Walnut Hill (SEPTA Station) - Track Removal

Track Removal

Walnut Hill station was a popular stop for passengers visiting the adjacent Lorimer Park. Since the late 1970s, Abington Township Ward 2 had advocated the reuse of the railway as a recreational trail. In July 2008, this idea came to fruition at the insistence of township commissioner Robert Wachter, acting on behalf of constiuent Richard Stern; the section of track that passes through the Walnut Hill Station site was dismantled quickly in conjunction with Montgomery County Parks to make way for an extension to the existing Pennypack Trail. SEPTA received $1 for the lease, railbanking the line for future mass transit related uses. The trail is not officially a rail trail, however, nor is it designated as such.

Controversy surrounded the creation of the trail. Traffic congestion in the region grew exponentially throughout the 1980s and 1990s and resumed passenger service was seen as a tool to battle the trend. Public transit advocates voiced their opposition to the removal of the tracks, which effectively severed the outer end of the Fox Chase/Newtown line from the national railroad network (much to the consternation of Bucks County public officials who had been waiting for SEPTA to reactivate train service since suspending it in 1983).

The idea of converting this section of the railroad into an interim trail was not new: the area was historically a political hotbed. Population near this portion of the line in Montgomery County has always been sparse, and there were few stations (Walnut Hill, Huntingdon Valley, Bryn Athyn, Woodmont) that served passengers when trains operated. Despite small originating ridership, the county was assessed much of the route's operating cost. As such, opposition within official county circles to subsidize operation existed as far back as the mid-1970s. Proposals were floated around at that time to install a track connection where the line crosses the West Trenton route near Bethayres (known as AYRES interlocking), and to abandon the stretch of track between Fox Chase and the West Trenton line. The existence of the trail essentially carried out this plan, minus the benefit of the West Trenton connection. This is unfortunate, as even in its dormant state, the Newtown Branch is the shorter and more favorable route to the West Trenton line junction, as rush hour rail traffic through the Jenkintown/Wyncote bottleneck remains heavy.

The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia also agreed that while the interim trail serves its purpose, the railroad should take priority if both cannot coexist:

"We believe that there is sufficient right-of-way available to support both future rail service and maintain trail usage. If there is insufficient right-of-way within the corridor to do both, then a relocation or rerouting of the trail to preserve the non-motorized route is necessary."

Conversely, wealthy constituents—seemingly unconcerned to the surrounding traffic congestion—stated the train will never return to the region; when interviewed by the Philadelphia Inquirer in October 2009, Richard F. Stern of Stern and Eisenberg, LLP in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania voiced his opposition to the resumption of train service:

"...I would adamantly oppose it. To disrupt this gorgeous trail would be very upsetting to me and the residents of my community. I have applauded the commissioners for getting this (trail) done so quickly and so well...I want any issue of reopening a railroad to go away. It will never be supported by Abington Township or the County."

Stern is president of the Tall Trees Homeowners Association at the Tall Trees housing development in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania. Like many townhomes that abut the railway line, the Tall Trees housing development was built 1985, two years after service ceased on the rail line.

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