Cynwyd branch during car shortage

Since the Cynwyd branch has been temporarily suspended, has SEPTA run any pilot trains to maintain the plant, or is everything rusting away? Shame that they couldn't spare 2 single cars to maintain service.

Yeah, it seems like the Cynwyd line would have been easy to keep running. The line only requires 2 cars, how hard would it be to find them? They could have also just used one car and run a smaller schedule.

Those two cars, wherever they are, are certainly carrying more passengers than they would going to Cynwyd.

Maybe Amtrak could start going there. They've got experience with that

I'm pretty sure nothing is 'rusting away', at the moment there really wouldn't be enough equipment available to cover the trips.

Just how many people actually use the line? This looks and sounds more like it'll be better served as light rail or even trolley service with a bridge over the Amtrak line.

Considering it only has 3 stations, sees peak-only trips (save a single mid-day) on weekdays only, terminates at Suburban, has a maximum speed of only 25MPH, it does fine.

Gee, I wonder why it doesn't do better?

Well the line did used to go farther down to Ivy Ridge but the service was cutback to Cynwyd

STrRedWolf wrote:This looks and sounds more like it'll be better served as light rail or even trolley service ...

Conversion of the Cynwyd line and one or both CH lines has been suggested many times, and probably could make operational sense. The barrier is that under current FRA safety rules any "transitized" line would have to be physically severed from the rest of the RRD.

I'm not sure if it's still the case, but I'm fairly certain that rules about crashworthiness also require SEPTA to run a minimum of two-car RRD consists at all times, even if ridership is only enough for a single car.

I'm not sure if it's still the case, but I'm fairly certain that rules about crashworthiness also require SEPTA to run a minimum of two-car RRD consists at all times, even if ridership is only enough for a single car.

Up until the shortage, I would routinely see 1-car Cynwyd dinkies rolling into 30th St, so I don't think this is the case.

dcipjr wrote:Up until the shortage, I would routinely see 1-car Cynwyd dinkies rolling into 30th St, so I don't think this is the case.

Thanks for the info. I've mostly been using the NHSL for the last several years and confess to being a bit out of date re RRD operations.

The Cynwyd line could be pretty easily connected to the 10 trolley. Use double ended cars on the line to avoid having to build a loop in Cynwyd.

jackintosh11 wrote:The Cynwyd line could be pretty easily connected to the 10 trolley. Use double ended cars on the line to avoid having to build a loop in Cynwyd.

If the Cynwyd line would be converted to trolley, wouldn't make sense to restore it to Ivy Ridge?

jackintosh11 wrote:The Cynwyd line could be pretty easily connected to the 10 trolley. Use double ended cars on the line to avoid having to build a loop in Cynwyd.

BuddCar711 wrote:If the Cynwyd line would be converted to trolley, wouldn't make sense to restore it to Ivy Ridge?

I agree conversion would be a great idea, but I'm not sure it would be a slam-dunk:
* The line would have to be re-tracked because the trolley is PA gauge (5' - 2.5")
* The Manayunk bridge is now part of a recreational trail. Right or wrong, trails quickly develop their own constituencies that can be very difficult to reverse. IIRC only one rail trail in the country has ever been reverted.

Neither's a stopper by any means, but given other projects' lugubrious timelines they could stretch out any conversion for decades

JeffK wrote:

jackintosh11 wrote:The Cynwyd line could be pretty easily connected to the 10 trolley. Use double ended cars on the line to avoid having to build a loop in Cynwyd.

BuddCar711 wrote:If the Cynwyd line would be converted to trolley, wouldn't make sense to restore it to Ivy Ridge?

I agree conversion would be a great idea, but I'm not sure it would be a slam-dunk:
* The line would have to be re-tracked because the trolley is PA gauge (5' - 2.5")
* The Manayunk bridge is now part of a recreational trail. Right or wrong, trails quickly develop their own constituencies that can be very difficult to reverse. IIRC only one rail trail in the country has ever been reverted.

Neither's a stopper by any means, but given other projects' lugubrious timelines they could stretch out any conversion for decades

The line now would be more in line with a heavy rail setup similar to the Norristown line... but would be incompatible with the trolley system or even the subway system (different gauges, third rail power).

But isn't there enough clearance between the gauges that you can have both? That way you can run the commuter rail train until you get trolley service fully built, then swap power and the connection on a weekend.