SEPTA Route 23 Trolley
Germantown Avenue
The End !
PCC II Car 2330
Is the Route 23 trolley history?
Chestnut Hill Local
by Shawn Hart
Amid protesting neighbors, SEPTA, citing safety concerns, covered the trolley tracks along Germantown Avenue from Gowen Avenue to Cresheim Valley Road last Friday, Dec. 2, with a black blanket of asphalt. Despite legal efforts to secure a temporary injunction, a fleet of bright orange and yellow vehicles assembled at dawn to pave over a portion of the longest street-running trolley line in the world. Neighbors, led by community activist John Hogan, watched in dismay as bitter winds blew the acrid smell of smoking macadam into their eyes and over their hopes to halt the project. Hogan, standing not far from the Trolley Car Diner, vowed that the trolley resting on blocks there would not be the last seen on this stretch of the Avenue. “We may have lost this round, but we’ll continue to fight for restoration of the tracks,” he said. But SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney told the Local that restoration of trolley service is neither planned nor has it been funded.
Hogan and his neighbors were not alone in their attempt to delay a determined effort by SEPTA to complete the paving project without further debate. The offices of City Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller and State Senator LeAnna Washington, the CHBA, CHCA, the Chestnut Hill Historical Society and Mt. Airy USA are all aligned in their opposition to the pave-over.
Itzchak Kornfield, attorney for the group that filed for the temporary injunction before Common Pleas Court Judge Gary Glaser, noted that SEPTA had assembled a formidable team to defeat the action. “They had two lawyers from Dilworth-Paxson plus their general council and top attorney, Nicholas Staffieri, and a technical expert. Why bring so much firepower to turn back a five-day delay?” wondered Kornfield.
SEPTA’s Maloney claims that SEPTA pushed to complete paving “before the macadam plants shut down for the winter” and added, “The road surface is clearly dangerous, and we’ve gotten many calls to fix it.”
Streets Department statistics indicate there have been 240 accidents along the section of Germantown Avenue between Gowen Avenue and Cresheim Valley Road. These have been blamed variously on the slippery surface of Belgian block paving, speeding, a roadway that abruptly narrows at its northbound and southbound ends and, of course, on the trolley tracks that had become unsafely elevated above the roadway surface. Since SEPTA is responsible for maintenance of the road surface inside the cart way and extending 18 inches out from the rails, and liable for damages attributable to accidents caused by unsafe conditions within that area, they acted to correct the situation and cut their losses.
The position taken by those in opposition to the pave-over does not deny the need to make the road safer; indeed, they have proposed a list of remedial actions including electronic speed indicator displays, flashing yellow caution lights, protected pedestrian crossings and stricter enforcement of the 25 mph speed limit. All of these measures would be in addition to the cheaper and, arguably, equally effective process of patching the roadway until permanent repairs can take place. These repairs are already planned and scheduled by PennDot — which has responsibility for Germantown Avenue as a state highway (422) — as part of a complete restoration of the roadway that will begin at earth level and completely rebuild the Avenue, including restoration of the rails, in 2008. But with no funding from SEPTA for trolleys, it would seem unlikely that the tracks will be uncovered, replaced or restored.
Bob Previdi, executive director of the Chestnut Hill Business Association, had been planning resumption of the holiday run of the Route 23 trolley from the Gorgas Lane turnout to the top of the hill when he joined the fight to prevent the pave-over. He expressed surprise and disappointment with SEPTA’s action and the court’s decision to side with the transit authority. Previdi’s background as an urban transportation expert (he worked for 14 years with NYC Transit, nine in planning and five as a spokesperson) provides an informed, insightful perspective. “The quintessential vision of Chestnut Hill in wintertime for me is of the trolleys running the hill. It’s a unique piece of our history and communal memory. Why would you scrap that?” Noting that old Philadelphia trolleys freshly painted in their original colors are now running along San Francisco’s Embarcadero, he shrugs incredulously. “If a nationally known advertiser and one of America’s great tourist destinations can see the value of these vehicles to enhance their image, why can’t Philadelphia?”
The trolleys, seen crossing the screen alongside San Francisco Bay in a Docker’s television commercial, were sold to that city for $16,000 each according to Janet Potter, who sits on the executive committee of Philadelphia’s Historic Northwest Coalition. The former chair of the Transportation Committee is passionate about preserving the rich history of Germantown, Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill. “We see the trolley as an engine for economic development,” she says. Granting that the cost of restoration would be high, she nevertheless contends, “Those trolleys we sold are worth millions.”
Mahoney says the cost to refurbish the old trolleys, built in the 40s and 50s, would “be around $1,000,000 each … if we had them.”
The trolleys were removed from the Avenue in 1992, ostensibly temporarily. Ed Rendell, then the city’s mayor, agreed to buses running on the 23 line when SEPTA promised replacement with new trolleys by 1997. Janet Potter is not shocked that we’re still waiting.
“SEPTA, when they acquired the transit system was assigned legal responsibility for the condition of the cart tracks. If there are no trolleys, there needn’t be cart tracks. This is simply another instance of demolition by neglect,” Potter says, noting that the deterioration of the tracks citywide over the years precipitates a SEPTA policy of paving them over.
John Hogan can see the big Christmas wreaths on the wrought iron gates of the New Covenant Church across the now trackless Belgian block and black-topped Avenue. They don’t infuse him with holiday spirit.
“I had to get permits from the City of Philadelphia just to rebuild this front porch, but SEPTA can spend $75,000 to pave over a street without requesting permission from anyone. It doesn’t seem right.”
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