SEPTA is expanding daily bus service to the Navy Yard by extending Route 45

SEPTA is extending Route 45 to provide direct daily bus service to the Navy Yard for the first time in more than a decade, a move aimed at helping to grow both the development and transit ridership.

The new service is scheduled to begin in August, with buses operating at about 20-minute intervals, starting at 12th and Noble Streets in North Philadelphia, through Center City, and to stops inside the Navy Yard itself.

More than 150 employers have facilities in the Navy Yard, with more than 16,000 people working on the campus. There are 614 units of housing and plans for more residential and commercial development.

“Our goal is to provide as many safe, reliable, efficient ways to get to the Navy Yard as possible,” said Alex M. Smith, vice president of Navy Yard strategic initiatives at the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. It has built a path alongside South Broad Street to accommodate bike commuters and pedestrians.

“The 45 just provides another level of service for folks that may think otherwise than to take an Uber or their own car,” Smith said.

The Navy Yard’s master plan projects about 3,000 people will be living there within 15 to 20 years. About 450 jobs are expected to be added at Rhodes Industries, a maritime company in the western part of the former military base.

Colin Foley, the chief of service planning and schedules at SEPTA, said a 2023 survey of the Navy Yard workforce found that 86% did not use transit, and 60% of those said they would use SEPTA if more options were offered.

SEPTA has been working for years to overhaul its bus network and recently adopted a plan that extends the 45 bus. The plan also beefs up service to University City.

Currently, the Route 17 bus serves the Navy Yard, but only on weekends and from the west side of Broad Street, where development is less dense.

An analysis of commutes by census tract showed that the largest share of people headed to the Navy Yard travel from east of Broad Street, Foley said.

“This makes Route 45 an ideal route to extend to the site,” he said.

NRG Station, the southernmost stop on the Broad Street Line, is about a mile north of the Navy Yard.

For years, people have wanted to extend the subway to the Navy Yard, but there are no plans to do so. Even if it were feasible to build, it would be hugely expensive and take a long time, Smith said.

Navy Yard Transit shuttle buses run two routes that this year are recording an average of about 17,200 rides monthly, PIDC said.

In April, the Center City Express shuttle saw around 13,000 rides, and there were 6,500 for the shuttle connecting NRG Station to the campus.

“It’s been a multiyear conversation with SEPTA to make this happen,” Smith said. PIDC, the city’s public-private economic development agency, is the master developer of the Navy Yard.