Walnut Hill station (SEPTA)

Walnut Hill
SEPTA regional rail
File:July09walnuthilltrail.jpg Walnut Hill Station, now the entrance to the Pennypack Trail Extension.
General information
Location	200 Moredon Road Abington Township, Pennsylvania.
Coordinates	40.0970°N 75.0744°W / 40.0970; -75.0744
Owned by	SEPTA
Line(s)	Fox Chase Line
Platforms	1 side platform
Tracks	0
History
Closed	January 14, 1983
Electrified	no
Previous names	Reading Railroad
Services
Preceding station   SEPTA   Following station Template:SEPTA stations toward Template:SEPTA stations Template:SEPTA lines Newtown Template:SEPTA stations (closed 1983) toward Template:SEPTA stations

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

History

Main article: Fox Chase Rapid Transit Line

Walnut Hill, and all stations north of Fox Chase, was closed on January 14, 1983, 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. 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.

Former Walnut Hill platform. Trackage through this area was dismantled in July 2008.

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.

Resumption of train service

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 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.

Track Removal, Private Interests and Controversy

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. In July 2008, this idea came to fruition at the insistence of township commissioner Robert Wachter, acting on behalf of constiuent Richard Stern; 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 an extension to the existing Pennypack Trail. SEPTA received $1 for the lease, railbanking the line for future mass transit related uses. The trail is not officially a rail trail, however, nor is it designated as such.

Enormous controversy surrounded the creation of the trail. Traffic congestion in the region grew to unimaginable heights throughout the 1990s and resumed passenger service was seen as a tool to battle the trend. Public transit advocates voiced their opposition to the removal of the tracks, which effectively severed the outer end of the Fox Chase/Newtown line from the national railroad network (much to the consternation of Bucks County public officials who had been waiting for SEPTA to reactivate train service since "temporarily" suspending it in 1983).

The idea of disposing of this section of the line currently occupied by the interim trail was not new: the area was historically a hotbed for political upheaval. Population near this portion of the line in Montgomery County has always been sparse, and there were few stations (Walnut Hill, Huntingdon Valley, Bryn Athyn, Woodmont) that served passengers when trains operated. Despite small originating ridership, the county was assessed much of the route's operating cost. As such, opposition within official county circles to subsidize operation existed as far back as the mid-1970s. Proposals were floated around at that time to install a track connection where the line crosses the West Trenton route near Bethayres, and to abandon the stretch of track between Fox Chase and the West Trenton line. The existence of the trail essentially carried out this plan, minus the benefit of the West Trenton connection. This is unfortunate, as even in its dormant state, the Newtown Branch is the shorter and more favorable route to the West Trenton line junction, as rush hour rail traffic through the Jenkintown/Wyncote bottleneck remains heavy.

The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia also agreed that while the interim 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.

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.

Trail criticism

Noted transit expert John Pawson, author of Delaware Valley Rails: The Railroads and Rail Transit Lines of the Philadelphia Area, has inquired why a transit agency like SEPTA is promoting trails instead of public transit. In an October 2010 communication sent to the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission Regional Citizens Committee, Pawson stated the following:

The designation "Pennypack Trail" was placed on a section of the dormant Fox Chase-Newtown passenger rail line, and the rails were lifted for some 2.4 miles and a gravel path substituted. This relatively cheap and quick process may have been expedient, but cheapness is its only advantage. The trail as built essentially runs from nowhere to nowhere. In the lower half of its length, it is distant from the creek and the north end of the Philadelphia section of the trail. A relatively high-grade piece of infrastructure has been diverted (temporarily, one would hope) to a relatively low-grade purpose. It's like taking over an expressway to use for someone's driveway. It would be much better all around to link the Philadelphia section at Pine Road via existing trails, sidewalks, and some new construction on publicly accessible property to form a continuous and scenic path near the creek over the full 18-mile length of the Trail as originally conceived. Montgomery County has the means to do so; it should not satisfy itself with the poorly located segment on the rail grade. There is no need to pull up any more track. This real creek-side Pennypack Trail through Montgomery County and the restoration of the rail line in that county and beyond could be considered as a single valid political issue. Various groups including rail and trail proponents and others should work together for a joint project.

PA-TEC also criticized SEPTA's haste in allowing the county commissioners to quickly convert the railway into a trail (a move Stern applauded the commissioners for):

If you try to run a railroad to benefit the many, SEPTA will give 101 reasons why it cannot be done. But if you are powerful, politically connected and want a rail trail to benefit the few, SEPTA rolls out the red carpet. It appears the trail was implemented not so much to add to the existing extensive trail network in Montgomery County, but to prevent the train from ever returning."

SEPTA Rejects Security Measures for Preserving Railway Through Lorimer Park

In March 2011, PA-TEC requested that SEPTA consider demarking their dormant railroad lines acting as rail trails with signage. PA-TEC was willing to work with the transit agency on this project, in hopes of maintain a high profile for the dormant rail corridor. Their request was based on a Federal study completed by the National Transportation Research Board in 2007, which stated the following:

File:RAILtrailsignage.jpg

Installation of signage indicating railway corridor ownership by SEPTA (like this seen in Chisago County, Minnesota) was flatly rejected by the transit agency, citing "not cost effective" as reasoning.

Some public agencies develop specific programs that preserve a higher profile of future needs and possible use for dormant alignments, giving notice to adjacent landowners and the public generally that an interim period of low-impact or recreational use does not proscribe future development of active passenger or freight rail activity. Provisions may include large, conspicuous signage along the trail alignments (see photo on right) and/or disclosure requirements for adjoining property sale transactions that make clear the potential future use of the [rail] corridors in question.

Choosing to the keep their involvement low profile, SEPTA rejected PA-TEC's request, citing the following:

The benefit of your proposed signage was deemed non-existent, since SEPTA's rights to the out-of-service Newtown Branch right-of-way (ROW) are clearly protected as matters of real estate/railroad law, as well as the individual lease with the County. The same would apply to any other recreational trails presently being used by municipalities over SEPTA out-of-service railroad ROW's. Therefore, any expense incurred by the Authority (no matter how small) in the fabrication, installation and maintenance of signage for the sole purpose of demarcating SEPTA's otherwise well established legal ownership rights in the ROW, cannot be financially justified. As such, it was believed that your proposed signage is unwarranted and unnecessary under the circumstances.

PA-TEC responded with the following statement:

Since SEPTA terminated rail service, the authority has been abhorrent to maintaining the rail corridor, and preserving it with some form of train activity. Going against their enabling legislation per Pennsylvania State Law, SEPTA has dismantled the corridor, allowed other parties to remove infrastructure, and in an act resembling Pontius Pilate, has washed their hands of the line by refusing to associate their name with it in public. Without any analysis, SEPTA has rejected a taxpayer funded federal study that provides specific recommendations that best preserve dormant railways.

External links

• Newtown Line.pa-tec.org - Website advocating resumption of train service between Fox Chase and Newtown