SEPTA Route 31

SEPTA City Transit Division

SEPTA NovaBus LFSA #8648 waits at 12th & Vine Streets in Center City Philadelphia.
Slogan	Serious About Change.
Parent	SEPTA
Founded	1968
Headquarters	1234 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA
Locale	Philadelphia
Service area	Philadelphia and immediate vicinity
Service type	Local bus service
Routes	79
Fleet	977
Operator	SEPTA
Chief executive	Jeff Knueppel (General Manager)
Website	septa.org

The City Transit Division of Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority operates almost all of Philadelphia's public transit, including all 6 trolley, 3 trackless trolley and 70 bus lines within city limits. Some of the bordering municipalities are served by the City Transit division, despite not being part of the city. For example, Cheltenham Township has 13 city division routes and zero of the Suburban Division routes.

Transit in Philadelphia started out with several dozen horse car, cable, and traction companies. In 1895, these companies began uniting under three main operations Electric Traction Company, People's Traction Company, and Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC). The following year, these three consolidated into the new Union Traction Company. In 1902, Union Traction Company went bankrupt; the company was reorganized under the name of PHILADELPHIA RAPID TRANSIT (PRT) on July 1, 1902.

Despite efforts by Thomas E. Mitten, PHILADELPHIA RAPID TRANSIT (PRT) went bankrupt in 1939. The new PHILADELPHIA TRANSPORTATION COMPANY (PTC) took over its operation on January 1, 1940. In the 1950s, National City Lines (NCL) took over management of the PHILADELPHIA TRANSPORTATION COMPANY (PTC) on March 1, 1955 and began converting streetcar lines to bus routes. SEPTA, created in 1962, bought and took over PHILADELPHIA TRANSPORTATION COMPANY (PTC) transit operations on September 30, 1968. After the purchase of the Red Arrow Lines on January 29, 1970, SEPTA designated the city services as its "City Transit Division".

Today, these bus or trackless trolley routes were once operated as streetcar lines: Routes 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 12, 17, 23, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 33, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 46, 47, 48, 52 (formerly streetcar Route 70), 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, 60, 61, 64, 66, 73, 75 and 79. Many of the numbered routes were once lettered or named bus routes these include Routes 1 (Boulevard Limited), 4 (Formerly Route C - Nedro Service), 8 (FOX - Frankford - Olney Express), 14 (Formerly Route B), 16 (Formerly Route C - Cheltenham Service), 18 (Formerly Route S), 19 (Formerly Route F), 21 (Formerly Route D), 24 (Formerly Route N), 35 (Formerly Route Z), 65 (Formerly Route E), 67 (Formerly Route W), 68 (Formerly Route M), 70 (Formerly Route Y), 77 (Formerly Route X)