Newtown Branch

Fox Chase Line
Fox Chase station in December 2012
Overview
Type	Commuter rail
System	SEPTA Regional Rail
Status	Operating
Termini	Fox Chase 30th Street Station
Daily ridership	5,474
Website	septa.org
Operation
Operator(s)	SEPTA
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Electrification	12 kV / 25 Hz Catenary
Route map Newtown George School Village Shires never opened Holland Churchville Southampton County Line Woodmont Bryn Athyn Huntingdon Valley West Trenton Line Walnut Hill Fox Chase Diesel service Electric service Ryers Cheltenham Lawndale Olney Warminster, West Trenton, Lansdale/Doylestown Lines Wayne Junction Manayunk/Norristown Line Temple University Reading Viaduct service ended 1984 Spring Garden Street Reading Terminal Jefferson Station Suburban Station 30th Street Station This diagram:

The Fox Chase Line is a route of the SEPTA Regional Rail (commuter rail) system. The Fox Chase Line branches from the SEPTA Main Line at Newtown Junction, north of the Wayne Junction station. It runs entirely within the city of Philadelphia except for a section between Olney and Cheltenham, Pennsylvania which runs along the city border. Under the Reading Company service continued north to Newtown, but this ended in January 1983. Various proposals to resume this service have failed, most of the line within Montgomery County has been converted into a rail trail called the Pennypack Trail.

The Fox Chase Line branches from the SEPTA Main Line at Newtown Junction, north of the Wayne Junction station. It runs entirely within the city of Philadelphia except for a section between Olney and Cheltenham, Pennsylvania which runs along the city border.

The line beyond Newtown Junction was originally opened February 2, 1878 to Newtown as the Philadelphia, Newtown and New York Railroad. The line was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad to block the building of the parallel National Railway (later the Reading Company's main line to New York City). After that failed, it was taken over by the North Pennsylvania Railroad (which had built the National Railway) on November 22, 1879. By then the Philadelphia and Reading Railway, later the Reading Company, had leased the North Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1976 the Reading was merged into Conrail, and in 1983 SEPTA took over commuter rail operations.