Noah Desimone Sitting So Tragically Abandoned? in This Junior, Geography/Urban Studies & Essay, I Answer This Question in Several Parts
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The Newtown Line: Analyzing a an unusual feeling of dissonance in the Geography of Abandonment in spatial landscape. Why is an otherwise unassuming commuter railroad line, running Suburban Philadelphia through what seem to be communities perfectly deserving of passenger rail service, Noah DeSimone sitting so tragically abandoned? In this Junior, Geography/Urban Studies & essay, I answer this question in several parts. Philosophy First, I discuss what the line was, touching upon its intended purpose and history. Then, Running for about 15 miles through I discuss how the line changed as new urban several municipalities in Bucks and demands of the surrounding area rendered it Montgomery counties is a commuter rail obsolete. Finally, I analyze the future of the line. The line begins in Fox Chase, a line in the context of a new postmodern neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia, geography of the Philadelphia region, and where it winds through largely residential what it will never be again—a commuter rail low-density townships before it ends in the line. borough of Newtown. This rail line is The Newtown Line was originally known today as the Newtown Line. At one conceived as competition to the point, it served scores of railroad patrons Pennsylvania Railroad’s, or PRR, traveling to and from Philadelphia, as well Philadelphia-New York route. At the time, 1 as some minor freight customers. Today, this was the only railroad connecting the two most of it has been converted into a trail to cities. Originally an ambitious project by a and what remains, largely in Northampton group of speculators to provide rail service and Newtown Townships, sits unused and to New York, the Philadelphia, Newtown, & overgrown with brush. The single-tracked New York Railroad reached Newtown by line runs right up against white picket fences 2 1878 but never made it further. For a time, and suburban landscaping, crossing it was a pettifogging instrument of railroad neighborhood streets, finding its way into obstructionism. In the latter half of the 19th otherwise sequestered dormitory century, a third company known as the subdivisions. Reading Railroad planned to complete a line Portions of the line abut largely between Jenkintown and Bound Brook, NJ intact stations with small parking lots, now to provide its own service between crumbling from disuse. A few of these Philadelphia and New York. To continue its stations have modern signage with remnants monopoly of Philadelphia-New York of transit maps still visible. The impression railroad service, the PRR acquired this same of this abandoned infrastructure, a rail line ex-rival Newtown route to block the which follows a route connecting Reading’s Jenkintown-Bound Brook route.3 well-established suburban communities, is When that attempt failed, the PRR sold the puzzling. Its location and current state create railroad, and it was incorporated into the Reading system. The Reading Railroad well-invested commuter rail service along Jenkintown-Bound Brook route ended up the line’s route.6 crossing the Newtown Line at an at-grade After the Second World War, junction, an arrangement which continued to Philadelphia and the surrounding region had the line’s abandonment and is still visible developed into a Fordist geographic today. This back-and-forth, in which the landscape. Substantial government railroad continuously switched hands investment to roadway corridors coincided between companies, assured that the with increased automobile use, and Newtown Line would settle late into the Philadelphians continued to settle in Reading Railroad’s system. Tracks to newly-minted suburbs. The Reading connect trains from the Newtown Line’s Railroad catered to commuter rail traffic via Philadelphia terminus in the north of the city its Philadelphia-bound rail lines, with the to Reading Terminal would not be train service running to inner-ring completed until 1892. Thus, it had the north-of-Philadelphia suburban distinction of being one of the last railroads municipalities such as Abington, Glenside, th 4 completed in the 19 cent ury. Jenkintown, and Elkins Park. These Subsequently, the Newtown Line dormitory communities were home to never ranked highly on the Reading workers who commuted to and from Railroad’s list of infrastructure priorities, Philadelphia via the Reading system. despite the fact that it was surrounded by Beyond these proto-suburbs, however, other similar suburban-urban routes. When Bucks and Montgomery County townships the Reading Railroad electrified—meaning, like Northampton remained rural and provided overhead catenary wires to deliver undeveloped. Here, the Reading Railroad power —most of their passenger railroad did not provide the same scope of service, lines in the 1930s, the company decided to and therefore further infrastructure skip the Newtown Line. For its entire investment was not as widely carried out. existence, it remained a largely The final two lines electrified by the single-tracked line with two sidings. As Reading Railroad—the largely rural routes commuters were whisked into Center City to West Trenton and Doylestown— were Philadelphia by steel-clad soot-free electric completed just before the Great Depression 7 multiple units on other Reading lines, hit in 1932. Predictably, no further Newtown-bound trains continued to utilize investment by the Reading Railroad into its 5 steam power until the 1950s. This Newtown Line occurred thereafter. arrangement reflected the largely rural scope By the 1960s, Philadelphia city and limited population which the line officials took note of increasing traffic in the served. There was very little industry in the Northeast sections of the city, areas whose area which required freight service, nor was planning had been largely guided by a Le there very much bedroom community Corbusiean “garden city” vision of urban development which necessitated design. The Northeast to this day very suburban in nature, dominated by railroad reorganization, trains to Newtown townhome-style dwellings, wide-median ran in one or two car sets and were lightly 9 boulevards meeting front yards, shopping patronized. This was likely due to the rural centers with parking lots, and little and lightly populated nature of the rail-based transit. Understandably, traffic surrounding area, which did not encourage was exacerbated by commuting patterns in much ridership. What is most unfortunate is the Northeast, creating major jams. To the timing of the real property development accommodate faster service required of this which would later explode in the middle high demand, Philadelphia city government Bucks County area. From 1960 through decided to significantly upgrade service to 1970, the population of Northampton Fox Chase. This entailed the portion of the Township grew by 163%, and from 1970 to Newtown Line which ran within city limits, 1980 the township grew an additional 73%. namely from where the line diverges from Neighboring Newtown Township felt the the Reading Railroad mainline in Olney to shockwaves or suburban growth a little later: the Fox Chase station Northeast it grew 126% from 1980 to 1990, and from Philadelphia. At the cost of $2 million, 1990 to 2000 it grew an astounding 202%.10 Philadelphia upgraded the railroad between Intuitively, these substantial changes Reading Terminal and Fox Chase to enable to the areas along the line seem to justify the 8 electric train service. Today, the Fox Chase need for passenger rail service. Line shuttles thousands of Northeast Unfortunately, this growth came too little Philadelphia residents to and from Center too late for the Newtown Line. In the rise of City Philadelphia. Just north of Fox Chase, post-Fordism, commuting patterns and where tracks once led to Newtown, is now general patterns of settlement have changed the start of a trail. Once completed, more for Philadelphia and its hinterland. than half of what is left of the railroad will Population growth in Northampton and become trail. Newtown has slowed considerably since the The 1960s city-led service increase settlement boom of the 1960s and 1970s.11 along the Philadelphia portion of the Suburbs rich in primarily single-family Newtown Line was not met with an equal residences like Northampton have seemed to increase in service north of Fox Chase. “max out” in growth; relatedly, major Northern suburban municipalities did not employers like Newtown’s Lockheed Martin generate the same amount of ridership that have left their home municipality in suburban Northeast Philadelphia could—as, response to corporate restructuring brought beyond the city limits, the line ran through about by new global economic demands.12 rural townships in Montgomery and Bucks These changes, combined with the County. From the 1970s until the shuttering easily-accessible Delaware Expressway of service in 1983, when the line changed completed in the mid-1960s, have made hands from the Reading Railroad to SEPTA train travel to and from Philadelphia on a in the aftermath of 1970s federally-overseen commuter-rail-scale functionally unnecessary. Middle Bucks and the northern historic sites, and park and trail systems. Philadelphia suburbs are no longer home to Priorities for residents in these solely Philly-bound commuters—many municipalities are much different than the areas host those who work in other priorities of those in Northampton and Delaware Valley exurbs and nearby Newtown. Those with Bryn Athyn and Northeast megalopolitan centers, like Huntington Valley addresses, suburbs where 13 Trenton or New York. These changes have average incomes creep up into the six-figure made a commuter rail line to Center City range, have no interest in getting public Philadelphia significantly less desirable, and transportation back into their communities.17 therefore less plausible to pursue, in the 21st Since the likelihood of garnering public century. support in these communities is zero, by Multiple attempts have been made to effect, the likelihood of getting trains to run revive train transportation to Northampton to Northampton or Newtown is also zero. and Newtown Townships, and all have With this in mind, it is more than a 14 failed.