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DRPA to seek fed funds to reopen 'ghost station'

The Delaware River Port Authority plans to seek $22.4 million from the Obama administration to reopen the long-closed "ghost station" below Franklin Square in Old City.

The Delaware River Port Authority plans to seek $22.4 million from the Obama administration to reopen the long-closed "ghost station" below Franklin Square in Old City.

DRPA officials said Wednesday they will apply for a grant from the Department of Transportation to cover a $28 million price tag, of which the federal government would pay 80 percent.

A study for the DRPA in March estimated it would cost $26.5 million to reopen the 79-year-old station, including the cost of such improvements as escalators and an entrance on the south side of Race Street.

Last December, in its 2015 budget, the DRPA had estimated that reopening the station would cost $12 million. That station has been closed since 1979.

For more than five years, the authority has proposed and then shelved plans to reopen the station beneath Sixth and Race streets, citing financial constraints.

The Franklin Square station opened in 1936 as the easternmost Philadelphia stop on the Camden-Philadelphia rail line owned by the Delaware River Joint Commission and operated by the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co.

The station closed because it got little use, but increased activity on the riverfront during World War II prompted its reopening.

Closed again after the war, the station was reactivated in 1953 when the commuter rail line was extended from Eighth and Market Streets to 15th and Locust Streets. However, it was closed again for lack of use. PATCO took over the line in 1969.

In 1976, when Philadelphia was celebrating the Bicentennial, PATCO spent $1.1 million to renovate and reopen the Franklin Square station. It closed again in 1979.

The rebirth of the once-seedy Franklin Square park above the station and new development nearby has brought renewed bustle to the area and thus a renewed interest in using the subway station.

The station now serves as an occasional storage site for construction crews working in the PATCO tunnel. It has electrical power to operate the dim emergency lights that remain and provide air-compressor power for rail switches.

The station was last used by the public in February 2014, when police and firefighters opened emergency exits there to rescue passengers stranded after a crowded train broke down.

pnussbaum@phillynews.com

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