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(rshsdepot) North Philadelphia, PA

From the Philly NRHS list...

1. Article: North Philly Station
    Posted by: "JOHN AND LUCIA ALMEIDA" 
    Date: Sat Jan 27, 2007 10:06 pm ((PST))

http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2007/01/25/train-wreck
   
  Train Wreck  How millions of dollars were wasted trying to fix a North Philly rail station.  by Daniel Campo  Published: January 24, 2007 

  Few would know it from its current condition, but North Philadelphia Station was once an elegant gateway that provided access to the city for thousands of rail passengers daily. Today it's seedy, sometimes dangerous and offers poor connections to nearby rail, subway and bus services. Worse, it is also potentially a squandered opportunity to revitalize a key segment of the Avenue of the Arts North and a waste of millions of dollars recently invested in the station. 
              
  North Broad, from Lehigh Avenue to Glenwood, has the city's richest concentration of transit outside of Center City and the area around 30th Street Station. Three rail stations and one subway station serve Amtrak while SEPTA's R5, R6, R7 and R8 lines and the Broad Street Subway also connect to several bus lines. Yet there are no signs indicating the presence of the station, which sits upon the most heavily traveled intercity train route in the United States. 
  The tunnel leading toward the platforms reeks of urine and its walls are covered with chipped paint, cracks and graffiti. The platforms aren't much better. There, the shed, constructed as part of the 1999 station renovation, is encased in glass panes that are cracked or missing altogether. Those that are intact are covered with the scrawl of markers and graffiti scratches. 
  It wasn't supposed to be this way. 
  The 1901 Renaissance Revival station is the oldest surviving depot on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. For decades, the station bustled. Kurt Bell, archivist for the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, estimates that in 1930 there were as many as 4,000 passenger boardings or departures on 40 different trains each day. But nationwide, ridership fell steadily in the postwar years. With the breakup of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the 1960s; the demise of its successor, the Penn Central Railroad in the 1970s; neglect; and an ever-dwindling number of Amtrak passengers, the station has been in a perpetual state of decline for more than four decades. 
  While more than 3.5 million Amtrak passengers used 30th Street Station in 2006, the railroad estimates only 605 passengers used the North Philadelphia Station. Down from 1,399 in 2005 and 3,879 in 1998, that's less than one person getting on and one person getting off an Amtrak train each day. 
  The station's decline is both a reflection of and contributor to North Philadelphia's changing fortunes and the steep deterioration of North Broad as one of the city's most vital commercial and cultural corridors. 
  Numerous attempts have been made to revive the area. With much fanfare during the 1980s, two multimillion-dollar revitalization proposals came and went. These projects were to be a part of Mayor Wilson Goode's 1986 "North Philadelphia Plan," in which the station was the centerpiece of new retail, community and residential development. Yet, a $14 million deal fell apart in 1990. 
  In 1994, Amtrak announced yet another plan to rehabilitate the historic station and redevelop its surrounding 8.5-acre property. The $18 million public-private partnership, like two previous failed plans, was to include a supermarket and retail stores. There was even talk of renovating the station's mezzanine, which once housed an elegant restaurant. 
  After further delays and scaling back of the project to $7 million, the renovated station, supermarket and retail stores opened in 1999 (the station was also added to the National Register of Historic Places that year). The rehabilitation included the addition of the glass canopies on the station's two platforms and restoration of the historic depot. But in 2001, the depot was closed and the one Amtrak employee who sold tickets within it was reassigned to 30th Street. The building has been closed to train passengers ever since, but not to bargain shoppers, as it's now a dollar store. 
  In 2005, the Philadelphia City Planning Commission targeted the area; among the recommendations were clearer pedestrian pathways, improved wayfinding and that new development be consistent with the principles of "transit-oriented development." Recent development, however, is far from that. 
  Karen Lewis, executive director of the Avenue of the Arts, Inc., who has been working with the area's stakeholders, acknowledged the shortcomings of the 1999 development, but is still optimistic about the station's ability to serve as the "northern gateway" to the avenue. She pointed to recent avenue projects — including the Pearl Theater, Lofts at 640, the Blue Horizon boxing and entertainment center and the redevelopment of the Divine Lorraine Hotel — that are beginning to re-energize the corridor. While investors may presently view the area around the station as "not an appealing place for development," she says, "It's all a matter of timing." 
  City Councilman Darrell L. Clarke, whose district includes a significant stretch of North Broad but not the station itself, concurs. "Development is pushing north on Broad Street," he says, "and maybe five or 10 years down the line the time will be right." 
  During his youth, Clarke used the station on summer train trips to visit relatives in Chicago. While he holds fond memories, he called the condition of the station today "disastrous" and is disappointed that Amtrak is not doing more to keep the station in working order. 
  An Amtrak spokesperson called the condition of the station — including broken windows, lights and elevators — a "maintenance" issue, but made no commitment to repairs and declined to comment on security problems. 
  Perhaps part of the answer to the station's problems would involve a larger role for SEPTA. But Delaware Valley Association of Rail Passengers (DVARP) spokesman Matthew Mitchell says that while maintenance is lacking, SEPTA "should devote its limited capital for more pressing needs." At the same time, DVARP has begun a campaign to restore full-time Amtrak commuter service from North Philadelphia and Cornwall Heights stations to New York, along with a restoration of lower monthly commuting fares that existed until 2005. 
  But a few more commuters alone will not end the station's seemingly intractable state of deterioration. Unless Amtrak and SEPTA can put together a better maintenance and security plan, recent and ongoing public investments will be wasted. 
  Underneath Broad Street, SEPTA's ongoing $18 million rehabilitation of the North Philadelphia Subway Station will be completed later this year. The project should enhance wayfinding with the addition of street-level signage directing passengers to the multiple transit stations along the Avenue. But the most significant improvement will be new escalators, one of which will bring passengers above ground from the subway, at the edge of the strip mall a short distance from the North Philadelphia Amtrak station. 
  Clarke says it is a shame that SEPTA's improvements are not going to make greater physical connections to the aboveground railroad station or include a connecting retail component. Thinking about this missed opportunity, he added that he would like to see greater coordination between the two agencies: "You would think that they would be going back and forth on this, but they don't interact ... the way they should." 
  (d_campo_@_citypaper.net) 
   
  
 
  © Philadelphia City Paper

Jim Dent
Oakland, NJ
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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1492
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org