Ivy Ridge station

Ivy Ridge station is a SEPTA Regional Rail station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Located at Umbria Street and Parker Avenue in Northwest Philadelphia, it serves the Manayunk/Norristown Line. The initial station was built in a minimalist design similar to that of Elm Street, Norristown. The current station has a 204-space parking lot. In FY 2013, Ivy Ridge station had a weekday average of 602 boardings and 582 alightings.[5]

Ivy Ridge
Ivy Ridge station in April 2012
LocationUmbria Street and Parker Avenue
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Coordinates40.0341°N 75.2355°W / 40.0341; -75.2355
Owned bySEPTA
Platforms2 side platforms
Tracks2
Connections SEPTA City Bus: 61, 62
Other information
Fare zone2
History
OpenedOctober 6, 1980 (SEPTA Ivy Ridge Line)[1]
August 25, 1986 (SEPTA Manayunk/Norristown Line)[2]
ClosedMay 16, 1986 (SEPTA Ivy Ridge Line)[2]
Electrified
  • July 20, 1930[3] (Pennsylvania)
  • February 5, 1933[4] (Reading)
Services
Preceding station SEPTA Following station
Manayunk
toward Penn Medicine
 Manayunk/​Norristown Line Miquon
toward Norristown-Elm Street
Shawmont
Closed 1996
toward Norristown-Elm Street
Former services
Preceding station SEPTA Following station
Terminus Ivy Ridge Line Manayunk West
toward Suburban Station

History
Demolition of out-of-service station platform, April 8, 2012

SEPTA constructed Ivy Ridge in 1980 when service was extended an additional 0.8 miles (1.3 km) past Manayunk West station, the passenger terminus of the Pennsylvania Railroad's (PRR) Schuylkill Branch since 1960. Up until then, the 0.8 miles (1.3 km) of track had been used by Manayunk trains to change direction within a remotely controlled interlocking where the Schuylkill Branch (by that time, abandoned north of this point) went from two tracks to one. The single-platform Ivy Ridge station was constructed within the space occupied by the abandoned second track, removed in the early 1960s after the PRR discontinued passenger service to Norristown. A moderate-sized park-and-ride lot was included.[6]

SEPTA suspended service beyond Cynwyd in March 1986 because of deteriorating track conditions and concerns about the Manayunk Bridge; a shuttle bus ran from Manayunk on the Manayunk/Norristown Line. [7][8] In August SEPTA constructed the current platforms along the ex-Reading Norristown line down the bluff from the ex-Pennsylvania line.[9] For a while, the park-and-ride lot sat unused until SEPTA erected a 39-step stairway connecting the derelict PRR upper level and RDG lower level station sites. In the beginning, the steep staircase discouraged ridership, but this changed as ridership grew in the 1990s.[6]

While the PRR platform was built to high level standards (a rarity on the SEPTA Regional Rail system), and was constructed before the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the hastily constructed RDG station platform are low level, and currently remain so. (There is no legal step-free station access for passengers, as Parker Avenue, which crosses the current SEPTA tracks, is completely torn up due to construction of condominiums on a brownfield behind the station; a PECO power pylon also blocks any extension of the outbound platform to that street.) SEPTA received criticism for what was seen as a "waste of taxpayer dollars" by building an extensive high-level platform that only saw six years of active service while sitting derelict and attracting vandalism for over 25. The derelict platform was eventually demolished in April 2012.

As it became clear that SEPTA had no interest in reviving service to the upper Ivy Ridge station, the parking lot was expanded with sections of the PRR track being removed. All remaining Schuylkill Branch trackage in Manayunk was dismantled in June 2010 to make way for the Ivy Ridge Trail, a Philadelphia extension of the Cynwyd Heritage Trail over the Pencoyd Viaduct.[10]

Station layout
P
Platform level		 Side platform, doors will open on the right
Inbound ←      Manayunk/​Norristown Line toward 30th Street or Penn Medicine (Manayunk)
Outbound ←      Manayunk/​Norristown Line toward Elm Street – Norristown (Miquon) →
Side platform, doors will open on the right
Street level Exit/entrance and parking

References
  1. "Manayunk Joins the 'System'". The Philadelphia Daily News. October 6, 1980. p. 15. Retrieved February 3, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Ivy Ridge Station Will Be Back on Line". The Philadelphia Daily News. August 22, 1986. p. 8. Retrieved February 3, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. "Electric Lines Opened by Pennsy". The Altoona Mirror. July 21, 1930. p. 3. Retrieved September 9, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "New Electric Schedule". The Scranton Times. February 4, 1933. p. 12. Retrieved August 21, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "SEPTA (May 2014). Fiscal Year 2015 Annual Service Plan. p. 62" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-08-12. (539 KB)
  6. Williams, Gerry (1998). Trains, Trolleys & Transit: A Guide to Philadelphia Area Rail Transit. Piscataway, New Jersey: Railpace Company. pp. 84–86. ISBN 978-0-9621541-7-1.
  7. "Ivy Ridge station, August 22, 1986". Newspapers.com.
  8. "Starting The Second Life Of A Manayunk Icon". Hidden City Philadelphia.
  9. Baer, Christopher T. (April 2015). "A GENERAL CHRONOLOGY OF THE SUCCESSORS OF THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD COMPANY AND THEIR HISTORICAL CONTEXT: 1980-1989" (PDF). Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society.
  10. Ivy Ridge Green
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