The historic Route 15 trolleys will be missing from the river wards from Halloween straight through Christmas Eve.
SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch said today that the trolleys would be replaced by buses starting Sunday, Oct. 30 due to track replacement in West Philadelphia.
They are scheduled to return Dec. 24, though weather could impact the construction schedule.
Busch said the trolleys will be using the newly constructed Frankford Avenue loop — a section of track that redirects the trolley at the SugarHouse casino on Delaware Avenue — but that there is no date set for when that change will take place.
The loop was put in place earlier this year to prepare for construction on a section of the track that takes the trolley under Interstate 95 before heading north on Richmond Street.
PennDOT is scheduled to replace that section of the tracks and much of Richmond Street during an ongoing I-95 widening project, and Richmond Street is expected to be without the trolley for several years.
Busch said SEPTA will start using the Frankford Avenue loop when PennDOT closes the Richmond Street section.
“The use of the loop and shuttling on that portion will start in conjunction with PennDOT’s work on the Girard/I-95 interchange,” Busch said “We’ll basically be following the construction schedule PennDOT has for that project. We will return full trolley service to East Girard/Richmond as soon as the PennDOT project at the interchange is completed.”
Route 15 covers all of Girard Avenue starting at 63rd Street in Haddington and ends at Richmond and Westmoreland streets in Port Richmond.••
Reporter Brian Rademaekers can be reached at 215–354–3039 or brademaekers@bsmphilly.com
