ARDMORE, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — It's taken nearly seven years, but SEPTA officially took the wraps off its rebuilt Ardmore Station on Monday.
It's a long-awaited upgrade to one of the busiest stops on SEPTA's busiest Regional Rail line. The $60 million project to improve Ardmore Station on the Paoli-Thorndale Line began in 2019. Pandemic-related supply chain delays and other construction issues caused delays.
"There were some things that were discovered that weren't on old blueprints," SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch told KYW Newsradio. "We had to make some adjustments as we went along."
Service continued during construction, which was mostly overnight.
Riders who had been boarding trains at track-level will notice new platforms that are flush with the floor of the train car. "The high-level platform for all customers makes boarding and exiting the train much easier," Busch said. "It helps with crowd flow."
The upgraded station has ramps, elevators and two new restrooms. "We were making improvements to the passenger waiting areas, and just giving the whole facility a facelift," Busch added. "Our hope is, with a new facility that is accessible to all riders, that we'll be attracting new people to the facility. So we think it's a very welcoming facility now, and we hope to see ridership increase."
One thousand people use the Ardmore Station each day. The Paoli-Thorndale Line is SEPTA's most-used Regional Rail line, with 15,000 daily riders.