SEPTA Celebrates a Century of Elevation:

On Thursday, November 11th, SEPTA and Philadelphia city officials marked a significant milestone of the Market-Frankford Line with a special celebration for the 100th anniversary of the Frankford section of the MFL.

The original Market Elevated Railway Line opened March 4, 1907, with approximately six miles of track for service from east to west from 69th Street to City Hall at 15th Street. This Frankford extension stretched the Line approximately 7.5 miles from Old City to Bridge Street in Northeast Philadelphia.

Construction of the long-awaited, 6.5-mile Frankford section Line began on September 13, 1915, and took seven years to build at a cost $11.6 million, equivalent to more than $200 million today. For the first time, people living in Northeast Philadelphia had access to Center City in an hour or less. The line boasted innovations like concrete in the support beams to reduce vibration and noise from passing trains, as well as railcar doors that automatically retracted if they bumped a passenger.

The route of the “Frankford El” changed slightly in the late 1970s, when the construction of I-95 through Center City led to relocation of the line to the highway median and construction of Spring Garden Station to replace the old Fairmount station. Between 1987 and 2000 SEPTA completely rebuilt the line to improve structural integrity.

The entire Market-Frankford Line stretches for 13.5 miles and allows riders to get from Upper Darby/ West Philadelphia to Frankford in lower Northeast Philadelphia in just 45 minutes.

Today, the Market-Frankford Line is SEPTA’s busiest mode of transport and is considered the “workhorse” of the system. Twenty-five of the 28 stations are ADA accessible and next year a request for proposal is expected to be issued to replace rail cars which will help sustain a safe and reliable fleet for future generations.

-via Press Release

This article was posted on: November 17, 2022