PATCO Speedline
The PATCO Speedline is a subway line connecting Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania with its suburbs on the opposite side of the Delaware. It leads from the city center on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge across to Camden and then continue on a formerly conventional rail route southeast to Lindenwold in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was opened on 15 February 1969 is 14.2 miles ( 22.86 km ) long and serves 13 stations.
In contrast to most of the public transportation in Philadelphia, the PATCO Speedline is not operated by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority ( SEPTA ), but by the Port Authority Transit Corporation ( PATCO ), a subsidiary of the Delaware River Port Authority ( DRPA ). A collective community does not exist.
PATCO was the first railway line in the United States, the automatic train protection (Automatic Train Control, ATC) and began their tickets only sold through vending machines.
History and Appearance
The route begins underground at 15th - 16th & Locust Streets station on the southwestern edge of downtown Philadelphia and initially runs under Locust Street to the east. At the southeastern edge of downtown it bends in a tight corner going northwards under the 8th Street. About a kilometer further north they swung again to the east and crosses at the Benjamin Franklin Bridge to Delaware. After another two underground stations in downtown Camden, the route finally reaches the surface and runs on a railway embankment on through the suburbs south-east to the terminus Lindenwold in the same village.
About halfway up the aboveground portion, in Westmont, comes from the north, the Atlantic City Line from Philadelphia added. This runs until after Lindenwold PATCO Speedline parallel to and beyond up to Atlantic City. The intermediate stops on the common subsection are thereby operated by the PATCO Speedline; only in Lindenwold, there is a transfer possibility between trains.
The route runs underground at first a good six kilometers with the exception of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, the remaining part is above ground built on a railway embankment. Some of the intermediate stations on this section are elevated. The track is expanded without crossing along the entire length.
The stations are very close together in the inner cities of Philadelphia and Camden, while outside you usually several kilometers between. Five stations, including the two terminal stations and the major inner-city transfer stations are wheelchair accessible. All stations on the periphery are equipped with spacious park-and- ride facilities. The maintenance workshop located in Lindenwold next to the terminus.
Formation
The Camden and Atlantic Railroad
Today's PATCO Speedline consists of various, mostly already much older sections, some of which already dates back to the 19th century. The oldest section is the Camden and Atlantic Railroad. This was opened on 1 July 1854, and led from the city center in Camden over Lindenwold and Berlin to Atlantic City. The track was in 1932 in the Pennsylvania - Reading Seashore Lines on.
The Bridge Line
The second oldest section dates from 1926 and is located on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. This was equipped from the start with two separate railway lines, serve as the basis for a rapid rail link were a few years later, as the Delaware River Bridge Speedline or shortly Bridge (Speed) Line was known. The route started at 8th & Market Streets subway station in Philadelphia, and sent over to today's Broadway station in Camden and was opened on June 7, 1936. The already mitgeplante section under the Locust Street to Station 15th - 16th & Locust Streets was due to the Great Depression and the Second World War more than a decade later, only to be opened on 2 October 1952. Operationally, the Bridge Line was then integrated into Philadelphia's Broad Street Subway; the trains could run from 15th - 16th & Locust Streets on 8th & Market Streets, both by Camden and north to Girard and Olney.
Extension towards the east
In 1960 began under the direction of the Delaware River Port Authority ( DRPA ), which had already been responsible for the construction and operation of the bridge before, the plans for a high-speed rail network that would connect the suburbs in New Jersey with Philadelphia. The decision was ultimately in favor of an extension of the Bridge Line, which should be extended with three branches stretch out over Camden. The first route should it be built according to Lindenwold, because there the highest passenger numbers were expected. Construction work on the $ 94 million project, costing began in 1964.
These arose from the station Broadway starting initially a track connection to the Camden and Atlantic Railroad. This in turn was bought between Camden and Lindenwold of the DRPA and expanded without crossing. The number of intermediate stops was compared to the Seashore Lines reduced in order to achieve a higher cruising speed.
The existing subway line between 15th - 16th & Locust Streets and Broadway had to be upgraded technically before starting the operation, which had several months of business interruption costs. The trains of the Bridgeline wrong the last time on 23 August 1968. Courses Broad Street Subway from the North were withdrawn to the station 8th & Market Streets. But there arose in a new mezzanine level side platform and the track connection to the Bridge Line was cut.
The first trains between Camden and Lindenwold wrong on 4 January 1969. Just over a month later, on February 15, 1969, the PATCO Speedline was finally opened to full length between 15th - 16th & Locust and Lindenwold. Since there were only two changes:
The plans for the other two route branches have not yet been realized. Recent studies from 2005 provide for the construction of a second PATCO line, which should lead either in südsüdöstliche direction to Williamstown or south to Rowan University Glassboro after. With the completion is expected by the current state until 2012.
Rolling stock
The car park consists of a total of 121 four-axle electric railcars, including 25 solo and 25 two-car units of the type PATCO I and 23 two-car units of the type PATCO II cars of the PATCO I were built by Budd in 1968 and all belong to the original equipment. The cars of the PATCO II are based on the same design, but developed under license by Canadian Vickers. Both types are optically indistinguishable.
The individual cars are 67 ' 6 "( 20.57 m) long, weighing 39 tons and can accommodate 120 people. The car body is made of stainless steel and is down to a thin red trim not painted red all around and dark gray highlighted window in the car front. the cars have two double pocket sliding doors on each side, air conditioning as well as automated systems for passenger information. the side windows are low and orient by the rolling stock of conventional railways. 's Cabs are contrary to American conventions in the direction of travel on the left instead of the right side and are not separated from the passenger compartment.
All vehicle types are arbitrarily coupled to one another; Coatings can be formed from solo and two-car up to a maximum length of six cars. The design speed is 75 mph (120 km / h).
Operation
The PATCO Speedline is open seven days a week around the clock in operation. The trains run about every 12 minutes during rush hour every four minutes. In the evening, at night and on weekends the schedule is gradually thinned to 45 minutes maximum cycle time. The trains are made depending on the time of day and demand from one to six cars. The travel time between 15th - 16th & Locust Streets and Lindenwold is 25 minutes, the average speed is thus about 55 km / h
Some towards the city -propelled trains stop during the morning rush hour in the outer areas not everywhere. Furthermore, the station 9th - 10th & Locust is closed at night and drive through at this time without stopping.
In 2007, the PATCO Speedline 9.4 million passengers. With $ 20,416,000 in sales and operating expenses in the amount of $ 42,468,000 of cost recovery ratio was 48.07 %.
As tickets were originally used magnetic cards that were available in vending machines and had to be introduced in turnstiles when entering and leaving the stations. PATCO was 1969, the first railroad in the U.S., which got along without any sales staff.
The magnetic cards were replaced in March 2008 by a system based on smart cards that operate on the principle of the electronic purse. The cards can be purchased for a small amount of vending machines and there charged a fee. The amount of money to be paid is then debited when passing through the turnstiles at the stations of the smart card.
Command
The system used for ATP ( Automatic Train Control, ATC) includes automatic train protection in the strict sense (Automatic Train Protection, ATP) and automatic traction control (Automatic Train Operation, ATO ), but no automatic Zugmeldung ( Automatic Train Supervision, ATS). The two automatic subsystems are designed so that manual intervention in a number of graduations are possible.
In practice, the ATC system expresses the fact that along the route no fixed signals are up at branch points (reciprocal systems, etc. ) and the signaling instead takes place in the cab. The engineer thus has only monitoring tasks; he made the train from the station, press a button, and acceleration, top speed and braking to be automatically controlled by the system.
In contrast to the platoon leader of the dispatcher in the control center operates largely manually. The initial Zugmeldung to the system with start and destination is done by hand. The driveway is but then again automatically produced and tested for each train.
The waiver of the automatic Zugmeldung lies in the fact that the ATC system in particular exhibit a very high reliability and should be technically simple as possible. During the construction of the two other planned branch lines thus would but the problem is that the corresponding complex train movements would no longer be controlled in conjunction with the expected dense sequence of moves with the current manual Zugmeldeverfahren.