Owned by SEPTA Fare zone C Owner SEPTA Tracks 4 | Disabled access Yes Opened November 1984 Platforms in use 2 | |
 | ||
Location 12th and Filbert Streets
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Line(s) Airport Line
Chestnut Hill East Line
Chestnut Hill West Line
Fox Chase Line
Lansdale/Doylestown Line
Manayunk/Norristown Line
Media/Elwyn Line
Paoli/Thorndale Line
Trenton Line
Warminster Line
West Trenton Line
Wilmington/Newark Line Connections Market–Frankford Line at 11th St. and 8th St.
Broad Street Line Ridge Spur at 8th St.
PATCO Speedline at 8th & Market Sts.
SEPTA City Bus: 9, 17, 23, 33, 38, 44, 47, 47M, 48, 61, 62, 78
NJT Bus: 400, 401, 402, 404, 406, 408, 409, 410, 412, 414, 417
At Greyhound Terminal:
NJT Bus: 313, 315, 316, 317, 318, 551
Greyhound Lines
Bieber Tourways
Trailways Transportation System (Capitol Trailways, Martz Trailways, Susquehanna Trailways)
Peter Pan Bus Lines Address Philadelphia, PA 19107, United States Similar Suburban Station, Elfreth's Alley, Logan Square, 30th Street Station, Temple University station | ||
Jefferson Station (formerly named and still frequently referred to as Market East Station) is an underground SEPTA Regional Rail station located on Market Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its official SEPTA address is 12th and Filbert streets. It is the easternmost of the three Center City stations on the SEPTA Regional Rail system, and is part of the Center City Commuter Connection, which connects the former Penn Central commuter lines with the former Reading Railroad commuter lines. The station opened in November 1984, is owned and maintained by SEPTA, and replaced the former Reading Terminal, under which a small part of the station sits. (The old terminal became part of the Pennsylvania Convention Center.)
Contents
Building
The station is part of the Gallery at Market East, a shopping mall built as part of an urban renewal project in the late 1970s and early 1980s. There are several entrances to the station, including several on the concourse level to the "Gallery II" part of the mall. After the Convention Center was opened, a new entrance was built in the Reading Terminal headhouse on Market Street.
Architecturally, the design of Jefferson Station is integrated with the Gallery Mall, which features a number of stores and quick-service food facilities, including Tiffany's Bakery, which boasts state-of-the-art digital signage for the commuters passing through Jefferson Station. The newly renovated bakery uses television to display their original content as well as the SEPTA train timetable. Stainless steel and large plate-glass windows are a major design element throughout the station, with large color tile murals (depicting the four seasons) adorning the walls and the extensive use of tile for flooring. The upper seating area has recently been renovated with metal benches facing the windows that look down onto the tracks. The large windows are used both for exterior windows, where they admit light from street level down to track level like a clerestory, and for separating the concourse level from the track level. Because this is an underground station and the clerestory section is only a small part of the station, artificial lighting is used throughout the station.
Name
The station's name was changed from Market East to Jefferson on September 4, 2014 after Thomas Jefferson University Hospital bought the naming rights. The length of the $4 million contract for the Jefferson Station name is five years, with the option to keep it for an additional four years for $3.4 million.
Station layout
The station extends under three city blocks and the platforms are along the northern edge of the blocks. The tracks here are the deepest ones in Philadelphia. [citation needed]
There are several monitors which show the status of the trains at these entrances, as well as near the ticket windows and at the tops of the escalators to the track level. At least one of the ticket windows, which are located on the concourse level, is open daily.
There are two wide island platforms and four tracks, with each platform serving two tracks. Each platform is divided into an "A" section and a "B" section so that trains on different routes stop at different spots along the platform length. This allows waiting passengers to be dispersed along the platform rather than congregating.
Track layout
Overhead electric catenary wires supply power to the trains. Regularly scheduled diesel-operated trains are forbidden to enter the station, as SEPTA omitted provisions for ventilation fans when designing the Center City Tunnel. The Delaware Valley Association of Railroad Passengers advocated for the inclusion of ventilation fans that would allow diesel exhaust fumes to exit tunnels and stations. SEPTA deemed the option unfeasible throughout the planning process. On occasion, SEPTA diesel work trains will pass through the station without stopping. In this situation, the track must be clear through the tunnel before the diesel train is allowed through.
To the west, the tracks have a set of cross-over tracks that allow trains to change tracks before they reach Suburban Station. To the east, there is a sharp curve north where trains are limited to about 20 to 25 mph (32 to 40 km/h), and then another set of cross-overs before climbing an incline of over 2.5% to Temple University Station. Jefferson Station is approximately 0.5 miles (0.80 km) from Suburban Station.
Service
Jefferson Station is served by all Regional Rail lines except the limited-service Cynwyd Line, which terminates at Suburban Station. In FY 2005, the average total weekday boardings at this station was 11,848, making it the second busiest station in the Regional Rail system. Jefferson Station has also been identified as Amtrak's preferred Philadelphia station for future high-speed rail lines in the Northeastern Corridor.
Intermodal Connections
The station is connected underground to SEPTA's heavy rail Market-Frankford Line and Broad-Ridge Spur and also the PATCO High Speed Line at their shared 8th Street station through The Gallery at Market East. There are also below-ground pedestrian connections to the Market-Frankford Line's 11th Street, 13th Street, and 15th Street stations. Jefferson Station is adjacent to various SEPTA and New Jersey Transit bus routes that travel on Market Street. Finally, the Philadelphia Greyhound Terminal is immediately north of the station across Filbert Street.