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SEPTA looks to expand Chester County rail service to Coatesville

A new station and parking garage could bring Regional Rail service back to Coatesville after 22 years.

The dilapitated Amtrak station in Coatesville in 2013. PennDot is in the preliminary design phase of a $21 million, three-year project to build a new station on Fleetwood Street.
The dilapitated Amtrak station in Coatesville in 2013. PennDot is in the preliminary design phase of a $21 million, three-year project to build a new station on Fleetwood Street.Read more

Regional Rail service may soon return to Coatesville, something Chester County hopes will bolster efforts to revitalize the city.

The three Chester County commissioners "have made this a priority: the redevelopment and revitalization of Coatesville,” Commissioner Michelle Kichline said in an interview Thursday. “It was our highest priority to bring Regional Rail service to be restored to Coatesville.”

Coatesville, a city of about 13,000 people, is along track used both for the Paoli-Thorndale Line and Amtrak’s service to Harrisburg. Amtrak trains stop at Coatesville. But Regional Rail hasn’t stopped there since 1996, and the Coatesville station, built in 1868, hasn’t been used for 25 years.

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PennDot is in the preliminary design phase of a $21 million, three-year project to build a new station on Fleetwood Street. The county is contributing $1 million from a community revitalization program toward a parking garage near the station.

If trains again served Coatesville, from 350 to 430 people a day would board there, Chester County estimated in a 2017 memo to the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. The range of riders depends on the frequency of trains, the availability of parking, and population growth in the next 15 years, the memo stated. Coatesville has grown by 20 percent since 2000, officials said, and countywide population is expected to increase 22 percent by 2035 to more than 600,000.

“Given this growth, we believe the time is right to take a fresh look at SEPTA service here,” SEPTA general manager Jeff Knueppel said at a news conference Thursday,

SEPTA is spending $174 million on up to 55 multi-level rail cars to supplement its Regional Rail fleet, Knueppel said. Those would likely be available by 2022 and would allow SEPTA to extend service to Coatesville.

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It wasn’t clear how frequently the transit agency could provide service. The 2017 memo had estimates ranging from 11 to 18 trains a day. Those estimates also included the possibility of new stops in Atglen and Parkesburg.

Train service wouldn’t begin until the new station was complete, county officials said. It’s likely the majority of people using the stop would depart from Coatesville to jobs elsewhere in the county, like Exton or Paoli.

The Paoli-Thorndale Line is one of SEPTA’s busiest, with nearly 23,000 people riding each workday. It has 21 stops in Montgomery and Chester Counties between Philadelphia and its current terminus in Thorndale.

The Coatesville area was once a hub of the steel industry and later of the helicopter business, but steel has all but vanished, and the Sikorsky helicopter plant in nearby Sadsbury Township, owned by Lockheed Martin, had significant layoffs as recently as 2015.

Revitalization is focused on attracting retail and restaurants to the area between Third and Fourth Avenues near the train station, where demolition has made space for new development, Kichline said.