New schedules designed to improve service for customers on the Trenton, Chestnut Hill East and other SEPTA Regional Rail Lines impacted by Amtrak construction, will go into effect on Sunday, April 29. The new schedules include significant adjustments to weekday train times for the Trenton, Chestnut Hill East, Wilmington/Newark, Fox Chase and Airport Regional Rail Lines. These schedule changes are being implemented to improve on-time performance and enhance service reliability during the Amtrak work, which is part of an overall Northeast Corridor Improvement Program.
Amtrak began work in March to improve track conditions on the Northeast Corridor between Trenton Transit Center and Holmesburg Junction stations. Beginning May 1, the Amtrak project will expand in scale, stretching to encompass 10 SEPTA stations. SEPTA, taking lessons learned from the first phase of the project and working with Amtrak, created a new schedule to improve on-time performance on the Trenton Line.
SEPTA Regional Rail is a cross-route public transportation service with paired lines, linking many different areas together in the Philadelphia region by way of Center City. Due to the Amtrak work taking place along the Northeast Corridor, Trenton Regional Rail trains traveling through Center City will impact service on its paired lines including: the Chestnut Hill East, Wilmington/Newark, Fox Chase and Airport.
Under the new April 29 Trenton Line schedule, departure times for more than 50% of the current service will change and inbound trains will not stop at Tacony and Bridesburg Stations from 9:30 am until 3:30 pm. Trenton Line customers traveling inbound to Center City from Tacony and Bridesburg Stations can take Bus Route 73 or 84 to Frankford Transportation Center for connections to the Market-Frankford Line or Bus Route 84 to Holmesburg Station for Regional Rail service into Center City as an alternate. For more information about Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor track work and its impact on SEPTA customers, visit: https://www.septa.org/service/rail/improvement/infrastructure.html#amtrak.
Customers should refer to Regional Rail timetables for complete service information. The new schedules are available for download at: https://www.septa.org/schedules/april.html Customers can also look for signage posted at stations for additional service and boarding information.
SEPTA encourages Regional Rail passengers with iPhone or Android devices to sign up for the SEPTA App. Current Android and iPhone app users can receive the latest version of the Regional Rail schedules by updating the SEPTA App on Sunday, April 29. To update the iPhone app, users should tap “Settings” and then “Update” to get the new schedules. Riders using the SEPTA app for Android devices should visit the Google Play Store for updated schedules. The ‘Next to Arrive’ feature at http://app.septa.org/nta/ provides personalized schedule information for customer trips and also delivers real-time train status information to a customer’s cell phone.
Highlights of the April 29 schedule change are as follows:
Airport Line
Changes include an adjustment to train numbers and continuing service. Inbound train #4758 departing from Airport Terminals E&F at 5:07 pm will now offer continued service to Chestnut Hill East stations with an additional stop at Wayne Junction. Outbound train #1457 will no longer make stops at Temple University and Jefferson Stations. Train #1457 will depart from Suburban Station at 6:25 pm
Chestnut Hill East
Changes include significant adjustments to departure times for most inbound and selected outbound trains. Selected trains will now depart earlier than previously scheduled. New inbound train #6735 (replaces train #735) will depart from Chestnut Hill East at 12:45 pm and will no longer offer continued service to Trenton Transit Center on the Trenton Regional Rail Line. New inbound train #727 will depart from Chestnut Hill East at 1:13 pm and will provide continued service to Trenton Transit Center on the Trenton Regional Rail Line. New inbound train #737 (replaces train #6737) will depart from Chestnut Hill East at 1:51 pm with continued service to Trenton Transit Center on the Trenton Regional Rail Line. Select inbound evening/late night trains will depart four to 14 minutes later. Outbound train #2720 departing from Suburban Station at 10:13 am will be extended from Temple University, and will serve Wayne Junction through Chestnut Hill East stations. Select evening trains will depart six to 12 minutes later at stations.
Chestnut Hill West
Inbound train #7841 will now depart from Suburban Station at 5:16 pm arriving 12 minutes later at all stations. Outbound, late night train #7865 will now depart from Suburban Station at 11:07 pm arriving 14 minutes later at all stations.
Fox Chase
Train #7842 departing from Suburban Station at 4:08 pm. Has been renumbered to #6842 and will originate at 30th Street Station.
Trenton
Changes include significant adjustments to most trains including: earlier departure times for many
morning trains; later departure times for many midday trains; changes to midday service from 9:30 am until 3:30 pm. Due to Amtrak construction, inbound trains will not stop at Tacony and Bridesburg stations. As an alternate, for inbound service customers can take SEPTA Bus Routes 73 or 84 to Frankford Transportation Center for connections to the Market Frankford Line or take Bus Route 84 to Holmesburg Junction Station for Regional Rail service to Center City.
Wilmington/Newark
Changes include minor adjustments to service on select trains. Train #2720 departing from Newark Station will now offer continued service to the Chestnut Hill East Line. Train #2734 departing from Wilmington Station at 10:56 am will now offer continued service to the Chestnut Hill East Line.
As part of SEPTA’s ongoing campaign to streamline resource use and to help promote the many other ways that schedule information is available, paper timetables will not be printed for the April 29th Regional Rail schedule change. Schedules are available for download at www.septa.org, through the SEPTA App and on large format schedule posters displayed at stations. To learn more about SEPTA’s Sustainability campaign, visit: https://planning.septa.org/sustainability/index.html.
Customers can also stay connected by following their Regional Rail Lines on Twitter:
www.septa.org/alert/twitter. SEPTA customer service representatives are available at 215-580-7800.
