PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Regional Rail riders will be dealing with shuttle buses and schedule changes for the next month during the final phase of SEPTA’s annual track work in University City.
The work starts July 22 and is expected to be finished by Aug. 26.
Since 2018, SEPTA has replaced aging rails and upgraded signals during the summer as part of its Southwest Connection Improvement Program, or SCIP. This year’s work will present disruptions for riders using the Airport, Media/Wawa and Wilmington/Newark lines.
During the construction, there will be no rail service at the Penn Medicine Station. Shuttle buses will run on weekdays on the Media/Wawa Line between the 49th Street and 30th Street stations.
From July 24 to 28, the Media/Wawa Line will have no train service at all to allow city crews to replace a sewer line.
“The first week of the outage, the Media/Wawa Line, we have to totally suspend that to allow the water department to do their work,” said Rich Mahon, SEPTA assistant chief operating officer for railroad operations.
During the work, trains on the Wilmington/Newark and Airport lines won’t stop at Suburban, Jefferson or Temple University stations. Shuttle buses will run along the entire Airport Line on weekends.
Extra SEPTA staff will be available to help occasional riders navigate the changes, Mahon said.
“Airport travelers are a little different because they’re not usually used to our system,” he noted. “So especially on the weekend when we’re running buses, we’re going to have plenty of people down there to assist with that travel.”
This should be the final time Regional Rail riders are inconvenienced by this summer work. “I’m happy to say this will be our last version of SCIP,” Mahon added.
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