Walnut Hill station (SEPTA): Difference between revisions

Walnut Hill is a derelict station located along SEPTA's Fox Chase/Newtown Line, located on Moredon Road in Abington Township, Pennsylvania.

Walnut Hill, and all stations north of Fox Chase, was closed on January 14, 1983,^[1] due to failing diesel train equipment that SEPTA had no desire to repair.

In addition, a labor dispute began within the SEPTA organization when the transit operator inherited 1,700 displaced employees from Conrail. SEPTA insisted on utilizing transit operators from the Broad Street Subway to operate Fox Chase-Newtown diesel trains, while Conrail requested that railroad motormen run the service. When a federal court ruled that SEPTA had to use Conrail employees in order to offer job assurance, SEPTA canceled Fox Chase-Newtown trains.^[2] Service in the diesel-only territory north of Fox Chase was cancelled at that time, and Walnut Hill Station still appears in publicly posted tariffs.^[3]

Although rail service was initially replaced with a Fox Chase-Newtown shuttle bus, patronage remained light. The traveling public never saw a bus service as a suitable replacement for a rail service, and the Fox Chase-Newtown shuttle bus service ended in 1999.

In the ensuing years, there has been interest in resuming passenger service to the long-dormant line.

In September 2009, the Southampton-based Pennsylvania Transit Expansion Coalition (PA-TEC) began discussions with township officials along the railway, as well as SEPTA officials, about the realistic possibility of resuming even minimal passenger service to relieve traffic congestion in the region. Plans call for completing the electrification to Newtown, as originally planned in the late 1970s.

PA-TEC's efforts have received overwhelming bipartisan support by both Bucks and Montgomery County officials, as well as at the state level, despite SEPTA's overall reservations. However, SEPTA has also confirmed they are willing to reestablish regular commuter service if strong political support exists in both counties.^[4]

Walnut Hill station was a popular stop for passengers visiting the adjacent Lorimer Park. Since the late 1970s, Abington Township Ward 2 had advocated the reuse of the railway as a recreational trail.^[5] In July 2008, this idea came to fruition at the insistence of township commissioner Robert Wachter, acting on behalf of constiuent Richard Stern^[6]; the section of track that passes through the Walnut Hill Station site was dismantled quickly in conjunction with Montgomery County Parks to make way for the Pennypack Trail. The trail is not officially a rail trail, as SEPTA did not railbank the line.^[7]

Enormous controversy surrounded the creation of the trail. Traffic congestion in the region grew to unimaginable heights throughout the 1990s and the railroad was seen as a tool to battle increased congestion. Public transit advocates voiced their opposition to the removal of the tracks, which effectively severed the Fox Chase/Newtown line from the national railroad network. The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia also agreed that while the trail serves its purpose, the railroad should take priority if both cannot coexist:

"We believe that there is sufficient right-of-way available to support both future rail service and maintain trail usage. If there is insufficient right-of-way within the corridor to do both, then a relocation or rerouting of the trail to preserve the non-motorized route is necessary."^[8]

Conversely, wealthy constituents—seemingly unconcerned to the surrounding traffic congestion—stated the train will never return to the region; when interviewed by the Philadelphia Inquirer in October 2009, Richard F. Stern of Stern and Eisenberg, LLP in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania voiced his opposition to the resumption of train service:

...I would adamantly oppose it. To disrupt this gorgeous trail would be very upsetting to me and the residents of my community. I have applauded the commissioners for getting this (trail) done so quickly and so well...I want any issue of reopening a railroad to go away. It will never be supported by Abington Township or the County.

Stern is president of the Tall Trees Homeowners Association at the Tall Trees housing development in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania. Like many townhomes that abut the railway line, the Tall Trees housing development was built 1985, two years after service ceased on the rail line.^[9]

• R8newtown.com - Website advocating resumption of rail service