Philly native and regular SEPTA rider who shouts about them on youtube here: and I totally agree that SEPTA has the bones of one of, if not the best, regional rail system on the continent with the tunnel and all of the routes it runs on. The main reason why they can't take full advantage with S-bahn frequency is due to a lack of staff to run the trains at such a frequency due to, you guessed it, lack of funding. You get the staff to do it, get the replacement for the Silverliner IVs, which they're starting to do, do fare integration with the rest of their services, and in the further future, fix a few bottlenecks on the system, and it can truly be world class like it should be.

My mom was a construction worker on this. In fact at the time she was one of only eight female construction workers in the city. She even got her picture in the newspaper with the other seven.

Philadelphia almost has an sbahn. Now you just need to increase frequency and do fare intergration so people can use regional rail where the subways dont go, kind of like in german cities (or really any european cities)

It's not just you.  That is one attractive train station.

Former Mayor Frank Rizzo was a huge motivator in getting the Center City Commuter Tunnel done.  It remains the largest infrastructure project in the city's history.  Boston could benefit greatly by linking North and South Stations in a similar manner.  Linking the former PRR and Reading Lines has been a godsend to Phila. commuters.  I rode the last train out of the Reading Terminal and didn't know what the future would bring.  The Tunnel allows seamless travel from Jenkintown to Paoli.  Thanks for posting.

When I was younger I was always confused why Suburban station had so many tracks that weren’t used. Learning it was a terminal station it makes sense.

As a former locomotive engineer on septa’s regional rail lines you did a good job in this video

It's amazing that they managed this makeover in the face of suburbanization.

When I visited Philadelphia from Europe, the difference in cleanliness and quality between SEPTA and the different subway lines was staggering to me. Thanks for covering the interesting history in more detail :D

I'm glad you showed Reading Terminal Market! It's one of my favorite places to go when I'm in Philly.

A fascinating fact is that the Pennsylvania Railroad and Reading divisions use slightly different catenary wires.  SEPTA has been spending several years rebuilding the Reading division's catenary to match the PRR profile so the pantographs on both divisions' trains don't wear down differently.  
A nice coincidence is that both divisions use 12 kV at the same 25 Hz frequency.

When I was IT consulting in Center City, I rode SEPTA R2 every day.  Drove 15 minutes from my home in New Castle, DE to the state-owned station in Claymont, DE, parked for free at the station, and caught the train to Suburban Station.  It was a short walk from there to my client's offices.  If my consulting colleague and I decided to stop for a beer after work, I didn't worry about there not being a later train.  Best commute ever.

This 60+ Philly boy remembers when there were the two competing Pennsylvania RR and Reading RR.  Dear Old Dad often took me to the Reading Terminal Market.  Had occasion to use just about every station on the SEPTA commuter rail. After relocating to Long Island, I often visited friends and relatives and/or did other business in Philadelphia by taking LIRR to NYP, switching to NJT to Trenton, and then at Trenton, switching to SEPTA.  

The reason there is a Chestnut Hill East and a Chestnut Hill West is that one was Pennsy and the other was Reading.

When they built the center city Commuter Rail Tunnel the streets were a mess and traffic was severely impeded.  One neighborhood that was especially affected was Chinatown, whose restaurant industry took a big hit for a few years.  One Chinatown resident put up a sign reading "Our forefathers built the railroad -- They never expected it to come this far!"

Remember Philadelphia had two of the largest ,richest Railroads in the world , Reading RR and the Pennsylvania RR

Love the tilework at Jefferson/Market East station, the murals depict the four seasons! And Suburban Station was designed by the Chicago-based Graham, Anderson, Probst & White firm, who also worked on 30th Street Station, multiple Chicago icons like Merchandise Mart, Field Museum, Metropolitan Tower, Chicago Union Station, and the Shedd Aquarium, and Cleveland's Terminal Tower (which stood as the tallest building in North America outside of NYC from its completion in 1927 until 1964). I'm glad the Center City stations have level boarding, because much of the regional rail stations don't! Level boarding is not only of course better for accessibility, but also for dwell times as people won't have to take steps up to the door to get in! Meanwhile all LIRR stations, even the ones with low ridership, have level boarding (though not all of these have been accessible, but the LIRR has improved on this by adding elevators and ramps)!

Yup, all of the SEPTA Regional Rail lines are electrified, but that's because they simply cut all their diesel services instead of electrifying. Conrail operated four diesel SEPTA-branded routes under contract throughout the 1970s! There used to be an Allentown via Bethlehem, Quakertown, and Lansdale service and this was gradually cut back. Allentown–Bethlehem service ended in 1979, Bethlehem-Quakertown service ended in early July 1981, and Quakertown–Lansdale service ended later that month. Pottsville line service to Pottsville, via Reading and Norristown, ended in late July 1981. West Trenton service previously ran to Newark Penn and this was cut back to West Trenton in early July 1981. The final service, Fox Chase-Newtown service, initially also ended in early July 1981, re-established in October of that year as the Fox Chase Rapid Transit Line, which then ended in 1983, thus today's Fox Chase Line just ends at Fox Chase. The services were phased out due to low ridership, a lack of funding outside the five-county area of SEPTA, withdrawal of Conrail as a contract carrier, aging equipment that needed replacement, and a lack of SEPTA-owned diesel maintenance infrastructure. The death knell for any resumption of diesel service was the Center City Commuter Connection, which lacks the necessary ventilation for exhaust-producing locomotives!

Taking the regional rail from Temple to 30th street is literally the most convenient thing ever for me as a student who lives on the NEC, plus I can get to PHL really easily if I need to!

A  bit late to this thread. The Sixers ill-conceived proposed arena would destroy this beautiful 11th St./Jefferson Station. As configured, the arena would need to take away a large portion of the station, and would require a drastic lowering of the ceiling, putting an end to the  beautiful, airy and light-filled space. It would require the demolition of many buildings in Philly's thriving Chinatown, and close heavily-traveled Filbert St., creating traffic chaos in the area. The arena must be stopped!

When a video takes me past the point of just informing me and gets me pausing it because of its intelligent use of graphics, well, that's when you did something right. I saw only a dusting of personal opinion, and no gimmicky nonsense. Now, I want to know more about rail PERIOD. So good on you.

The regional connector in LA is also a great example. So many people have benefited from it

The 30th Street station is a beautiful station! SEPTA has a great idea on running trains through the Central City.