Cheltenham Township votes for Newtown service

Cheltenham Township has become the first municipality in Montgomery County to come out in support of restarting train service to Newtown.

The township’s board of commissioners passed a unanimous resolution on Wednesday calling for the immediate reactivation of the line, which SEPTA discontinued in 1983, that connected with the R8 at Fox Chase.

The proposed line would also make stops in Abington, Southampton and Richboro. A community group that has been pushing the extension says that it will reduce area traffic congestion and overcrowding on SEPTA trains along the nearby R2 Warminster and R3 West Trenton lines.

The line still has to contend with significant political opposition in some Montgomery County communities and an uphill battle to get funding for the project, which SEPTA and the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission has called too expensive given the authority’s limited capital resources.

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Posted by Anthony Campisi. Contact him at campisi.anthony@gmail.com

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