Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 41, 2014

The Fox Chase Line (formerly called R8 Fox Chase) is a route of the SEPTA Regional Rail (commuter rail) system. The Fox Chase Line branches from the SEPTA Main Line at Newtown Junction, north of the Wayne Junction station. It runs entirely within the city of Philadelphia except for a section between Olney and Cheltenham, Pennsylvania which runs along the city border. Originally known as the Fox Chase/Newtown Branch, service was truncated in January 1983 from Newtown to its current terminus in Philadelphia at Fox Chase due to failing diesel train equipment and low ridership. Service restoration north of Fox Chase to Newtown has been discussed by rail proponents (most notably, the Pennsylvania Transit Expansion Coalition). Plans to restore service beyond Fox Chase remained on SEPTA's Capital Program until 2009; there are currently no plans to reinstate service to Newtown. Track within Montgomery County was dismantled in 2008 and 2014, respectively, for conversion as an interim trail, preventing service restoration for the foreseeable future. The former R8 number was applied after the original plan was cancelled due to problems including the Swampoodle Connection never being built. The Fox Chase/Newtown Line was originally intended to be the R4, which would have continued as the Bryn Mawr local, while the R5 would have run express to Bryn Mawr and local to points west.