Walnut Hill station (SEPTA)

Abandoned tracks at the Walnut Hill station site, shortly before they were dismantled in July 2008.

Walnut Hill is an abandoned train station located on Moredon Road in Abington Township, Pennsylvania. The station was a stop on the Reading Railroad's Newtown Line. It later became a part of SEPTA's R8 Newtown Line. The station, and all of those north of Fox Chase, was closed in February 1983, due to SEPTA’s desire for all-electric rail operations (electrification ends at the Fox Chase station). Service in the diesel-only territory north of Fox Chase was "temporarily suspended" at that time, and the Walnut Hill station still appears in publicly posted tariffs.

Though rail service was initially replaced with a Fox Chase-Newtown shuttle bus, patronage remained light. The replacement bus service was far slower and less convenient than the train service it replaced, resulting in the shuttle bus being very unpopular. In addition, the shuttle did not drop off passengers at the Fox Chase Station site directly, nor did it attempt to make tight connections with departing an and arriving R8 trains. The reality was that the traveling public never saw a bus service as a suitable replacement for a rail service, a point pro-rail advocates continue to push.

Track removal

Walnut Hill station was a popular stop for passengers visiting the adjacent Lorimer Park. Since the end of rail service, Montgomery County officials had advocated the reuse of the rail line as a rail trail. Though staunchy opposed by rail advocates and Bucks County public officials, the section of track that passes through the Walnut Hill Station site was dismantled in July 2008 to make way for the Pennypack Trail.