Tracks On The Side After Erie

Does anyone know when you ride the Broad St Line before you come to Erie going southbound and leaving Erie going Northbound there are tracks on the side of the local tracks and they go up to somewhere.

Anyone know what that is ?

Scroll to the "Erie" portion of the station-by-station descriptions on this page. There's a nice little explanation of that section of track...apparently once planned as a possible flyover for further line extensions.

... and is now the planned exit of Roosevelt Blvd trains in the extension up that way.

Apparently there is a train storage area up there.

Jbad wrote:Apparently there is a train storage area up there.

Not storage, but a tail track to turn trains around. Before the construction of the loop at Fern Rock, express or Ridge trains sometimes turned at Erie.

Matthew Mitchell wrote:a tail track to turn trains around.

Last time I was up there, there were 4 tracks, most manually thrown.

I wonder if they will ever make a extension or spur line to the blvd

Before the construction of the loop at Fern Rock, express or Ridge trains sometimes turned at Erie.

It was only the Ridge Trains that terminated at Erie. Sometimes a local to Pattison was turned back if things were really messed up, or at one time, SEPTA used the turnback for extra locals during special events [like Live Aid in '85]

Umblehoon wrote:... and is now the planned exit of Roosevelt Blvd trains in the extension up that way.

As has been pointed out, the upper level of the BSS is mainly used as a turnback for locals. However, if the Roosevelt Boulevard proposals ever see fruit, the upper level tracks will be partially used. The outer tracks will be ramped down to the mainline, while the (current) local tracks
will be leads to/from Roosevelt Boulevard. Obviously, the SB tracks will tunnel under the mainline express tracks. The middle tracks on the upper level will stay put, to await either local turnbacks, or another extension proposal. However, there will be another problem: the tracks on the upper level are almost level with the Port Richmond Branch. Though there
are some ideas floating in my head about those possible extensions, there will be the problem of getting by the Port Richmond Branch.-MTG