SEPTA taps hard-won $2.4B transportation funding for first project
(Nathaniel Hamilton/for NewsWorks)
Why was Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett in Delaware County Friday to announce the expansion of a train station parking lot?
That project is the first SEPTA is undertaking with funds from the $2.4 billion transportation package the governor signed last November.
Corbett asked the crowd packed inside the Secane station to imagine what it would be like without the regional rail line which runs from Media to Elwyn. Before the funding package passed, SEPTA had threatened that the line could be shut down.
“How long would it take you to get home? How long would you be sitting in traffic?” Corbett quizzed the crowd. “Having been a practicing lawyer who used to bill clients, I understand that time is money and, sitting in that car, you are wasting a lot of money.”
In an election year, Corbett is touting the transportation bill as proof that he can get legislation passed with bipartisan support.
Eventually, Secane will have not just a new parking lot but a replacement for the station itself, which dates back to 1871.
SEPTA has 27 initial projects under review — which include everything from replacing the roof of the Temple University regional rail stop to replacement of the 1895 Crumb Creek Viaduct.
SEPTA highlighted aging bridges among its concerns in the fall. The agency’s first round of projects also includes repairs of the Cobbs Creek, Darby Creek and Ridley Creek viaducts.
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