Airport Line Schedule Change

http://www.septa.org/schedules/2015-dec ... rport.html

• Airport Line trains won't continue to Warminster or West Trenton on weekdays
• During rush hour, most Airport trains will end at Temple University, though some will continue to Jenkintown
• During off peak hours, Airport trains will originate at Jenkintown

I wonder if they'll update the Glenside Combined timetable to include the Lansdale and Airport line changes...

Interesting change. How many active airport line trains are there at any given time? Won't this require additional train sets and crews?

Also, what a hassle!

Customers must board Airport Line Trains at Jenkintown-Wyncote Station on the Outbound platform

So many people will end up having to lug their luggage back and forth between the platforms if they're unaware.

JeffersonLeeEng wrote:I wonder if they'll update the Glenside Combined timetable to include the Lansdale and Airport line changes...

I saw a notice that they're reissuing all timetables the week of December 7, effective (I think) December 13.

scotty269 wrote:Also, what a hassle!

Customers must board Airport Line Trains at Jenkintown-Wyncote Station on the Outbound platform

So many people will end up having to lug their luggage back and forth between the platforms if they're unaware.

The notice said something about putting up signage at Jenkintown station; let's hope they put the signs in the right places for passengers to see the before going to the wrong platform. One thing I hope they do is put a reference mark in the timetable reading "Train leaves from outbound platform at Jenkintown." Years ago the Erie had one saying "Train leaves from center platform at Ridgewood." And in steam days the PRR had one indicating that trains to Philadelphia arrived at 30th St. Upper Level.

scotty269 wrote:Interesting change. How many active airport line trains are there at any given time? Won't this require additional train sets and crews?

Also, what a hassle!

Customers must board Airport Line Trains at Jenkintown-Wyncote Station on the Outbound platform

So many people will end up having to lug their luggage back and forth between the platforms if they're unaware.

While I can see issues with lugging luggage on and off the train at low level stations, I really don't see the need to switch platforms, or even the need to get off at Jenkintown if the airport line is serving the full trunk. For people coming from Lansdale/Warminster/West Trenton, it would be much easier to stay on the train and transfer at a high level platform downtown like everyone from the PRR lines do.

The problem with the airport line through routing from Warminster/West Trenton is that the schedules and turnaround times are so tight that the delays cascade and accumulate throughout the day to the point where trains cannot recover by rush hour, save for a late train being replaced by a protect engine from Center City.

Everyone:

Interesting change concerning Airport Line through routings - and to end many weekday trains at Jenkintown.

I understand using the Jenkintown Layoff track to turn Airport trains is the idea here - what will be needed at
JKT are signs in proximity to the ticket office and southbound platform showing at which times these Airport
trains will start on the northbound track...and use the crossover just S of the station platforms.

One station that will be short changed with this plan is Glenside - I wonder if the CARMEL tracks just north may
be a even better place to turn Airport trains which would use the appropriate tracks as GLN turning trains have
done. The running times from GLN to Warminster and from Jenkintown to West Trenton are in question...

I agree that transferring in Center City is the best way to transfer to Airport Line trains but what this does is go
back to the potential of lower Airport Line ridership - the original reasons for extending Airport Line trains to the
RDG side stations is to offer a one seat ride potential from as many lines as possible - Warminster and West
Trenton became the best lines to operate these trains to and from.

The time changes will take getting used to because the Airport Line has a easy-to-remember "memory schedule"
that is long established especially with trains operating earlier then the current schedules.
Only time will tell if these service changes will be for the better...

MACTRAXX

How will these changes affect the frequency of service between Warminster, West Trenton, and Melrose park? Will the two lines still service Elkins Park and Melrose Park, thus giving them half hourly service as they do now?

O-k-a-y............so what line will West Trenton trains now be paired with?

Airport trains run every 30 mins....so Elkins Park and Melrose Park should still maintain half hour service.

It should speed up the running times for West Trenton, Warminster, and Doylestown trains between Fern Rock and Jenkintown.

I assume West Trenton trains will continue to pair up with the Elwyn Line on the PRR side. But now the Warminster Line trains loose a route pair on the Pennsy Side unless they terminate at 30th Street, or run west to Cynwyd?

I guess we will find out on December 7th......"a date that will live in infamy"

I suspect that part of the problem is the new single tracking at the end of the West Trenton line. Now outbound trains have to wait for an inbound train to go through, and if that one was running late, it sets the next one back, and so on.

I fear major changes for West Trenton, with off peak (including reverse commute) cut frequencies because of this new routing.

New Timetables

Airport Line
Warminster Line
West Trenton Line

There's now a Warminster train that continues to Cynwyd.

Weekend trains look the same. Airport trains originate at West Trenton and Warminster.

AM Warminster trains go everywhere: Marcus Hook, Newark, Elwyn, Chestnut Hill West, and Cynwyd.

Everyone:

These schedule changes are actually more elaborate then I once thought...

What this may do at Jenkintown is create a "bottleneck" situation at the northbound platform by adding the
southbound Airport trains to all the train traffic heading northbound - as most here realize JKT is a busy place
at most times on weekdays.

There must have been concern as mentioned about through running times from both Warminster and West Trenton
to the Airport - and the track changes on the northern end of the West Trenton Line are significant enough to make
this schedule change on weekdays affecting that service.

With a new through routing - Warminster to Cynwyd - this is the first time in many years that any through service
has operated on SEPTA's "Dinky" ever since the OK came from Amtrak that single car MU trains could serve that
line - adequately as most know - and back when the R6 was Norristown-Cynwyd it was a large mismatch.
I seem to recall mid/late 90s when most Cynwyd trains began to be originated/terminated at Suburban Station.

I believe that the R6 Norristown/Cynwyd pairing was to perhaps offer the option of a "loop" service to/from CC from
Norristown if a connecting Cynwyd-Ivy Ridge track section via the Manayunk Bridge would have been constructed.

MACTRAXX