It is a fairly status-quo SEPTA project, converting low-level platforms to high-level ones, but the total project includes a restoration of the historic headhouse (the white building in the center of the picture). Of note is the idea to raise the floor level within the headhouse to bring it to the new platform level.
Wayne Jct. is a key Regional Rail hub, and given local developmental opportunities (see this link [PDF]), this is a project that needs to be done yesterday. Densification and upzoning around train stations--except where deliberately designed otherwise--needs to be a key goal of 21st-century public transit.
You're right that regional rail stations across the region desperately need to be upzoned, but I fear that the places where it will actually work – the wealthy suburbs along the Paoli-Thorndale Line and others – are the least likely to accept the additional density. But man, if they did? The Main Line has enough transit (the R5, the 100 line, and all the buses) to turn into a high-density corridor on par with Northern Virginia if the residents would accept it (which they won't).
ReplyDelete- Stephen Smith, http://marketurbanism.com
Both ideas - high platforms, and raising the floor level within the station - are good and should be pursued. High platforms are especially important, because they're an almost free speed increase, around 20 seconds per station. To the rider, it doesn't matter whether trip times go down via an increase in top speed, skipping a few stations, or reducing dwell times at many stations.
ReplyDeleteSteve: Agreed about the Main Line, but Wayne Jct. ain't Wayne. We're in Nicetown and Germantown here.
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