Riding my bike along the newtown end of SEPTA R8

Just what the title says!

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• newtown
• rail
• septa
• R8
• tracks

[phantomlord54]

Supposedly there's a pretty big push now to re-activate the line, no matter the obstacles?

[ibook133]

@phantomlord54 Yea, the fill area could easily be excavated and a bridge put in, however the main focus of the right of way in newtown would be a station near the bypass where there is a few acres zoned for railroad station use, and it wouldn't cross any of the roads in town. There is a massive push for this because as i said, it just makes sense. It will happen, just a matter of time, it won't be that expensive to re-activate.

- A

[phantomlord54]

@ibook133 It would be quite interesting for sure; I'm always fascinated to see all these old abandoned rail lines throughout the region and the prospect that a few of them might come back, but they should do a two track setup

[ibook133]

@phantomlord54 ... The line was set up by the reading to handle one freight move per day in each direction into newtown & back from fox chase or via the main line, it saw freight as late as 1976 i believe. I am unsure the frequency of passenger service, but one could assume it was likely hourly as newtown housed some business owners with dealings in philly.

[daffylatke]

Is he chewing gum throughout this thing?

[ibook133]

Yes, it helps my throat from drying up on warm days when i'm biking. This section of track is 4 miles from my house across hills and whatnot, so it wasn't like i rolled across the street, i had to exert effort to get here as it's on the other side of town from where i live.

[add2718]

The line has been out of service since 1983. Since then, they repaved the streets and paved right over the old tracks. You can see this at around 1:50 where the tracks used to cross the street (this is near the end of the line). In fact some of the track is peeking throught the pavement.

[johnyboy087]

y dont the tracks cross over any of the streets?