Trolley tunnel will be open Monday at 5 a.m., SEPTA says
About 60,000 people daily used the tunnel taking trolleys between Center City and West Philadelphia before the shutdown.
Relief is coming to thousands of aggrieved trolley riders.
After two months of closure, the trolley tunnel connecting Center City and West Philadelphia is scheduled to reopen Monday at 5 a.m., SEPTA announced late Friday.
Test runs of trolleys through the 5-mile passageway have shown that repairs to damaged connections between the vehicles and the overhead electric wires that supply their power have worked and it’s safe to resume normal operations, officials said.
“We recognize that this prolonged closure of the trolley tunnel posed a significant inconvenience for our riders, and we appreciate their patience,” SEPTA General Manager Scott A. Sauer said. “Our crews worked around the clock to complete the emergency repairs.”
About 60,000 riders traveled daily through the tunnel between 13th Street and its West Philadelphia portal at 40th Street before SEPTA closed it in early November.
Since then, people have had to use slower shuttle bus service or the Market-Frankford El as alternatives.
Since November, SEPTA has replaced nearly 5,000 feet of overhead wire, or about 20% of the wire in the tunnel. Crews will continue to replace wire during scheduled weekend closures, the transit agency said.
At issue is a U-shaped brass part called a slider that carries carbon, a lubricant which coats the copper wires. SEPTA changed from 3-inch to 4-inch sliders earlier in the fall, in hopes of saving maintenance costs. Testing had suggested that the change would reduce wear and tear on the carbon seated in the sliders, meaning that at least in theory they’d have to be changed less often.
It was not to be. It turned out the longer units wore down quickly and wire was chewed up by metal-on-metal contact. SEPTA has since changed back to its usual 3-inch sliders.