I always wanted to write a travel blog. Well, not "always". Because I was around before blogs were invented. When I was your age, I had to walk two miles in the snow to send a postcard. But actually I would prefer not to walk, or drive, or fly...I like public transit. Thus ends the short introduction to my travel blog.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Philadelphia's Missing Stations




Underneath City Hall in Philadelphia, there is a labyrinthine undergound plaza connecting the underground trolleys, the city's subways, and the Regional Rail. In one of the pedestrian tunnels on the west side of City Hall, you can find a beautiful old map of the "High Speed and Commuter Rail System." The map differs slightly from the maps published today (http://www.septa.org/). I'm not sure exactly how old this map is, but it shows some interesting stations that have since been closed down.


If you look carefully at the R-7 route from 30th St. Station to Trenton, you can see three closed stops: Frankford Junction, Frankford and Wissinoming. Near Frankford Junction, the SEPTA Market-Frankford elevated line passes directly over the R-7 line with no transfer. A Frankford Junction stop would make it easier to transfer to the Market-Frankford line. The Erie-Torresdale stop is much closer to the old Frankford Junction platforms than the map indicates. Frankford Junction also happens to be the place where the NJ Transit Atlantic City line connects to the northest corridor.

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Dr. Richard S. Wallace formed the ALICE A. I. Foundation in 2001 to promote the development and adoption of Artificial Intelligence Markup Language (AIML) and ALICE free software. Dr. Wallace has a Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon.