Recommendations for Improvement of Green Line Subway Operation

You are here: Homepage > Search

Recommendations for Improvement of Green Line Subway Operation

V. R. Vuchic / S. Kikuchi

Radial travel between West Philadelphia and Center City (CBD) is served by the Blue (Market-Franford) Line, five streetcar routes known as the Green (Subway-Surface) Line or Green Lines, and several bus routes. The five streetcar routes converge at 40th and 36th Streets and enter a single subway tunnel which joins the alignment of the Blue Line at 33rd Street and follows it to the City Hall. Four of the radial streetcar (locally referred to as 'trolley') routes service West Philadelphia - 11, 13, 34, and 36 - converge at 40th Street and enter the tunnel. The fifth, Route 10, enters the same tunnel through a separate ramp at 36th Street. The tracks layout of those routes is shown in Figure 1.1. Similar to light rail transit lines in many other cities (Boston, San Francisco, Cologne and Pittsburgh), these five lines combine street operations with fully separated right-of-way operation in the subway. The subway section provides the Green Lines with full separation from external influences, but its operation is unreliable because of high frequency created by the joint operation of different routes and the irregularity of arrivals of cars from the routes which run in the streets.