Five SEPTA trolley routes will suspend service to Center City for about four weeks this summer so the transit authority can perform annual maintenance work in the trolley tunnel.
Trolley services for routes T1 to T5 will begin and end at 40th and Market Streets in West Philadelphia from 10 p.m. on Friday, July 11, to 6 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 11. Riders traveling to and from Center City are advised to take the Market-Frankford Line or buses to complete their trips.
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During SEPTA’s Trolley Tunnel Blitz, crews replace tracks, clear pipes and drains, remove graffiti, clean trolley stations and perform maintenance work on the tunnel’s signal system. Simultaneously, PennDOT plans to make repairs to the tunnel under the Schuylkill River.
The tunnel blitz is about twice as long this year as prior years, because SEPTA plans to skip it next year, when Philadelphia hosts the FIFA World Cup, MLB All-Star Game and U.S. semiquincentennial celebrations.
“The blitz gives our crews the opportunity to tackle construction, maintenance, and safety improvement work in a concentrated period of time to reduce the number of outages throughout the year,” SEPTA General Manager Scott Sauer said in a statement.
This is the 13th year in a row that SEPTA has conducted the tunnel blitz. The transit authority schedules it for the summer, because there are fewer riders.