Suburban Station

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Suburban Station

Philadelphia Portal

Suburban Station is an underground commuter rail station in the Penn Center district of Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its official SEPTA address is 16th Street and JFK Boulevard. [1] Operated by SEPTA (the transit authority for the Philadelphia area). It is one of the three core Center City stations on the SEPTA Regional Rail system, and opened on September 28, 1930. Built by the Pennsylvania Railroad to replace the original Broad Street Station, Suburban Station was a stub-end terminal station with 8 tracks and 4 platforms until the Center City Commuter Connection project extended four of those tracks eastward to the new Market East Station. The recently renovated 21-story building above is also the core of the Penn Center office complex, and is known as One Penn Center at Suburban Station. (Conductors often call out the name of this station as, "Penn Center Suburban Station.")

All SEPTA Regional Rail trains stop at this station. All run through except those on the R6 Cynwyd line as well as some limited/express trains which terminate on one of the stub-end tracks at this station. Through trains usually change crews at this station.

The station has an extensive concourse level above track level. This concourse has SEPTA ticket offices, retail shops and restaurants, and access to other SEPTA stations and to several Center City buildings. The connections include the Broad Street Line at the City Hall station and the Market-Frankford Line and Subway-Surface Lines at the 15th Street station.

The concourse of the station has undergone a major renovation, completed in January 2007. [2] Upgrades included increased retail space, an improved HVAC system, and a restored/refurbished waiting area. The station is now in full compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The Comcast Center, which will be built on the north side of its block, near Arch Street, will also add a "winter garden" on the south side, where the train tracks run several feet below, that will serve as a new main entrance to the station.

[edit] History

When the station opened, it was a stub-end terminal for Pennsylvania Railroad trains serving Center City Philadelphia, replacing the above-ground Broad Street Station in this function. The station's full name was originally Broad Street Suburban Station. One Penn Center served as the headquarters of the PRR from 1930 to 1957.

Plans for a tunnel to link the Pennsylvania and Reading commuter lines were floated as early as the 1950s, but funding to seriously study the project did not start until the late 1960s. The project languished in the 1970s due to lack of funding for the construction until federal money was appropriated during Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo's time in office.

Previous station	SEPTA	Next station
30th Street toward Airport	R1 line	Market East toward Glenside
30th Street toward Newark	R2 line	Market East toward Warminster
30th Street toward Elwyn	R3 line	Market East toward West Trenton
30th Street toward Thorndale	R5 line	Market East toward Doylestown
30th Street toward Cynwyd	R6 line	Market East toward Elm Street, Norristown
30th Street toward Trenton	R7 line	Market East toward Chestnut Hill East
30th Street toward Chestnut Hill West	R8 line	Market East toward Fox Chase

v • d • e Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority
City Transit Division	Market-Frankford Line - Broad Street Line - Subway-Surface Lines - Girard Avenue Trolley (Route 15) - City surface routes
Suburban Division	Norristown High Speed Line (Route 100) - Suburban Trolley Lines (Routes 101 & 102) - Suburban bus routes
Regional Rail	R1 - R2 - R3 - R5 - R6 - R7 - R8
Major Stations	Frankford Transportation Center - Market East Station - Suburban Station - 30th Street Station - 69th Street Terminal