Broad Street Line - Proposed Roosevelt Boulevard Extension

Proposed Roosevelt Boulevard Extension

Both the City of Philadelphia and SEPTA have studied extending the Broad Street Line along Roosevelt Boulevard, in order to serve a growing population in the northeast section of the city. The city government's archives contain a survey report, prepared in 1948, discussing a need for an extension of the Broad Street line from Erie Avenue to the vicinity of Pennypack Circle (see Roosevelt Boulevard). Subway car destination signage even included station and terminus names for major streets along Roosevelt Boulevard such as Rhawn Street, in the newer "South Broad" cars. An expansion into another part of the City could better use the capacity of the four-track trunk line.

In 1964, the city proposed a nine-mile (14 km), $94 million extension of the Broad Street line along Roosevelt Blvd. in conjunction with a new Northeast Expressway to be built by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Development was limited to the building of one subway station by Sears, Roebuck and Company in 1967, at its complex on Roosevelt Boulevard at Adams Avenue, at the cost of $1 million, in anticipation of future service. This station was destroyed when the facility was demolished in October 1994. Ultimately the Northeast Expressway was never built, due to lack of funds, and the subway extension remained a paper concept.

On September 10, 1999, SEPTA filed a Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Northeast Extension with the EPA. In December 2001, the Philadelphia City Planning Commission supported extending the Broad Street Line along Roosevelt Blvd. to Bustleton Avenue, where it would be joined by the Market-Frankford Line, extended from its Frankford terminal.(now the rebuilt Frankford Transportation Center). The estimated cost had ballooned to $3.4 billion. Given the dominance of suburban legislators on SEPTA's Board, as well as the lack of dedicated capital funding, the probability of any significant extension of subway service within Philadelphia is low.

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