Torresdale can't handel the traffic and people would ride it for nostalgia or a smoother ride. The ride wouldn't be smoother..those tracks are thrashed and have the cobblestone "center" that horrible because septa hasn't maintained it. Picture Septa's West Philly's tracks only 3x worse.

The road is a major north/south traffic feeder for 95 and Frankford's the road with all the shopping. Try working on restoring Frankford first.

BTW Septa's bringing back our 66 electric "trackless trolleys" on Frankford. Faster and quieter than either trolley or bus and can move around traffic....off the poles if need be...people would ride that as it is just a northern extension of the MFL all the way to Bucks county. It even has "express lanes"....trolleys don't even have that here. (It's 4 lanes wide of cantanary)

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I'd like to see money devoted to extending/modifying our current dedicated line infrastructure whether it be extending the EL on either side, the BSL to the Navy Yard, o reven tying in the R8 into the BSL. Hal once suggested using the BSL SPur tunnel aas the other end of the west philly trolley tunnel to provide the trolleys with fast, reliable access to center city. I'd love to see PATCO stations to be reconfigured to be more useful to cc residents as well as S. Jersey riders. eliminate 12th and 15th st stops and replace with Broad and Rittenhouse. this is probably more in line with where people are going anyways.

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I love trolleys as much as the next person but it really doesn't make sense to have them (at least now) if they cant have a dedicated right of way.

There is a good chance now that 23 will never be revived...a press conference was held this morning at New Covenant campus announcing the paving over of the tracks at that dangerous curve near Gtown Ave and Creshiem V. Drive. People are extremely up in arms about it.

that is a terrible intersection and the tracks do make it worse. when i go to C Hill I enjoy taking the train, so much faster but I do take the 23 from time to time. It's just that it takes so long during the day. If the people of C Hill wnt it, they can pay for it. I don;t think it shoudl eb allowed to take away from more useful projects for the city. First and foremost I'd establish service until 3 am on the BSL and El from Thurs to Friday as well as the R5 line (both sides). This woudl help solidify center city's role as the nightspot for the region. Also, forthwith, all rail lines should begin using concrete ties or at least welded rail.

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Well, that one section of the ave desperately needs to be repaved - it is in horrible shape. But I'd would like to see them keep the tracks. Maybe even repave it like the parts of Chestnut Hill and Mt Airy where the center part is paved and the shoulders are cobblestones.

But If they end up paving the tracks over maybe they'll still leave the poles - getting a trackless trolley would be a good thing IMHO - much cleaner and more quiet than the buses.

Don't forget the R7 and R8. Stopping the R8 at 11:30 at night (10:30 on weekends) is so pathetic.

#2 on my list would be tying the R8 C West into the BSL making it the other end of the Broad ridge Spur.

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I think the trolly along Torresdale Ave. was a nightmare. Ever get stuck behind one of them? They can't pull over to let you pass.

Besides, now that Torresdale is resurfaced, it's much more pleasant to drive along Torresdale and actually see the stores. Before, you had to keep your eyes peeled for potholes and gaps near the track.
I'm sure the resurfacing was a boom to the businesses along Torresdale. That's more important that nostalgia IMHO.

Scoats, you have a lot of good things to say in your posts, so please don't take this as a slight, but neither the streets in Chicago and Denver nor Torresdale Avenue were built with trolleys, or any public transit for that matter, in mind. In the case of Chicago and especially Denver, a tradition of wide streets and perfectly square surveys of land meant wide roads in which carriages and wagons could turn around. In places like Philadelphia, as you may know, the English system of metes and bounds determined land surveys, hence all the character-filled narrow or curvy roads we have today. Torresdale Avenue is certainly not a grand boulevard on which a trolley was pre-conceived. In fact, in the modern form and path it cuts today, it was straightened out over the years, and never was as meandering as the much older Frankford Avenue. But I feel that one error we Americans make is assuming that what might interrupt a zippy ride up a street in a car, such as a (poorly-driven) trolley, must be a problem.

My opinion is that major cities have an obligation to think of pedestrians, then public transportation in determining the best methods of maintaining streets and pavements toward making neighborhoods vital.

There is not one city in the country that has not credited the presence of trolleys or modern light rail vehicles with a big part in bringing investment or attention to a community. The Girard trolley looks good and service is getting better as drivers get more training. People are talking about it around Center City. Likewise, in the Northeast, the return of the restored trolley cars to Torresdale Avenue after 13 years of "temporary" bus service, could have served as another piece of the inevitable progress in Tacony.

Philadelphia, after New York, has the largest proportion of residents not owning a car (nearly 30 percent.) Thus, it cannot be irresponsible to seriously consider transit modes that fit well into the fabric of highly walkable communities like Tacony.

The absence of the trolleys should have never taken place from day one in 1992 when they were "temporarily" suspended. I realize that many will disagree with me, but it would have not been that intensive to restore the tracks (as SEPTA has done through West Philadelphia of late), get streets repaved as they have now been along T'Dale Avenue, and work with the streets department and city planners to create new streetscapes through Tacony to further enhance the Avenue.

Gee, I guess I'm passionate about this, huh? Have a good weekend all.