SEPTA, LANSDALE OPEN NEW BUS STOP
Station at Railroad Avenue to be used as a trail link
SEPTA and Lansdale Borough officials marked the end of another completed project Thursday morning, formally opening the new Railroad Avenue bus station and touting it as another link in the town’s transit systems.
“This is our newest facility at the Lansdale Station complex, offering seamless connections between SEPTA regional rail, behind me, and bus services,” said SEPTA General Manager Jeff Knueppel.
“The leadership of Lansdale should be commended for fostering smart growth that benefits the community, with a foundation made strong by public transportation access,” he said.
Railroad Avenue was closed to through traffic in December 2013 as work began on the demolition and reconstruction of the adjacent borough hall building. The road, which runs parallel to rail
tracks between Main and Broad streets, remained closed when the new borough building opened in August 2015, as contractors converted one through lane of roadway for general traffic, with a parallel lane of parking spaces, into one through lane for SEPTA buses and emergency vehicles next to a stopping lane. The two lanes run parallel to the rail tracks, alongside a new trail for pedestrians and bikers, with two new bus shelters for riders and upgraded sidewalks, curb ramps and drainage.
“The location of the stop for these buses has moved a few times in recent years, and at one time there was a proposal to move the loop further away from the station, so we are happy that our bus service has found a true home on Railroad Avenue,” Knueppel said.
The new bus shelters are bracketed by new streetlights and landscaping, with signs indicating the times and routes of SEPTA’s bus 96, which goes to and from Norristown, and bus 132 to and from the Montgomery Mall. Knueppel said it’s the third major transportation upgrade in Lansdale over the past decade, following the new Ninth Street rail station that opened in 2015 and the parking garage that opened last year. All three can be tied together with SEPTA’s new key cards, as the transit
agency phases out tokens and paper tickets.
“These infrastructure improvements are just one part of the future of SEPTA: a modern fare payment system is essential to a modern transportation system,” he said.
“One key card can be loaded with a weekly or monthly pass. Our customers will have the option of putting money in their travel wallet feature to pay for any SEPTA fare, whenever they’re ready to travel, and at the full rollout of key cards, riders will also be able to pay for their daily parking at all SEPTA facilities including the Lansdale garage,” he said.
Key cards are currently in use on nearly all bus and subway lines throughout SEPTA’s network, according to SEPTA Chief Officer of Revenue Operations Leslie Hickman, who said
SEPTA staff began a push in early July to raise awareness of the new key cards.
“Lansdale was one of our stations where we had Key Ambassadors living here for about 30 days, talking to residents and commuters from Lansdale, about the importance of moving to the key card,” she said.
Riders can load from $5 to $250 onto their card, at a kiosk, station, or from their own computers, and starting on Aug. 29 riders with a zone 4 (the zone that includes Lansdale) weekly rail pass will be able to add that pass to their key card. Since Aug. 1, Hickman said, riders have given 500 “taps” of their key cards in Lansdale, and a total of 20,000 taps have been given in zone 4, with over 917,000 key cards purchased and in circulation throughout the SEPTA network since 2016. Starting on Sept. 1,
regional rail fees go down to zero for seniors with key cards, Hickman said, and roughly 155,000 seniors have already gotten their key cards.
After speeches at the new bus station, council President Denton Burnell and Vice President Mary Fuller demonstrated how to buy key cards from SEPTA’s mobile key truck, with built-in kiosks and staff who accompany it.
“Conductors have new handheld devices, and they can tap your key card and see what’s on there, and it can say ‘Valid,’ weekly or monthly,” Hickman said.
Knueppel said SEPTA will be helping with the borough’s Founders Day festivities on Aug. 25 by showing off vintage SEPTA buses at the train station. Hickman said anyone with a zone 4 weekly or monthly pass on their key card could use it to
ride to Pennbrook station to watch that night’s fireworks show at 9 p.m.
“If they’re coming from, say, Ambler, and don’t want to drive, and they have a zone 4 weekly or monthly pass on their key card, they can come right in. They could ride from Ninth Street to Pennbrook, if they have a pass product on their card,” she said.
Burnell said the new bus stops, along with the Ninth Street station and garage, were examples of a unified vision shared by past and current borough councils and staff.
“Reaching this important milestone in the transportation infrastructure of Lansdale can only be achieved through an incredible amount of teamwork and collaboration,” he said.
“This is the third SEPTA project here in Lansdale, and we could not have asked for a better partner,” Burnell said.
In addition to thanking the SEPTA officials, Burnell thanked previous borough Managers Timi Kirchner and Jake Ziegler, former police Chief Robert McDyre, and current Manager John Ernst, Police Chief Michael Trail, project construction manager Chris Kunkel, traffic engineers Earl Armitage and Mark Bickerton, and attorney Joe Clement for their efforts. With Railroad Avenue now complete, Burnell said, the borough plans to use the trail along the road as part of the Liberty Bell Trail, with future trail portions planned atop the Madison Parking Lot north of the station, and along the railroad tracks toward Hancock Street to the south.
“As anyone who’s driven around town knows, SEPTA is a highly utilized mode of transportation in Lansdale, linking an ever-expanding transit system with our vibrant neighborhoods,” Burnell said.
As he spoke, a SEPTA train pulled into the Lansdale rail station just across the street, and wooden frames could be seen marking the tops of the apartment buildings being built by developer Equus Capital Partners atop the adjacent Madison Parking Lot.
“Transit-oriented developments, such as the current Equus project coming closer to opening every day, are attracted to Lansdale because of our success with projects like the one we’re here to celebrate today,” Burnell said.