County Line station (SEPTA Regional Rail)

This article is about the former SEPTA Regional Rail station. For the current Norristown High Speed Line station, see County Line station (Norristown High Speed Line). For other uses, see County Line station (disambiguation).

County Line
County Line station site in September 2016
General information
Location	511 County Line Road Upper Southampton, PA
Coordinates	40.1648°N 75.0600°W / 40.1648; -75.0600
Owned by	SEPTA
Platforms	1 side platform
Tracks	1
Construction
Structure type	station shed (demolished)
History
Closed	January 18, 1983[1]
Electrified	no
Former services
Preceding station SEPTA Following station Bryn Athyn toward Reading Terminal Newtown Line Southampton toward Newtown
Location

County Line station is a derelict SEPTA Regional Rail station in Upper Southampton Township, Pennsylvania. It served a now-abandoned segment of SEPTA Newtown Line, and was located on County Line Road near the County Line Industrial Park.

History

County Line station, and all of those north of Fox Chase, was closed on January 18, 1983 due to failing diesel train equipment.

In addition, a labor dispute began within the SEPTA organization when the transit operator inherited 1,700 displaced employees from Conrail. SEPTA insisted on using transit operators from the Broad Street Subway to operate Fox Chase-Newtown diesel trains, while Conrail requested that railroad motormen run the service. When a federal court ruled that SEPTA had to use Conrail employees in order to offer job assurance, SEPTA cancelled Fox Chase-Newtown trains.[2] Service in the diesel-only territory north of Fox Chase was cancelled at that time, and County Line station still appears in publicly posted tariffs.[3]

Although rail service was initially replaced with a Fox Chase-Newtown shuttle bus, patronage remained light, and the Fox Chase-Newtown shuttle bus service ended in 1999.

The station shed was demolished in the 1990s.^[citation needed]

References

1. Kennedy, Sara (October 21, 1983). "SEPTA to Boost Rail Service 13%". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 1–2. Retrieved July 14, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
2. Tulsky, Fredric N. (January 29, 1982). "Conrail Staff Must Run Trains: court ruling bars SEPTA takeover". Philadelphia Inquirer.SEPTA must use Conrail workers rather than its own personnel to run trains over the region's 13 commuter lines, a special federal court has ruled in a decision that offers some job assurance for 1,700 Conrail employees next year. The special court, in an opinion issued Wednesday, ruled that SEPTA had acted legally in October when it replaced Conrail workers with its former subway operators on the line.
3. SEPTA Tariff No. 154; effective July 1, 2009 Archived May 31, 2012, at the Wayback Machine