It would appear that unlike the 15, there is no hope for the 56. I think some day down the road they will regret this.

not that i could vote for ehr, but i never would. defintiely a mistake. that street is wide enough for a trolley. one more reason why i won't be living in the NE.

Saw this on SEPTA's website:

Route 15 trolley service will operate with buses beginning Sunday, June 13 until further notice. During bus substitution, all vehicle boarding and exiting will be at curbside. Buses will not board from the center islands. This bus substitution is required until service is restored on 59th St between Girard Ave and Callowhill St.

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"If these walls could talk, I'd listen to the floor."--Rev. Horton Heat

I'm very happy they're taking the wires down and paving over the tracks. I hate driving on Torresdale. I was there at the presentation ceremony of the bridge over Longshore where they announced it. I was very pleased with it.

The only thing that pissed me off about it was they had a Baptist minister "dedicating" the bridge to God in what is mainly an Irish and Italian Catholic neighborhood. He had no place there, really.

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CafeParents.com

SEPTA is probably the only transit authority in such a large, densely built city to have so little faith in non-diesel bus forms of surface transit. The final demise of the 56 trolley is the fault of SEPTA alone. Without the impetus of their requesting PENNDOT approve the paving over the track and removal of poles, wires, it would not have happened.

That Councilwoman Krajewski, whom normally I would admire for things like the CLIP program and other efforts, made rumblings to get the infrastructure removed - is no surprise. The people of Philadelphia are the worst enemy when it comes to appreciating things that people in other cities would kill to have. Scores of American cities far smaller the Philadelphia are adding trolley or modified modern trolley sytems to their towns. Meanwhile, it's still 1957 in Philadelphia, as if GM was buying transit companies still and converting everything to diesel bus to sell their transit vehicles.

We're damn lucky the Route 15 ever got back on rail. And it's taken some three months of service for the drivers to stop complaining about being made to drive trolleys. Service is finally getting better along that route.

So long, Route 56, you could have helped revive the ever-trying-to-revive Torresdale Avenue business district, and the very interesting Tacony community. Shame on civic leaders' shortsightedness and lack of drive to push SEPTA into making good on the "temporary" bus service claim. Now, "permanent", their intent all along, is reality.

Indeed, if you are a transit enthusiast, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for what happens to the remains of Route 23...a very very important piece of trolley history worldwide - the longest single surface trolley route in any city in America. It's still "temporary" bus.

SEPTA needs new leadership, leadership that is actually in tune with what's going on in transit in the rest of the known universe. Light rail is a big deal in most other cities, even sprawling urban areas that have typically been averse to transit. Hell, Charlotte NC is getting light rail! It infuriates me that a place like Charlotte could be considering this as the wave of the future and SEPTA is busy ripping up what little infrastructure is left of one of the country's greatest historic LR systems.

A new PLANNED light rail line would be great. Running trolleys down streets that weren't designed for them, while nostaglic, is probably not the most efficient way to do things. Newer cities like Chicago and Denver were built with wide streets to run trolleys down. Really wide Girard Ave is great for trolleys. Torresdale Ave was built for rich people to get to their country estates, in Torresdale, via horse and carriage; with one lane in each direction, trolleys and cars are a probmatic mix.

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"Things are starting to get interesting right about now"

All comments made by me on his board are given freely and probably worth what you paid for them.

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Love trolleys...hate them on Torresdale. Street can't handle the traffic as is. Bus service is fine for Torresdale. Bus service is cheaper and more efficient. Honest. Septa can't affor the upkeep on all that infrastructure.

Although I'm totally against the removal of the poles. Just leave them. We can always peel up the asphalt later (we would need to repair/replace those tracks anyways) Replacing all those poles...total waste.

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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.

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