Wayne Junction rail station gets federal aid

Under a decaying ceiling and not far from a collapsed roof, SEPTA and city officials on Thursday collected $4 million from the Obama administration to help rebuild the 110-year-old Wayne Junction rail station in Germantown.

Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff handed over a mock check for $3.98 million, saying the Wayne Junction project is "long, long overdue."

"To attract new riders, transit needs to be clean, safe, reliable and desireable," Rogoff said. The dilapidated Wayne Junction station, once a destination of the Reading Railroad's "Crusader" to New York and its "Royal Blue" to Baltimore, is none of the four.

SEPTA will start construction late this year on a $30 million, three-year project to rebuild the station, with elevators, new high-level platforms, restored passenger tunnels and stairways, new lighting and signage, and a new heating and cooling system.

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