Media–Sharon Hill Line

The Media–Sharon Hill Line (MSHL), currently rebranding as the D, is a light rail line in the SEPTA Metro network serving portions of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The line compromises two services which terminate at 69th Street Transportation Center in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania: Route 101 (currently rebranding as D1) to Media and Route 102 (currently rebranding as D2) to Sharon Hill. Service is operated by the Suburban Transit Division of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). Altogether, the two services operate on approximately 11.9 miles (19.2 km) of route. The line is one of the few remaining interurban systems in the United States, along with the South Shore Line in Illinois and Indiana, the River Line in New Jersey, and the Norristown High Speed Line, also in the Philadelphia area.

Media–Sharon Hill Line (D)
Route 102 at Sharon Hill station
Overview
Locale	Delaware County, Pennsylvania
Termini	69th Street Transportation Center Media–Orange Street (D1/Route 101) Sharon Hill (D2/Route 102)
Stations	52
Website	septa.org/schedules/D
Service
Type	Light rail
System	SEPTA Metro
Services	Route 101  Route 102
Operator(s)	SEPTA Suburban Division
Rolling stock	SEPTA Series 100
Daily ridership	Route 101: 3,844 Route 102: 3,888 (FY 2019)
History
Opened	1906
Technical
Line length	11.9 miles (19.2 km)
Character	Surface (at-grade)
Track gauge	5 ft 2+1⁄2 in (1,588 mm) Pennsylvania trolley gauge
Electrification	Overhead lines
Route map to Frankford T.C. to Norristown T.C. 69th Street T.C. to 69th Street Yard / Shops West Yard; formerly to West Chester & Ardmore Fairfield Avenue Walnut Street Avon Road Hilltop Road Beverly Boulevard Congress Avenue Lansdowne Avenue Drexel Park Irvington Road Drexel Hill Junction Route 101 Route 102 Huey Avenue Garrettford School Lane Drexel Manor Aronimink Marshall Road Anderson Avenue Creek Road Drexelbrook Darby Creek Drexeline Baltimore Avenue Darby Creek Penn Street Scenic Road Springfield Road Springfield Road Clifton–Aldan WAW Saxer Avenue Shisler Avenue closed Leamy Avenue Providence Road Woodland Avenue Magnolia Avenue Thomson Avenue North Street Springfield Mall Bartram Avenue Paper Mill Road Andrews Avenue I-476 MacDade Boulevard Pine Ridge Sharon Hill Beatty Road Providence Road Manchester Avenue Edgemont Street Monroe Street Jackson Street Olive Street Veterans Square Media–Orange Street

Along with the Norristown High Speed Line, formerly the Philadelphia and Western Railroad, the routes are the remaining lines of the Red Arrow Lines Trolley System once operated by the Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company (successor to the Philadelphia and West Chester Traction Company); some local residents still call them "Red Arrow".

The line uses 29 Kawasaki Heavy Industries Rolling Stock Company Type K LRV cars similar to those used on the SEPTA subway–surface trolley lines. However, unlike the city cars, the Type K cars on Routes 101 and 102 are double-ended and use pantograph collection instead of trolley poles.

Route

Route	Length	South Terminal	North Terminal
D1/101	8.6 miles (13.8 km)	Media Orange Street at State Street	Upper Darby 69th Street Transportation Center
D2/102	5.3 miles (8.5 km)	Sharon Hill Sharon Hill

The 101 and 102 run together on their exclusive right-of-way in Upper Darby to Drexel Hill Junction for approximately 2 miles (3.2 km), at which point they diverge.

Map of Routes 101 and 102 (red), as well as former trolley (now bus) Routes 103 and 104 (orange), and Route 100 (blue)

Route 101 continues on its own right-of-way traveling west and southwest through Drexel Hill and Springfield with an important stop at the Springfield Mall before entering the street in Media. The 101 has double tracks to Woodland Avenue, then a single track to just before Pine Ridge, then enters the street at Providence Road in Media and runs on a single track the rest of the way. Cars in the street must yield to the trolley. The line terminates in the middle of the street just west of the Delaware County Courthouse.

Route 102 runs southeast from Drexel Hill Junction through Drexel Hill and Clifton Heights and then goes into the street in Aldan. After Aldan, it returns to its own right-of-way, then passes through Collingdale before terminating at Chester Pike in Sharon Hill. The 102 has double tracks until up to North Street in Collingdale, where the 102 returns to its own right-of-way, and after North Street, there is a single track until the end of the line.

Springfield Road has one stop on each line. Route 101 stops at Springfield Road in Springfield. Route 102 stops at Springfield Road in Clifton Heights, then runs within this street until it moves onto Woodlawn Avenue through Aldan.

History

Heavy steel interurban cars like this ran on the Red Arrow until the 1970s

The Sharon Hill Line (Route 102) was originally built by the Philadelphia and West Chester Traction Company, and opened on March 15, 1906, and the Media Line (Route 101) was originally built by the same company, opening on April 1, 1913. The lines were later bought by the Philadelphia Suburban Transit Company in 1954.

Besides Routes 101 and 102, there were also two other, now defunct, Red Arrow trolley lines. The direct ancestor of the SEPTA Route 104 bus line went to West Chester, splitting off from the rest of the system right after 69th Street Transportation Center onto West Chester Pike. The tracks continued all the way up West Chester Pike. West Chester trolleys were replaced by buses in 1954 due to widening of West Chester Pike; rush-hour trips to Westgate Hills lasted until 1958. Tracks remained in use for access to the Red Arrow's carbarn in Llanerch until SEPTA closed the barn in 1971; all tracks were soon removed except for a portion near 69th Street that SEPTA occasionally uses to store out-of service trolleys. The other now-defunct Red Arrow trolley line went to Ardmore until December 1966. It split from the West Chester line at Llanerch and continued on its own exclusive right-of-way. Much of the right-of-way still remains between Schauffele Plaza in Ardmore (the former terminus of the line) and Eagle Road in Havertown, although the tracks were removed and the right-of-way paved for dedicated use by the replacement bus line, now SEPTA Route 103. The 103 still uses this private right-of-way, although much of its other street routing has changed.

On April 1, 2020, service on Route 102 was suspended while Route 101 was substituted with buses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trolley service on both routes resumed June 1, 2020.

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  Proposed new logo for the Delaware Lines under the SEPTA Metro wayfinding project
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  Proposed new logo for Route 101 under the SEPTA Metro wayfinding project
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  Proposed new logo for Route 102 under the SEPTA Metro wayfinding project

In 2021, SEPTA proposed rebranding their rail transit service as "SEPTA Metro", to make the system easier to navigate. Under this proposal, the Media and Sharon Hill lines will be rebranded as the "D" lines (for "Delaware", the county in which the trolley routes are located) with a pink color and numeric suffixes for each service. The 101 and 102 will respectively be rebranded as the D1 69th St / Orange St and D2 69th St / Sharon Hill. After a period of public comment, SEPTA revised its plans to primarily refer to the line as the "D," as well as to rethink the name of the Route 101's "Orange Street" terminal station name.

Future rolling stock

In 2023, SEPTA awarded Alstom Transportation the contract to furbish 130 new low-floor trolleys, with an option for 30 more. The trolleys will be of Alstom's Citadis family and will be 80 feet in length and fully ADA-compliant, which the current Kawasaki trolleys from the early 1980s are not. The trolleys will be distributed among SEPTA's Routes 101 and 102 in Delaware County, and its subway-surface lines and Route 15 in neighboring Philadelphia. The first trolley is expected to be delivered from Alstom in the Spring of 2027, with the last trolley to be delivered sometime in 2030.

With SEPTA Trolley Modernization happening, SEPTA is proposing to extend Route 102 to Darby Transportation Center. This extension would connect Route 102 with SEPTA Route 11 and SEPTA Route 13.

Media stops

Media is the western terminus of the Route 101 trolley line just west of the Orange Street intersection with State Street, the latter of which the trolley runs down the center line. Despite being located in the town, there is no direct connection to the Media station of the Media/Wawa Line which is a mile to the south on Orange Street and partly through a wooded area.

Stations and stops

Location	Station/stop	Connections	Notes
Route 101 (D1; Media branch)
Media	Orange Street	SEPTA Suburban Bus: 110	Route D1 western terminus
	Veterans Square
	Olive Street
	Jackson Street	SEPTA Suburban Bus: 118
	Monroe Street
	Edgemont Street
	Manchester Avenue
	Providence Road		Begin right-of-way and two-track operation Formerly known as Bowling Green
	Beatty Road
Springfield	Pine Ridge		Tracks converge east of here
	Paper Mill Road		Serves Smedley Park SEPTA's least used station
	Springfield Mall	SEPTA Suburban Bus: 107, 109, 110	Formerly known as Sproul Road
	Thomson Avenue
	Woodland Avenue		Resume two-track operation east of here
	Leamy Avenue
	Saxer Avenue
	Springfield Road
	Scenic Road
Drexel Hill	Drexeline
	Drexelbrook
	Anderson Avenue
	Aronimink
	School Lane
	Huey Avenue
Route 102 (D2; Sharon Hill branch)
Sharon Hill	Sharon Hill	SEPTA Suburban Bus: 114, 115	Route D2 western terminus
Collingdale	MacDade Boulevard	SEPTA Suburban Bus: 113	Formerly known as Collingdale
	Andrews Avenue
	Bartram Avenue
	North Street		Tracks leave right-of-way and merge with Woodlawn Avenue north of here
Aldan	Magnolia Avenue
	Providence Road
	Shisler Avenue		Station closed on March 15, 2010
Clifton Heights	Clifton-Aldan	SEPTA Regional Rail:      Media/Wawa Line	Tracks transition onto Springfield Road
	Springfield Road		Tracks leave Springfield Road for right-of-way south of here
	Penn Street
	Baltimore Avenue	SEPTA Suburban Bus: 109
Drexel Hill	Creek Road		Located in Indian Rock Park Formerly known as Oakview
	Marshall Road
	Drexel Manor
	Garrettford
Routes 101 & 102 (D1 & D2; Common section)
Drexel Hill	Drexel Hill Junction	SEPTA Suburban Bus: 107	Also known as Shadeland Avenue Routes D1 and D2 diverge west of here
	Irvington Road		Bypassed by D1 rush hour express service
	Drexel Park		Bypassed by D1 rush hour express service Also called Fairfax Road
Upper Darby	Lansdowne Avenue	SEPTA Suburban Bus: 107, 115
	Congress Avenue		Bypassed by D1 rush hour express service
	Beverly Boulevard		Bypassed by D1 rush hour express service Formerly known as Beverly Hills
	Hilltop Road		Bypassed by D1 rush hour express service
	Avon Road		Bypassed by D1 rush hour express service Formerly known as Bywood
	Walnut Street		Bypassed by D1 rush hour express service
	Fairfield Avenue		Bypassed by D1 rush hour express service Tracks merge with street east of here
	69th Street T.C.	SEPTA Metro: Market–Frankford Line, Norristown High Speed Line SEPTA City Bus: 21, 30, 65 SEPTA Suburban Bus: 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 120, 123, 126

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  Route 101 LRV in Media
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  Private right-of-way outside Media
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  Front of Route 101 LRV in Media with the sign set for its next outbound trip to Sharon Hill on Route 102.

References

External links

Template:Attached KML/Media–Sharon Hill Line

KML is not from Wikidata

• U.S. Urban Rail Transit Lines Opened From 1980 (PDF)
• Rt. 101/102 – Media/Sharon Hill; Images, guide, and slight history at World-NYC Subway.org