Philadelphia—
When National City Lines Came to
Town Page 3
How would
Rte. 38 have gotten into the subway? Some have wondered whether a
difficult reverse movement would have been required for subway-surface
routing. Actually, t0he current Rte. 10 portal would have been used with a
relatively small amount of new track. The final (cancelled) route is shown
in red, the former surface route in yellow.
Route 38—A
Change of Plans
One of
National City Line’s “contributions” to rapid transit in Philadelphia was
an eleventh hour revision of the plan for the rerouting of the West
Philadelphia trolley lines using the Market Street Subway and scheduled to
use the subway extension from 23rd Street to 40th Street then being
readied for service.
Before construction
of the extension began in 1947 six lines used the subway east of the
Schuylkill River to provide fast service to the City Hall area. Three of
these lines (11, 34 & 37) served the communities south of the Market
Street axis and three (10, 31, & 38) served neighborhoods north of
Market Street. Rt. 31, however, operated along Market Street itself almost
to the City Limits before it turned northward on 63rd Street. Thus, many
riders chose to transfer to “L” trains at 63rd Street station for a fast
ride to town rather than stay on the trolley which stopped at every cross
street until it reached 30th Street. In addition, Rt. 31 was the
route most severely affected by the construction of the Market Street
subway extension from 30th Street to 46th Street. As the construction
progressed westward, Rt. 31 was detoured first to the north via Lancaster
Avenue to 36th Street and later to the south via Woodland Avenue to
38th Street. Eventually the line was discontinued east of
46th Street. No serious consideration was given to connecting Rt. 31
with the new subway, especially since this would have crowded the tunnel
to the extent of precluding at a later date the diversion of Rt. 13 (a
line serving the corridor between Rt. 34 and Rt. 11—not competing with the
“L” as 31 did) into t he new
subway.
Trackage plans therefore were
prepared for the rerouting of Routes 10, 11, 34, 37 and 38—three from the
south and two from the north. National City Lines arrived officially on
March 1, 1955, when a new president was elected. By October 17, when
eastbound trolleys began to use the new subway, Rt. 38 had been turned
into a permanent bus line. As the downtown portions of the Schuylkill
Expressway (now I-76) were completed bus route 38 was extended to (white)
communities near the city limits and express service was established using
the expressway on the inner end. A local bus continued to serve the close
in (black) communities. Eventually the 31 bus was extended all the way to
City Hall via a circuitous route that followed most of both former
trolley-subway routes and provided a very low quality of
service.
Continued on page
4
Change of
heart. On September 11, 1955, the PTC announced streamliner
service for five lines in the expanded Market Street subway. Five weeks
later, buses were to be the lot of Route 38 riders. The subway-surface
routes were now to be 10, 11, 13, 34 and 36, sweeping trolleys from
western Philaldelphia off downtown streets.
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