Walnut Hill station (SEPTA)

Walnut Hill station is a defunct SEPTA Regional Rail station in Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Located on Moredon Road, it served the Fox Chase/Newtown Line. SEPTA closed the station in 1983.

Walnut Hill
Former railroad station
The Walnut Hill station site, now the entrance to the Pennypack Trail Extension.
General information
Location	200 Moredon Road Abington Township, Pennsylvania.
Coordinates	40.0970°N 75.0744°W / 40.0970; -75.0744
Owned by	SEPTA
Platforms	1 side platform
Tracks	1
Construction
Accessible	No
History
Closed	January 18, 1983[1]
Electrified	no
Former services
Preceding station SEPTA Following station Fox Chase toward Reading Terminal Newtown Line Huntingdon Valley toward Newtown
Location

History

Walnut Hill, and all stations north of Fox Chase, was closed on January 18, 1983, due to failing diesel train equipment that SEPTA had no desire to repair.^[1]

In addition, a labor dispute began within the SEPTA organization when the transit operator inherited 1,700 displaced employees from Conrail. SEPTA insisted on utilizing transit operators from the Broad Street Subway to operate Fox Chase/Newtown diesel trains, while Conrail requested that railroad engineers run the service. When a federal court ruled that SEPTA had to use Conrail employees in order to offer job assurance, SEPTA canceled Fox Chase-Newtown trains.^[2] Service in the diesel-only territory north of Fox Chase was cancelled at that time, and Walnut Hill 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.

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". The 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. "Tariff No. 154 - Supplement No. 37" (PDF). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. March 6, 2009. pp. 4–7. Retrieved June 28, 2011.