PATCO extends hand to SEPTA

New proposals for extending commuter rail service along the Philadelphia waterfront envision an unprecedented alliance between the regional transit agencies PATCO and SEPTA.

PATCO, the Camden-based agency that operates the 14-mile rail line between Philadelphia and Lindenwold, wants to expand service along Columbus Boulevard and perhaps to City Hall. It proposes reopening the long-closed Franklin Square station beneath Sixth and Race Streets to serve as the hub of the expanded service.

Any new service, which would depend on federal financial help, is probably at least $1 billion and eight to 10 years away, PATCO officials said yesterday as they unveiled three route alternatives. Public meetings on the proposals are set for next week.

PATCO could build the lines and SEPTA, the Philadelphia-based agency, could operate the service, suggested John J. Matheussen, president of PATCO and chief executive officer of its parent, the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA).

Passengers "don't care whether it's SEPTA or PATCO or New Jersey Transit," Matheussen said. "What they want is clean, efficient, safe transportation. It's time government handles itself in the same way."

SEPTA has a seat on the project's technical advisory committee, and SEPTA spokesman Jim Whitaker said: "We are working with [PATCO] on the plans."

The economic development of the waterfront on both sides of the Delaware River is part of the DRPA's mission. It sees a PATCO expansion in Philadelphia as a way to improve access to the waterfront and increase employment, residential, entertainment and shopping opportunities.

The proposed routes are:

PA-1. From Franklin Square to Columbus Boulevard, where a light-rail or trolley line would run along Columbus Boulevard north to Penn Treaty Park and south to Pier 70. The route would provide access to the planned SugarHouse and Foxwoods casinos along the Delaware River.

PA-1 Extended. Same as above, with an underground line to City Hall from Franklin Square to connect with SEPTA's subway-surface lines. That would require tunneling under about 12 blocks and the Convention Center.

PA-2. A light-rail or trolley line along Columbus Boulevard that would connect with a new route under or along Market Street to City Hall, connecting with existing SEPTA subway-surface lines.

A partnership between SEPTA and PATCO would avoid a battle for the same pool of federal money for transit projects in the region.

It also could tap different strengths at the two agencies. SEPTA, which operates 1,800 miles of bus, rail, subway and elevated routes, historically has been chronically short of money for new projects, while PATCO operates just one line but has access to funding from toll revenues from the Ben Franklin, Walt Whitman, Betsy Ross and Commodore Barry Bridges.

The expansion project would rely on getting as much as 50 percent of the costs paid by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). To win federal approval, PATCO would have to demonstrate how the project would save local riders time and money.

If PATCO gets approval to proceed with an application for preliminary engineering, the agency would then need to prepare an environmental-impact statement before FTA funding could be approved.

PATCO also may seek funding not only from its parent DRPA, but from the Pennsylvania and Philadelphia governments and private partners, Matheussen said.

PATCO has hired the engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff for $645,000 to analyze the Philadelphia options. The agency hopes to take a proposal to the FTA in about 18 months.

A similar expansion study is under way in New Jersey, where several alternatives are being considered for extending PATCO's rails as far south as Glassboro.