SEPTA Route 36

SEPTA's Subway-Surface Trolley Route 36 (a.k.a.; the Elmwood Avenue-Subway Line) is a trolley line operated by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) that connects the 13th Street station in downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to the Eastwick Loop station in Eastwick section of Southwest Philadelphia, although limited service is available to the Elmwood Carhouse. It is the longest of the five lines that are part of the Subway-Surface Trolley system, and was even longer between 1956 and 1962 when the western terminus was at 94th Street and Eastwick Avenue. From 1962 through the 1970s, it was at 88th Street and Eastwick Avenue, making the route 16.2 miles (26.1 km) long.^[3] Since 1975, it only goes as far as what was once 80th Street at the southern edge of the Penrose Plaza shopping center parking lot. Route 36 will be rebranded as the T5 as part of the transition to SEPTA Metro.

Route 36 (T5)
SEPTA Route 36 at the 40th Street Portal
Overview
Termini	Eastwick, Philadelphia Center City Philadelphia
Stations	8 underground stations, 1 surface level station, and 40 street-level stops
Service
System	SEPTA Metro
Depot(s)	Elmwood Carhouse
Daily ridership	12,737 (2019)
History
Opened	1904
Technical
Line length	15.3 mi (24.6 km)[citation needed]
Track gauge	5 ft 2+1⁄4 in (1,581 mm) Pennsylvania trolley gauge[1][2]
Electrification	Overhead line, 600 V DC
Route map Show interactive map Legend SEPTA Main Line to Glenside to Frankford T.C. 13th Street City Hall 15th Street Suburban 19th Street 22nd Street Schuylkill River Northeast Corridor 30th Street Station 30th Street Harrisburg Subdivision NEC/Keystone Corridor 32nd Street Tunnel to 69th Street T.C. 33rd Street to 63rd–Malvern 36th Street 37th Street 40th Street Portal Baltimore Avenue Woodland & Chester Chester Avenue Woodland & 41st Woodland & 42nd Diversion tracks to 40th and Market Woodland & 43rd Woodland & 45th Woodland & 46th Woodland & 47th WAW Woodland & 48th Woodland & 49th Woodland Avenue 49th & Paschall AIRNWKNortheast Corridor 49th & Grays Grays & 51st Grays & 52nd Grays & Lindbergh Lindbergh & Grays - FS Lindbergh & 53rd Lindbergh & 54th Lindbergh & Wheeler Elmwood & 56th Elmwood & 57th Elmwood & 58th Elmwood & 59th AIR Elmwood & Edgewood Elmwood & 61st Elmwood & 62nd Elmwood & 63rd Elmwood & 64th Elmwood & 65th Elmwood & 66th Elmwood & 67th Elmwood & 68th Elmwood & 69th Elmwood & 70th Elmwood & 71st Elmwood & 72nd Elmwood & 73rd Elmwood Loop & Carhouse Elmwood & Island Non-Revenue Track to Woodland Ave. Island & Buist Island & Tanager Island & 76th Island & Lindbergh Island & Suffolk Island & 80th AIR This diagram: view talk edit Show route diagram map

Route description

Starting from its eastern end at the 13th Street, Route 36 runs in a tunnel under Market Street. It stops at underground stations at 15th Street, 19th Street, 22nd Street, 30th Street, and 33rd Street. From 15th to 30th Streets, it runs on the outer tracks in the same tunnel as SEPTA's Market–Frankford Line.

Passengers may transfer free of charge to the Market–Frankford Line at 13th, 15th, and 30th Streets and to the Broad Street Line at 15th Street. Connections to the SEPTA Regional Rail are also available. Underground passageways connect the 13th and 15th Street Stations to Jefferson Station and Suburban Station.

Route 36 surfaces at the 40th Street Portal near 40th Street and Baltimore Avenue (US 13), and then runs southwest along Woodland Avenue along with the Route 11 trolleys, and then turns down 49th Street where the Woodland Maintenance Facility is located and the Route 10 diversion line ends. After 49th Street crosses over the Wilmington/Newark Line, it takes a sharp right curve as the road becomes Grays Avenue. Route 36 runs along Grays south of the Wilmington/Newark Line until it makes a diagonal move southwest onto Lindbergh Boulevard. Shortly after leaving Grays the line intersects with 54th Street and crosses over a bridge for the Philadelphia Subdivision freight line, and immediately intersects with a road running along the line leading to Bartram's Botanical Garden, the oldest surviving botanical garden in North America.^[4]

Just before Lindbergh Boulevard becomes a divided highway east of 56th Street, the line moves onto Elmwood Avenue. From there it crosses over the Airport Line, continuing westward until it enters an industrial area and makes a left turn at a five way intersection that includes Elmwood Avenue, Island Road and Passyunk Avenue on the southeast corner. The northeast corner is the location of the Elmwood Depot on Island Road. Tracks runs northward along Island Road as far north as Woodland Avenue, which handles pull-ins/pull-outs for Routes 11 & 13.

Island Road is a wide boulevard with the Route 36 tracks down the middle, until the road divides at Buist Avenue, where the tracks run down the median, and a trolley stop exists. Another stop exists at Tanager Street. South of Tanager Street, the southbound Island Avenue lane crosses over the tracks, and they now run between the main road and southbound frontage road. The next stop is South 76th Street, which intersects with the frontage road, but has a stop along both this and the main road. The Route 36 line crosses Lindbergh Boulevard again, where it has its own stop in the median on both sides of the tracks north of Lindbergh Boulevard. The southwest corner also includes the Penrose Plaza Shopping Center, which spans the west side of Island Road as far down as the terminus of the Route 36 line, the Eastwick Loop, which is accessible from a U-Turn beneath the Island Road bridge over the SEPTA Airport Line, and is four blocks east of Eastwick Railroad Station. SEPTA plans to expand the regional rail station and possibly merge it with the trolley station, transforming it into the Eastwick Transportation Center.^[5]

History

Route 36 was established as the Elmwood Avenue Line in 1904 by the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company. Original streetcar service operated between Island Road and Elmwood Avenue via Center City on Market Street to Front & Market Streets. Service rerouted into the Subway-Surface Tunnel and extended to the Westinghouse Plant in Essington on November 5, 1955, replacing Route 37 trolley service. OWL (24-hour) service transferred from Route 37 to Route 36 at the same time. At the western terminus, service was cut back to 94th Street & Eastwick Avenue on September 9, 1956. Service was cut back again to 88th Street on August 15, 1962, Service was cut back a third time to 84th Street on January 5, 1966, but extended back to 88th Street on December 11, 1972. Service was cut back to 80th Street & Eastwick Avenue on April 26, 1975. In 1985, Island Avenue was converted into a new bridge over the SEPTA Airport Line near the station, and the intersection of 80th Street and Eastwick Avenue was replaced by a frontage road loop on the north side of the tracks.^[6] Despite the elimination of the 80th Street intersection, trolleys still sign their destination as 80th Street – Eastwick. Originally, the trolley sign showed the previous name Eastwick.

In 2021, SEPTA proposed rebranding their rail transit service as "SEPTA Metro", in order to make the system easier to navigate. Under this proposal, the subway–surface lines will be rebranded as the "T" lines with a green color and numeric suffixes for each service, and Route 36 would be renamed "T5 Elmwood Avenue."^[7][8] SEPTA described that "most comments were positive" in the public comment period for this rebranding project.^[9]

Stations and stops

All are in the City of Philadelphia.

Neighborhood / location	Images	Station or stop	Connections	Notes
Market East		13th Street	SEPTA Metro: Market–Frankford Line, Route 10, Route 34, Route 13, Route 11, Route 36 SEPTA City Bus: 27, 31, 32	Closed between 12:30–5:00am
Penn Center		15th Street	SEPTA Regional Rail: all lines (at Suburban) SEPTA Metro: Broad Street Line (at City Hall), Market–Frankford Line, Route 10, Route 34, Route 13, Route 11, Route 36 SEPTA City Bus:4, 16, 17, 27, 31, 32, 33, 38, 44, 48 SEPTA Suburban Bus: 124, 125	Late night terminus
		19th Street	SEPTA Metro: Route 10, Route 34, Route 13, Route 11, Route 36 SEPTA City Bus: 17, 31, 38, 44, 48, 62, 78 SEPTA Suburban Bus: 124
Center City West		22nd Street	SEPTA Metro: Route 10, Route 34, Route 13, Route 11, Route 36 SEPTA City Bus: 7, 31, 44, 62 SEPTA Suburban Bus: 124, 125	Replaced 24th Street station
University City		Drexel Station at 30th Street	Amtrak (at 30th Street) NJ Transit: ACL Atlantic City Line (at 30th Street) SEPTA Regional Rail: all lines (at 30th Street) SEPTA Metro: Market–Frankford Line, Route 10, Route 34, Route 13, Route 11, Route 36 SEPTA City Bus: 31, 49, LUCY	No direct passage to 30th Street Station
		33rd Street	SEPTA Metro: Route 10, Route 34, Route 13, Route 11, Route 36 SEPTA City Bus: 30, 31, 49, LUCY	Serves Drexel University
		36th Street	SEPTA Metro: Route 34, Route 13, Route 11 SEPTA City Bus: 21	Serves University of Pennsylvania
		37th Street	SEPTA Metro: Route 34, Route 13, Route 11 SEPTA City Bus: 40, 42, LUCY	Serves University of Pennsylvania, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Spruce Hill		40th Street Portal	SEPTA Metro: Route 34, Route 13, Route 11 SEPTA City Bus: 30, 40, 42, LUCY	End of Route 34 concurrency
		Chester & Woodland	SEPTA Metro: Route 13, Route 11 SEPTA City Bus: 30	End of Route 13 concurrency
		41st & Woodland (EB)	SEPTA Metro: Route 11 SEPTA City Bus: 30
		42nd & Woodland	SEPTA Metro: Route 11
		43rd & Woodland (WB) 45th & Woodland (EB)	SEPTA Metro: Route 11
Squirrel Hill		46th & Woodland	SEPTA Metro: Route 11
		47th & Woodland (EB)	SEPTA Metro: Route 11
Kingsessing		48th & Woodland	SEPTA Metro: Route 11
		49th & Woodland	SEPTA Metro: Route 11 SEPTA City Bus: 12, 52, 64	End of Route 11 concurrency
		Paschall & 49th	SEPTA City Bus: 12, 64
		49th & Grays (EB)
		51st & Grays
		52nd & Grays (EB) Grays & Lindbergh (WB)
		Lindbergh & Grays (WB) 53rd & Lindbergh (EB)
		54th & Lindbergh
		Wheeler & Lindbergh
		56th & Elmwood
		57th & Elmwood
Elmwood		58th & Elmwood
		59th & Elmwood
		Edgewood & Elmwood
		61st & Elmwood
		62nd & Elmwood	SEPTA City Bus: G
		63rd & Elmwood
		64th & Elmwood
		65th & Elmwood	SEPTA Suburban Bus: 108
		66th & Elmwood	SEPTA Suburban Bus: 108
		67th & Elmwood
		68th & Elmwood
		69th & Elmwood
		70th & Elmwood
		71st & Elmwood
		72nd & Elmwood
		73rd & Elmwood		Located near Elmwood Depot & overnight terminus
Eastwick		Island & Elmwood	SEPTA City Bus: 68 SEPTA Suburban Bus: 108
		Buist & Island	SEPTA City Bus: 68
		Tanager & Island
		76th & Island
		Lindbergh & Island	SEPTA City Bus: 37, 68
		Island/Suffolk
		80th Street–Eastwick	SEPTA Regional Rail:      Airport Line (at Eastwick)

References

1. "The history of trolley cars and routes in Philadelphia". SEPTA. June 1, 1974. p. 2. Retrieved June 11, 2014. An early city ordinance prescribed that all tracks were to have a gauge of 5' 2¹⁄₄".
2. Hilton, George W.; Due, John Fitzgerald (January 1, 2000). The Electric Interurban Railways in America. Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804740142. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
3. 1974 SEPTA Trolleys Brochure
4. Directions to Bartram's Garden (Official Site)
5. SEPTA Regional Rail Lines (NYC Subways.org)
6. ISLAND AVENUE over SEPTA; FRONTAGE ROAD – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (UglyBridges.com)
7. Vitarelli, Alicia; Staff (September 7, 2021). "SEPTA Metro? Transit agency mulling big changes including new name, map, and signage". Philadelphia, PA: WPVI-TV. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
8. "Wayfinding Recommendations". SEPTA. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
9. "Design Concept Feedback". planning.septa.org. SEPTA. Retrieved March 19, 2023.

External links

Template:Attached KML/SEPTA Route 36

KML is from Wikidata

• Official SEPTA Route 36 schedule and map