Cheltenham
SEPTA Regional Rail
Reading Company lines