PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — SEPTA brought back service on the Chestnut Hill West Regional Rail lines Monday.
It suspended that service last year because of COVID-19 and plunging ridership.
The restored line will have limited service for now, said SEPTA Chief Press Officer Andrew Busch.
"It's going to be hourly in the morning rush, and then hourly through the evening rush," he explained.
"A little less frequent in the mid-day. This gives more options for essential workers who are continuing to have to report on job sites."
Busch said, before the pandemic, Chestnut Hill West trains carried about 4,000 riders a day. After COVID-19 struck, ridership dropped dramatically as more people worked from home.
Busch said SEPTA also was hampered by Amtrak track work, and if it had brought the Chestnut Hill West service back any sooner, it would have been extremely limited at best because of that project.
He said riders had moved over to the Chestnut Hill East line and the Route 23 bus as a temporary solution for their commutes, but many appealed to SEPTA management to restore the Chestnut Hill West trains.
Busch said Chestnut Hill West trains – which run between Chestnut Hill and center city rail stations – will only operate on weekdays.
He said SEPTA officials are now studying a possible return of the Cynwyd rail line but have no timetable yet for those trains to begin rolling again.
Paoli-Thorndale trains run along that same line and are picking up passengers who would have used the Cynwyd line.
