Owned by SEPTA Closed January 14, 1983 Owner SEPTA Tracks 1 | Structure type demolished Electrified no Opened 1905 (Reading Company) | |
 | ||
Location George School, Middletown, Pennsylvania Similar Newtown station, Fox Chase station, Lenni, Greenlawn, West Chester station | ||
George School station was a railroad station in at George School, a private Quaker boarding and day high school in Middletown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Built by the Reading Railroad, it was later used by SEPTA Regional Rail. SEPTA closed the station and several others in 1983.
History
George School Station was a stop on the Reading Railroad's Newtown Line. It later became a part of SEPTA's Fox Chase Rapid Transit Line. The station, and all of those north of Fox Chase, was closed on January 14, 1983, due to failing diesel train equipment.
In addition, a labor dispute began within the SEPTA organization when the transit operator inherited 1,700 displaced employees from Conrail. SEPTA insisted on utilizing transit operators from the Broad Street Subway to operate Fox Chase-Newtown diesel trains, while Conrail requested that railroad motormen run the service. When a federal court ruled that SEPTA had to use Conrail employees in order to offer job assurance, SEPTA cancelled Fox Chase-Newtown trains. Service in the diesel-only territory north of Fox Chase was "temporarily suspended" at that time, and George School Station still appears in publicly posted tariffs.
Although rail service was initially replaced with a Fox Chase-Newtown shuttle bus, patronage remained light, and the Fox Chase-Newtown shuttle bus service ended in 1999.