Ivy Ridge station

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Ivy Ridge
Ivy Ridge station in April 2012
General information
Location	4910 Umbria Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19128
Coordinates	40°02′03″N 75°14′08″W / 40.0341°N 75.2355°W / 40.0341; -75.2355
Owned by	SEPTA
Line(s)	Norristown Branch
Platforms	2 side platforms
Tracks	2
Connections	SEPTA City Bus: 61, 62
Other information
Fare zone	2
History
Opened	October 6, 1980 (SEPTA Ivy Ridge Line)[1] August 25, 1986 (SEPTA Manayunk/Norristown Line)[2]
Closed	May 16, 1986 (SEPTA Ivy Ridge Line)[2]
Electrified	July 20, 1930[3] (Pennsylvania) February 5, 1933[4] (Reading)
Passengers
2017	703 boardings 782 alightings (weekday average)[5]
Rank	32 of 146
Services
Preceding station SEPTA Following station Miquon toward Norristown–Elm Street Manayunk/​Norristown Line Manayunk toward Penn Medicine Shawmont Closed 1996 toward Norristown–Elm Street
Former services Preceding station SEPTA Following station Terminus Ivy Ridge Line Manayunk West toward Suburban Station

Ivy Ridge station is a SEPTA Regional Rail station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Located at Umbria Street and Parker Avenue in Northwest Philadelphia, it serves the Manayunk/Norristown Line. The initial station was built in a minimalist design similar to that of Elm Street, Norristown. The current station has a 204-space parking lot. In FY 2013, Ivy Ridge station had a weekday average of 602 boardings and 582 alightings.^[6]

History[edit]

SEPTA constructed Ivy Ridge in 1980 when service was extended an additional 0.8 miles (1.3 km) past Manayunk West station, the passenger terminus of the Pennsylvania Railroad's (PRR) Schuylkill Branch since 1960. Up until then, the 0.8 miles (1.3 km) of track had been used by Manayunk trains to change direction within a remotely controlled interlocking where the Schuylkill Branch (by that time, abandoned north of this point) went from two tracks to one. The single-platform Ivy Ridge station was constructed within the space occupied by the abandoned second track, removed in the early 1960s after the PRR discontinued passenger service to Norristown. A moderate-sized park-and-ride lot was included.^[7]

SEPTA suspended service beyond Cynwyd in March 1986 because of deteriorating track conditions and concerns about the Manayunk Bridge; a shuttle bus ran from Manayunk on the Manayunk/Norristown Line. ^[8][9] In August SEPTA constructed the current platforms along the ex-Reading Norristown line down the bluff from the ex-Pennsylvania line.^[10] For a while, the park-and-ride lot sat unused until SEPTA erected a 39-step stairway connecting the derelict PRR upper level and RDG lower level station sites. In the beginning, the steep staircase discouraged ridership, but this changed as ridership grew in the 1990s.^[7]

While the PRR platform was built to high level standards (a rarity on the SEPTA Regional Rail system), and was constructed before the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the hastily constructed RDG station platform are low level. The derelict upper level platform was eventually demolished in April 2012.^{[citation needed]}

As it became clear that SEPTA had no interest in reviving service to the upper Ivy Ridge station, the parking lot was expanded with sections of the PRR track being removed. All remaining Schuylkill Branch trackage in Manayunk was dismantled in June 2010 to make way for the Ivy Ridge Trail, a Philadelphia extension of the Cynwyd Heritage Trail over the Pencoyd Viaduct.^[11]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ivy Ridge station.

• SEPTA – Ivy Ridge station