Market–Frankford Line

Market–Frankford Line
Market–Frankford Line train departing 52nd Street station in West Philadelphia
Info
Type	Rapid transit
Status	Line open
Locale	Philadelphia and Delaware County, Pennsylvania
Termini	69th Street Terminal Frankford Transportation Center
Stations	28
Daily ridership	178,715 (FY 2005)
Operation
Opened	March 4, 1907
Owner	City of Philadelphia (Frankford to 15th St) SEPTA (15th St to 69th St)
Operator(s)	SEPTA
Character	Elevated and underground
Technical
Line length	12.9 mi (20.76 km)
No. of tracks	2
Track gauge	5 ft 2+1⁄4 in (1,581 mm)
Minimum radius of curvature	?
Electrification	700 volts DC
Route map 69th Street Terminal B Millbourne A 63rd 60th 56th 52nd 46th 40th 34th 30th 15th 13th 11th 8th 5th 2nd Spring Garden Girard A Berks B York–Dauphin A Huntingdon B Somerset Allegheny A Tioga Erie–Torresdale B Church Margaret–Orthodox Frankford Map Legend Norristown High Speed Line Routes 101 and 102 Subway–Surface Trolleys Broad Street Line PATCO Speedline A "A" trains only B "B" trains only Accessible station

The Market–Frankford Line (MFL) (also called the Market–Frankford Subway–Elevated Line (MFSE), El or Blue Line) is a rapid transit line in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, operated by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority.

Route

The Market-Frankford Line begins at 69th Street Terminal, in Upper Darby. From there it is elevated over Market Street until 46th Street, where it curves off to the north and heads underground via a portal at 44th Street. At 42nd Street, the tunnel returns to the alignment of Market Street.

At 32nd Street, the tunnel carrying the Subway-Surface lines joins the MFL tunnel. The MFL tracks are in the center and the trolley tracks are on the outside. 30th Street station consists of an island platform between the two innermost tracks for Market–Frankford Line trains, and outboard "wall" platforms for Subway–Surface route 10, 11, 13, 34, and 36 trolleys. After passing beneath the Schuylkill River, the next stop to the east for Market–Frankford Line trains is at 15th Street; Subway-Surface trolleys also have stations at 22nd Street and 19th Street. 15th Street is the central interchange station for the MFL, Subway-Surface trolleys, and Broad Street Line. The Subway-Surface tracks end in a loop beneath Juniper Street at Market just after crossing above the Broad Street Line. The Juniper Street platform connects to 13th Street station on the MFL.

Though it now tunnels in a straight line directly beneath Philadelphia City Hall, prior to 1936, the original MFL trackage between 15th and 13th Street stations separated and looped around the foundation of City Hall (eastbound trains around the south side returning to be westbound trains from the north side). Parts of that original alignment can still be seen from subway-surface cars as they pass around the south side of City Hall en route to Juniper Street station (as well as the bridgework in the ceiling of the southbound platform of the City Hall stop on the Broad Street line). The Market Street tunnel continues east to Front Street and then turns north, where it rises in the median of I-95. The rail line and freeway share an elevated embankment for about ½ mile (0.8 km), including Spring Garden station (which replaced Fairmount station on the Frankford Elevated). The line then heads under the southbound lanes and over Front Street on an elevated structure that turns northeast onto Kensington Avenue, which merges with Frankford Avenue, which the line follows to its end. Just North of Pratt Street, a quick curve to the north brings the line to its terminus at the Frankford Transportation Center, which replaced the original Bridge-Pratt Sts. terminal.

History

The original bridge to carry the line across the Schuylkill River, just north of Market Street, was built from July 1903 to August 1905. Construction on the Market Street Elevated began on October 17, 1904, and the line opened on March 4, 1907, from 69th Street Terminal to a loop around City Hall at 15th Street. The line was elevated west of the river and underground east of the river. The tunnel was also used by streetcar lines, now SEPTA's Subway-Surface lines, that entered the line just east of the river and turned around at the City Hall loop. Philadelphia was fairly unique in that construction of its initial downtown subway was undertaken using private capital only, with no contribution from public funds.^[1]

Extensions took the line east to 2nd Street on August 3, 1908, and via several curves to the Delaware River between Market Street and Chestnut Street on September 7, 1908. The Delaware Avenue Elevated (also called the Ferry Line, because of the multiple ferries across the river) opened on October 4, 1908, as a further extension south along the river to South Street. The only two stations on this extension were Market–Chestnut and South Street.

Frankford Terminal in 1918, before the construction of the Frankford Elevated

The Frankford Elevated opened on November 5, 1922,^[2] with trains from 69th alternating between Frankford and the Ferry Line. On January 24th, 1937, operations were changed to use the Ferry Line only during the day and not at all on Sunday, though Sunday service was temporarily resumed during the summers of 1937 and 1938. May 7th, 1939 the line to the ferries was closed temporarily,^[3] although PRT was forced to return service in 1943. Service was finally ended permanently in 1953, and the structure was demolished.^[4] The old interlocking tower and stub remains of the junction with the Ferry Line survived until the realignment into the median of I-95 in 1977.

A new section of tunnel from 22nd Street, where the Market–Frankford line started rising towards the Schuylkill River, to 32nd Street was built in the 1930s as part of a program of railroad improvements undertaken by the City of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Railroad, but funding ran out before the subway extension was complete. Construction resumed in 1947, and the current configuration opened on November 6, 1955. The old elevated structure was removed by June 20, 1956. In addition to extending the Market Street subway tunnel west to 44th Street, with new stations at 30th, 34th and 40th streets, a new trolley tunnel was built under Market, Ludlow and 36th streets and the former Woodland Avenue, leading to a new western portal at 40th Street for routes 11, 13, 34 and 36 (route 10 trolleys use a portal at 36th and Ludlow). New stations for the trolleys were constructed at 22nd, 30th, 33rd (between Market and Ludlow), 36th (at Sansom), and 37th (at Spruce) streets. The 24th Street trolley station and tunnel portal was abandoned.

Skip-stop operation began on January 30, 1956. In the original skip-stop configuration, in addition to the A and B stops shown on the map above, 2nd and 34th Street were "A" stations, and Fairmount (replaced by Spring Garden) was a "B" station; the A and B designations at these stations were changed to "All-Stop" because of increased patronage in the 1990s. As I-95 was built through Center City Philadelphia in the late 1970s, part of the Frankford El was relocated to I-95's median, and the Fairmount station was replaced with Spring Garden, on May 16, 1977.

Between 1988 and 2003, SEPTA undertook a $493,300,000^[5] complete reconstruction of the Frankford Elevated between Bridge-Pratt Terminal and the 2nd Street portal. The new Frankford Elevated was built with new stringers and deck installed on the original columns; thus giving not only a reduction in cost, but also reducing the street-level impact on adjoining neighborhoods. In addition to the new Elevated structure, all of the stations were replaced with new stations with higher boarding platforms and elevators, allowing customers with disabilities to easily board and depart from Market-Frankford trains. Unfortunately, the basic design of the reconstructed Frankford elevated did not allow the structure to expand and contract with seasonal temperature changes; and the concrete has started to fracture and drop onto the street below. The problem was first discovered in 1997, but at that time was simply attributed to faulty construction, without evaluation of the root cause. As built, the concrete beams in the underside of the deck cannot move properly over the supporting steel girders, causing chipping and breaks, with pieces falling into the street. For a temporary fix, SEPTA has installed 8,000 metal mesh belts on the underside of the structure, and plans to install 2,000 more. Estimates for a permanent fix place the cost at about 20 million, and SEPTA has filed suit against the engineering companies that contributed to the design flaw to recover part of the repair cost.^[6][7]

In 2003, SEPTA also completed replacement of the old Bridge-Pratt terminal with a new $160,000,000 Frankford Transportation Center located on private right-of-way.^[8]

Between 1999 and 2009, SEPTA then undertook a $567,000,000^[9] complete reconstruction of the Market Street Elevated between 69th Street Terminal and the 44th Street portal. The new Market Street Elevated, which utilizes single-pillar supports in place of the old-style dual pillar design, will allow the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) to undertake a planned widening project on Market Street to four lanes between 63rd Street and 44th Street. In addition to the new Elevated structure, all of the stations (including Millbourne) were again replaced with new stations having higher boarding platforms and elevators, allowing customers with disabilities to easily board and depart from trains. The reconstruction of the Market St. Elevated superstructure was completed in 2008, and the last station, 63rd Street, was completed and reopened on May 4, 2009.^[10] The Market St. Elevated is not of the same design as the Frankford Elevated, so it does not share any of the Frankford design flaws.

As with many other rail lines, the signal system on the Market–Frankford Line has progressed from the original lineside block signals using semaphores, to three-aspect Type D color light (green, over yellow, over red) signals, to cab signalling, eliminating the lineside block signals.

The Market-Frankford line is fairly unique as subway-elevated systems go, both in its being built with broad gauge of 5 ft 2+¹⁄₄ in (1,581 mm), and also in its use of bottom-contact third rail. As such, any possible future physical connection to other rapid-transit lines in Philadelphia is limited to cross-platform transfer only, as both the Broad Street Subway and the Norristown High-Speed Line are both standard gauge (4 ft 8+¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm)) with top-contact third rail. The Market–Frankford Line and Metro-North Railroad are the only railroads in North America that use bottom-contact third rail, known as the Wilgus-Sprague system^[11]. Its advantages include a reduced risk of electrocution for track workers and fewer disruptions due to icing conditions during winter weather.^[12]

Operation

During rush hours (trains beginning from approximately 7 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.), SEPTA uses skip-stop operation. Trains marked "A" stop only at the stations marked "A" and "All Trains" on system maps, and "B" trains stop only at "B" and "All Trains" stations. Trains run on the line from approximately 5 a.m. to 12:30 a.m., and buses provide night service from midnight to 5:30 a.m.

Fare for riding the line is $2.00 cash, or single-ride tokens are sold for $1.45 each.^[13] Tokens can be purchased either through vending machines found in most stations,^[14] or in multi-packs available at the cashier's booth in major stations such as 69th Street Terminal or Frankford Transportation Center.^[15] Payment of base fare includes free transfer to the Subway-Surface Lines at 30th, 15th, and 13th Street stations; as well as the Broad Street Line at 15th street. However, while the Broad-Ridge Spur does connect at 8th St. Station, there is no longer a free-transfer passageway between the lines. Transfers requiring a paper transfer slip are available for $0.75 at any station.^[16]

Septa's "TransPass"^[17] and "TrailPass"^[18] weekly/monthly zone-based passcards are also accepted for fare payment. These passcards are unlimited-use during their valid dates, so paid transfers are unnecessary.

In FY 2005, 25,220,523 passengers rode the Market-Frankford Line. Its weekday average ridership of 178,715 made it the busiest line in the entire SEPTA system. The Market–Frankford Line required 142 vehicles at peak hours, cost $86,644,614 in fully allocated expenses, and collected $54,309,344 in passenger revenues, for an impressive farebox recovery ratio of 63 percent.^[19]

On February 11, 2008, SEPTA expanded the morning and afternoon weekday service with off peak trains running every six minutes instead of every eight minutes. It represents a 12% increase in MFL Service through the day.^{[citation needed]}

Extension Proposal

An extension of the Market–Frankford Line from Frankford to Roosevelt Boulevard and Bustleton Avenue has been proposed in conjunction with an extension of the Broad Street Subway, but persistent political and economic obstacles are likely to prevent the implementation of any such extension.

An 'A' train arriving at Girard.

Market–Frankford Line train at 30th Street Station. June 2006

Passengers aboard a Market–Frankford Line train.

Rolling stock

M-4 car placard

The SEPTA fleet for the Market–Frankford line consists of 220 M-4 rail cars, with seating for 49 and standing room for 55, each costing $1.29 million.^[20]

The M-4 cars, manufactured by AdTranz, were brought into service in 1997 to replace the M-3 "Almond Joy" stock, so called because of their distinctive ventilation fan housings, which resembled the almonds atop the Peter Paul (now Hershey's) Almond Joy bar. The M-3 cars, manufactured in 1960 by the Budd Company, were replaced a few years before their expected lifespan because of their lack of air conditioning and generally shaky ride quality; although their door widths, as well as the difference in height between the floor of the cars and the platform (which likely did not comply to recent ADA regulations) may also have been contributing factors.^{[citation needed]} Early in their service lives, some M-3 cars had fareboxes by their center side doors; these were necessary for collecting fares during the hours after midnight, when SEPTA closed cashier's booths at many stations during the era of 24-hour rapid transit service. "Owl" service (12:00 AM-5:00 AM) trains operated on a twenty-minute headway (interval between trains) at that time.^[21] Since the 1990's, SEPTA has operated (along with the Broad Street Subway) all "Owl" service using buses, but like the old "Owl" trains, they run between 69th Street and Frankford T.C. on a 20-minute interval.

The M-3 cars, designated Class A-49 for Cars #601-646, and Classes A-50, and A-51 for Cars #701, thru 924, by SEPTA's predecessor, the Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC), were themselves replacements for both the original "Market Street" cars, designated Class A-8 by SEPTA's predecessor, the Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC), and built by the Pressed Steel Car Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa. (Cars #1-135, 1906-1911), the J.G. Brill Co. of Philadelphia, Pa. (Cars #136-215, 1911-1913), and the second series "Frankford" cars, designated Class A-15 and built by the J.G. Brill Co. (Cars #501-600, 1922). Though six of the "Frankford" cars survived retirement in 1960 as work train cars (Cars #532, 551, 559, 583, 585, and 589), none lasted as work cars until 2000, nor were any reported to have been saved for museums. The M-3 cars totalled a fleet of 270 cars, which replaced the combined carfleet of 315 cars (215 Market Street cars, 100 Frankford cars), the oldest in operation at the time, was 56 years for a Market Street car, and the youngest was 38 years for a Frankford car. No class of subway-elevated car in Philadelphia, has surpassed the lifespan record held by the Market Street cars.

Station list

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Market-Frankford Line

• NYCsubway.org - SEPTA Market–Frankford Line
• Stan's Railpix - Septa Photo Gallery Page 3* SEPTA Market–Frankford Line Pictures

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