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Some Delco SEPTA riders will have 15 minutes added to their commutes, beginning Monday

Trips from Orange Street in Media to 69th Street in Upper Darby would be 15 minutes longer, SEPTA says.

A Sharon Hill trolley - now known as the D2 - on a siding near the 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby. The route, along with its counterpart, the D1, or Media trolley will have longer trips next week after a safety upgrade to the signal system.
A Sharon Hill trolley - now known as the D2 - on a siding near the 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby. The route, along with its counterpart, the D1, or Media trolley will have longer trips next week after a safety upgrade to the signal system.Read moreCHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer

Rides on the two trolley lines serving Delco promise to be safer but longer with a modern signal system scheduled to go live on Monday, SEPTA says.

The upgraded signals on the D1 and D2 trolley lines will require operators to make more gradual accelerations and decelerations. They’ll also enforce speed limits and stop signals with automatic braking if needed.

“It will reduce the possibility of operator error,” SEPTA General Manager Scott A. Sauer said. “They won’t be able to speed, and risk derailment. They won’t be able to violate stop signals or misaligned switches.”

But the computer won’t replace the judgment of the people operating a trolley, Sauer said. Operators will get an alert, and the system provides backup if they can’t correct in time, he said.

Trips will be up to 15 minutes longer on the D1 route and 10 minutes on D2 route, depending on where a passenger boards and gets off the trolley.

The trolleys operate between Media and the 69th Street Transportation Center in Upper Darby, and between Sharon Hill and the transit hub. They were formerly called Routes 101 and 102.

The transit agency also is releasing new spring schedules for all elevated-subway and bus transit, using the new “Metro” wayfinding nomenclature, which uses letters for the various services.

SEPTA accounted for the increased Delaware County trolley travel times in the new schedules, which begin Monday.

It took about a decade and $75 million to install the system, called Communication-Based Train Control, on the Delco trolleys, said John Frisoli, SEPTA’s top rail signals engineer. Radios communicate between the control system and the trolleys.

A similar system has operated in the Center City trolley tunnel since 2005. SEPTA has been adding safety features to its rail-signal systems for about 20 years, including the installation of Positive Train Control on Regional Rail, which controls train speed and applies automatic brakes to prevent crashes caused by human error.