22-08-21 PHOTOS: Wawa

In 1986 SEPTA temporarily suspended service on its R3 West Chester service beyond the Elwyn Station where the line became largely single track. The suspension was ostensibly to fix track issues that had slowed service on the branch, however it soon became clear that SEPTA was looking to truncate service to Elwyn/Media and instead reached a deal with Chester County to expand parking and service to the Exton station on the much faster R5 Paoli. The line was officially taken out of service in 1991 and besides stock traffic to a quarry and the use of a testing and training facility in Leni the line became a zombie, officially still "temporarily" suspended, but with service restoration increasingly unlikely.

In 2005 plans were made to restore service to a new Wawa station and park and ride off busy US Route 1 in Wawa, Pennsylvania. Originally intended to cost $50 million and be completed in 2010, circumstances resulted in near endless delays with the project ultimately being completed, much to the surprise of many, in 2022 for a cost of $100 million. As this was the first expansion of the SEPTA Regional Rail system in over 20 years I naturally had to be there for the inaugural departure and arrival on August 21st 2022. You can see the full set of photos, which include an additional visit to the East Penn Railroad, here ( mirror ). If you are interested in some 2015 coverage of the West Chester Branch before this partial restoration and rebuild, you can read a separate article here.

Although the new Wawa Station was located at the location of the old Wawa station, SEPTA wasn't about to miss an opportunity to shake down the local Philadelphia Area convenience store chain of the same name. After threats to use alternative names like Middletown Township or Sheetz, Wawa eventually coughed up $5 million for the "naming rights", however it did result in some snazzy branding.

The inaugural departure was set to leave the new Wawa station before dawn on Sunday, August 21st requiring those who wished to ride to get up early and, most likely, drive to the new R3 terminus. Intended to be a new transportation hub, the station has a building, vehicle loop and cavernous parking facility. unfortunately the Wawa station building does not (yet) contain a Wawa retail location, although there are two within walking distance for all of one's delicious coffee needs.

On the well lit, high level island platform, Wawa wrapped SEPTA Silverliner V #853 was awaiting its scheduled departure.

As SEPTA has slowly expanded its selection of accessible platforms it has generally avoided the use of costly elevators, instead making do with ramps.

Because of the Silverliner V's railfan windows, I was able to capture the entirety of the outbound trip between Wawa and Elwyn on video. The run took a few minutes longer than scheduled in part due to a report of deer on the tracks and some signal anomalies at Elwyn.



My plan was to be on board both the first departure and arrival from the new station and I pretty much had my choice of R3 station to accomplish this. I selected Clifton-Alden for its proximity to the Route 102 suburban trolley. Silverliner V #830 was on the rear of the first inbound run.

The first outbound (to Wawa) train was led by SEPTA Silverliner V #816.

Once again I was able to grab some video from the head end of the first ever R3 Wawa as it traveled between Media and Wawa.



Local TV news crews were on hand for the first inbound arrival.

The station's single island platform serves one through track and one stub terminal track, although there is space to extend the stub track through if West Chester service is ever restored. The West Chester Railroad briefly ran through excursions from their base in West Chester in the 2000's until SEPTA allowed its portion of the line to deteriorate sufficiently to stop the practice. It is unclear if SEPTA will remedy the situation any time soon.

At the city end of the platform the line immediately enters a series of interlockings built to serve a new storage yard on the site of the old Leni training facility. Note the stub switch to serve the old PRR Octoraro Branch which used to branch off here en-route to a connection with the Port Road.

After the departure of the second inbound trip I headed down to the station building that comes equipped with bathrooms and a bunch of local historical information on the walls.

As it was on my way back south I stopped by the East Penn Railroad Octoraro branch shoppe complex at the former PRR station in Kennett Square. East Penn is currently working the line with GP38-2 #2179 and GP18 #1800.

That's all for the Wawa station opening. Definitely expect a follow-up visit during an upcoming Mid-Winter Trip.