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Time to Bring Train Service to West Chester
[Posted March 5, 2008 ]
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John McKinstry isn't directly concerned about West Chester, but
if he gets his way, so will a lot of people in the Borough.
McKinstry is a social studies teacher at the Westtown School, and
he's decided to make an issue of SEPTA's R-3 regional rail line.
He wants it to continue past its current endpoint in Elwyn (just
west of Media, Delaware County).
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McKinstry isn't the first person to propose this, nor is he
likely to be the last (unless SEPTA yields). About four years
ago, members of the Middletown Township Land Conservancy
organized a similar effort to present petition signatures to
SEPTA officials that demonstrated the need for better rail
service. Their argument was based on the amount of residential
development planned for their township, which is located between
Route 1 and Media, and the idea that rail service would keep new
cars from clogging US Route 1 and the surrounding "back roads."
Although they failed to persuade SEPTA to restore all of the R-3
line to West Chester, SEPTA did add an extension as far as the
former Wawa station just south of US Route 1 to their list of
capital projects.
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Obtaining money for the extension is another question best
answered in Harrisburg, where Governor Rendell has spent the last
several years trying to persuade the legislature to set aside
more money for SEPTA and other public transit agencies. Coming
at a time when many of Pennsylvania's roads and bridges are in need of
repairs, and the legislature remains dominated by politicians
who view urban areas like Philadelphia and its suburbs with
distaste, it's been a hard sell. So talk about extending the R-3
to West Chester, or even as far as Wawa, raises little excitement
amongst SEPTA officials. They're more concerned with keeping the
existing operation functional.
There are signs of movement however. Recent articles in
regional newspapers have described community efforts to restore
passenger service to Pkoenixville, Kennett Square and Oxford.
The Phoenixville group wants to see passenger service restored on
tracks that are already used to haul freight between Philadelphia
and Reading -- a scaled-down version of the 2001 Schuylkill
Valley Metro plan to introduce "light rail" passenger service
between those two cities that died for lack of funding. Members
of the "Oxford transit committee" want to reopen a line that
until recently carried freight to Nottingham via their Borough,
West Grove, Kennett Square and Chadds Ford. If money and
permission can be found for the reconstruction of a crossing at
US Route 202, the Oxford line could connect to the SEPTA R-3 line
at Wawa.
Proponents of expanded rail service all point to the region's
past when three major lines radiated out across the County from
Philadelphia, and branch lines brought most homes, farms and
businesses within five miles of a station. All three of the
major lines -- the Schuylkill Valley line through Phoenixville,
the Main Line through Downingtown and Coatesville, and the
Octararo line through Kennett Square and Oxford -- still exist,
and the first two have been maintained and upgraded to the
highest current standards.
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Some of the branch lines still exist as well, and supporters of
extending the R-3 to West Chester are counting on that. The R-3
line from Philadelphia to Elwyn was built in 1858 by the West
Chester & Philadelphia Railroad company. In 1882, the
Pennsylvania Railroad got control of the line, and operated it
until the 1960s when first Penn Central and finally SEPTA took it
over. As part of efforts to avoid bankruptcy, the Pennsylvania
Railroad and Penn Central each reduced service to West Chester.
SEPTA took the final step in 1986 when it closed everything
beyond Elwyn and replaced the train with buses. The line
remained, however, and in 1997, a
group of railroad enthusiasts leased it for ten years.
Using grant money and volunteer labor, they upgraded rails,
restored crossing signals, replaced thousands of ties and
introduced weekend excursion service. This year, they aim to
renew their lease for ten more years and to celebrate the 150th
anniversary of the line next November.
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McKinstry isn't holding his breath until service is restored --
he's too much of a realist for that. The Westtown teacher who
lives in Swarthmore acknowledges that his life would be easier if
service resumes to Westtown. But his real motivation, according
to an email sent to WCJIM, is
"conservation of energy, reduction of congestion, reduction of
pollution, etcetera." He cites an article from the March 2008
edition of The Atlantic Monthly called "The Next Slum"
which predicts that rising fuel costs will lead to (among other
things) the decline of suburbs as mortgages foreclose, commuting
becomes more painful, and those with money opt to return to urban
centers. Once that happens, then the tax base that has made
suburban school districts attractive until now will disappear,
hastening movement towards the cities.
McKinstry also wants to give his students the experience of
riding the rails. To that end, teachers from Westtown have
already hired the West
Chester Railroad to haul passengers from Elwyn for the
"Friends School Day of the Earth" conference at Westtown School
in April. He is also speaking to groups around the area about
the value of rail service, lobbying local, state and federal
officials, and managing an on-line petition which he will use to
persuade lawmakers.
To join the effort to restore R-3 rail service to West
Chester, visit the
petition web site.. To learn more about the history of rail
service to West Chester, get a copy of Railroads of West Chester and/or visit
this web site's railroad
history section.
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Spring Cleaning in the Borough
[Posted March 12, 2008 ]
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On Saturday, April 19, Borough residents will make a special
effort to clean up their neighborhoods in recognition of "Earth
Day." It is also a day for more elaborate volunteer
efforts, such as the annual Goose
Creek clean-up sponsored by the Chester-Ridley-Crum Creek
Watersheds Association. This year there will be even more
volunteers, thanks to an effort currently being organized by the
Friars Society at West Chester University.
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The Friars are a service fraternity which organizes WCU students,
faculty and administrators to volunteer in the community. This
week, while most students are away on spring break, their leaders
are discussing a plan to send their members into Mosteller,
Rustin, and Green Parks in the southeast, and have them pick up
trash along the major north-south streets as they return to
campus.
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Spreading mulch in Everhart Park
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Meanwhile, the Friends of Everhart Park, the Friends of Marshall
Square Park, the Friends of Veterans Memorial Park, and other
neighborhood associations all have plans to work on their parts
of the Borough. From experience, WCJIM knows that the Friends of Everhart
Park will delegate members to weed and spread fresh mulch at each
of the park entrances, while others will pick up trash,
especially from along the stream that runs across the park.
[NOTE: The EVerhart Park clean-up is a week later on Saturday,
April 26.]
Other groups will mount similar efforts in their neighborhoods,
while there will also be individuals who work on their own
without recognition, simply because they want to do good.
The Borough's Public Works Department will play a major role
in all of this by providing both labor and materials. Groups can
arrange to have Borough employees pick up trash that they've
collected, and even get trash bags to use for their effort. The
Goose Creek volunteers will use the Public Works building to meet
up, and Public Works will provide the mulch used in the Borough
Parks.
WCJIM will be there too -- cleaning up "Jack's Entrance" to
Everhart Park during the week, then working with the Friars on
Saturday. He is looking forward to seeing lots of volunteers in
different parts of town. If you want to help out, but don't know
where to start, send an email.
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New Voting Locations in the Borough
[Posted March 14, 2008 ]
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There's still time to register to vote for Pennsylvania's April
22 primary election, but Chester County Voter Services is already
worrying about where people are going to vote. Every precinct
gets its own polling place, and with 222 precincts in the County,
a half dozen or so get new polling places each election. This
year, two of them are in the Borough of West Chester.
The two affected precincts are Ward 3 and Ward 7. Ward 3 is
located west of High Street, roughly between Barnard and Wayne
Streets at West Chester University. For the last several
elections, Ward 3 voters have gone to Phillips Memorial Hall at
the corner of High Street and University Avenue, but this year,
they will return to the Lawrence Dining Hall -- a location used
in the past by Ward 3 voters. Lawrence Hall was expanded and
refurbished recently, and now that the work is done, it offers a
lot more room for election day activities while still fulfilling
its primary functions -- serving food and housing offices.
Although it is unlikely that Voter Services took this into
account, placing a polling place in a dining hall rather than an
administration building may increase the turnout in Ward 3 among
students who are registered to vote.
The other switch is planned for Ward 7 in the Northwest part
of town. For years, voters have gone to the Country Club on W.
Ashbridge Street, and for just as many years there have been
concerns that location discouraged the majority of the ward's
voters, who live in somewhat more proletarian neighborhoods
further south. That won't be the case this year, as the new
polling location is in the Elks Club, located on W. Washington
Street near the Terwood Court Apartments, the Lukoil gas station
on Hannum Avenue, and Sam's Pizza Island.
The rest of the Borough's polling places remain as they were
last year, and the hours -- 7am to 8pm -- are unchanged. The
complete list of Borough polling places for the April 22 primary
appears below, and the complete list for the County appears at
the
Voter Services web site.
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Polling Places for Spring 2008
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| Ward
| Location
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| Location
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| 1
| Chester County Historical Society
225 N. High St.
| 4
| Borough Public Works Bldg.
205 Lacey St.
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| 2E
| Melton Community Center
501 E. Miner St.
| 5
| WCU's Wayne Hall back lobby
W. Rosedale Ave. near New St.
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| 2W
| Borough Hall Room 240
401 E. Gay St.
| 6
| First Presbyterian Church
130 W. Miner St.
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| 3
| WCU's Lawrence Dining Hall
S. New St.
| 7
| The Elk's Club
335 W. Washington St.
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A Truck Driver's Perspective
[Posted March 18, 2008 ]
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In a Borough as dense as ours, where everyone's actions has an
impact on every one else, one source of irritation is the
behavior of large trucks. Most of the distress seems to emanate
from Gay Street, but between construction projects, state truck
routes and businesses located outside the Town Center, large
trucks have been known to appear in all pars of town.
West Chester's trucking industry began before World War I
when local farmers used farm equipment to haul local products and
took moving jobs on the side. Several eventually formed
companies that specialized in hauling other people's loads,
including Ralph G. Smith, T. E. Smith and A. Duie Pyle, among
others. Until well after World War II, they operated from
terminals within the Borough limits, but as trucks and trucking
companies grew in size, they either moved out of town or were
acquired by rivals. (Ralph G. Smith, which still operates from a
terminal on S. Franklin Street, is an exception.)
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West Chester's location provided an even greater source o
traffic. High Street and Gay Street provide a crossroads for
routes that connect regional industrial centers like Chester,
Wilmington, Philadelphia, and Reading. For instance, in 1930
Borough Council members wrestled with the question of where to
send the tank trucks of the Motor Mileage Corporation, which
hauled fuel oil from Chester to Coatesville via West Chester.
Nowadays industry generates less traffic, but ports, distribution
centers and the region's shopping malls all generate truck
traffic that passes through our Borough. When added to
construction traffic and deliveries to local businesses, there is
no part of the Borough that remains truck=free all of the time.
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Even West Chester's main streets are a tight fit for some
trucks, like this tractor trailer at the corner of High and
Market Streets
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That is why almost everyone has a "truck story." One of my
earliest "truck stories" took place at the corner of E. Nields
and S. Franklin Streets, a block west of the railroad tracks on
the street that runs past the Wyeth property. As the
southernmost Borough street that crosses the railroad tracks,
Nields Street receives far more than its share of traffic trying
to avoid the center of town. Since it is located at the edge of
the industrial zone, Nields Street is also a truck driver's
choice, even though "No Truck" signs were (and still are)
displayed prominently in the neighborhood. One of the first
nights that I lived in my house near the corner, I woke to a
bedroom full of flashing yellow lights and the sound of a diesel
engine idling right next to my pillow -- or so it seemed. I
looked out the window and saw a huge tractor trailer that had
tried to turn onto Nields Street but gotten caught up in the
corner neighbor's landscaping. I joined several of my neighbors
and we directed the driver to move forward and back until he
could escape without further damage, but before we were done, a
police officer arrived and gave him a citation.
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Most truck stories in this town take place on Gay Street, because
that is where trucks interact most frequently with traffic. The
situation on Gay Street is much different from Nields Street,
however, because it is lined with businesses which require
deliveries, and those in the "zero-blocks" -- the blocks on
either side of High Street -- have no alley access from the rear.
Farther out, there are alleys, but the trucks still unload along
Gay Street, causing traffic backups and all sorts of anger from
motorists trying to get through town. "Why can't the
Borough make them unload in the back?" people frequently ask.
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Corner stores like this one at Wayne & Gay Street (above),
offer no place to pull off, and even with a parking lot, the 7-11
has barely enough room for this truck to get off of S. High
Street
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To those people, I suggest spending a moment imagining that you
are an out-of-town driver piloting a large truck to an address on
Gay Street. Your instructions may or may not specify a location
to unload, but even if they do, by the time you spot your
destination, it's clear that you are in a constricted urban
environment more like Center City Philadelphia than a suburban
town like Downingtown, Malvern, or even Phoenixville. You may
not know the reason for this -- the center of West Chester was
laid out in the 18th century while the others were laid out later
and with wider streets -- but you know that your truck may not be
able to turn at the next corner, and of it even leads in the
right direction in our town of one-way streets. So your choice
is to pull up in one of the traffic lanes in front of your
destination and unload as quickly as you can, or drive on in the
hope of finding your way to an alley that may not exist, and risk
getting hung up making a turn at a side street or into an alley.
Add this to your calculation -- you've got a lot of deliveries to
make before your work day is over -- and the "better" solution
becomes clear in a hurry. Put on your flashers, drop that load,
and get out of West Chester as quickly as you can.
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No doubt, there are truck drivers whose motives are less pure and
whose concern for our community is limited to getting out of town
without being stopped by the police, but most of them are not
trying to impede your way or disturb your peace. They are just
trying to do their job, and it's to everyone's benefit if they
can do it quickly. Fortunately people who drive smaller vehicles
have options unavailable to large trucks. First, we are allowed
to drive on streets that are off-limits to trucks, and we have no
fears that turning onto a side street or into an alley will lead
to a place where we have to back up. Second, most os us live in
town, so we can park our car and walk.
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Even though the neighborhood looks residential, W. Miner
Street is a state route that attracts large trucks
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Finally, for those of you who need to drive into the center of
town, the solution is to follow the state business routes.
Between the north and south, that means staying on High Street
because, even if you don't make it through every light without
stopping, you'll still progress faster and cause less disturbance
in the neighborhoods than if you take one of the parallel streets
with a stop sign at every corner. For those of you heading from
west to east, Market Street is the only game in town unless your
starting out in Downingtown or East Bradford, in which case you
should be take Route 322 bypass and keep your complaints about
Borough traffic to yourself. Finally, for anyone headed from
east to west along Gay Street, follow the signs that take you
past the center of town along Chestnut Street, and leave Gay
Street for drivers who have to make stops there.
Full disclosure: It's been some years since WCJIM drove large vehicles, and he never
made a delivery to the center of West Chester, but he has a
commercial driver's license and drove coach buses and trucks to
urban and suburban destinations in five states plus Washington
D.C. His most recent truck-driving experiences involved rented
moving trucks including one which departed from West Chester.
Nowadays, he walks most places in the Borough.
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Borough Employees Earn Safety Award
[Posted March 20, 2008 ]
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Last night's Borough Council meeting was not very exciting, but
revealed a few things which WCJIM
thought my interest visitors to this site. One was a
presentation to the Borough by Cheryl Lees of PennPrime, the
organization that provides Borough employees with workers'
compensation insurance. As one component of the fastest growing
part of the Borough's costs, insurance attracts a lot of
attention from Borough employees, so the news from PennPrime was
welcome. The Borough of West Chester is one of eleven
municipalities, out of a total of 102, which managed to keep its
compensation claims below a threshold (30% of premiums paid) this
year. What that really means is that Borough employees --
police, public works, sewer plant, and general administration --
worked safely this past year, and consequently saved the Borough
money. The savings come in the form of premiums that remain
stable. Since PennPrime is an organization that pools the risks
of all of its members, any time one municipality has a year like
the Borough did, all of the members benefit. In addition, when
workers stay on the job, the Borough saves on the cost of
replacement workers.
Borough Manager McNeely praised the Borough's safety
committee, established with the help of PennPrime's loss control
program, for improving the Borough's safety record. The
committee, which includes Richard Ashenfelter, Bob Baker, Judy
Benes, Jerry Dinunzio, Sandy Huss, Ed Jamieson, O. B. Laing,
Hector Mojica, and Don Powers, represents the Borough's work
force. It will receive a $1000 prize from PennPrime to apply
towards their efforts to improve worker safety.
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Steve Crum and Jonathan Eddy of the Borough's Goodwill Fire Company
also appeared to thank the Borough for contributing $50,000
towards the construction of their new fire station on E. Union
Street next to Bolmar St. Crum described how the Company had
become frustrated in its efforts to locate a more practical space
-- remember when they had to stop traffic on E. Gay Street so
they could back their trucks into the station across from Rite
Aid? -- and thanked the Borough Manager for helping them locate
their current space. He added thanks for Council's October 200
decision to donate $10,000 per year for five years to the
building fund, and described how happy the Company's members are
with the new building. Council member Cassandra Jones (Dem, Ward
2) added that neighbors in her ward have also benefitted from the
use of the fire station's meeting room to plan community events.
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Jonathon Eddy displays a painting of the former Goodwill
Fire House on E. Gay Street
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There was a new wrinkle in the process to redevelop the
former Yearsley hardware store site. At issue is whether the
newest design should go before the HARB (Historical &
Architectural Review Board) for comment before Borough Council
grants permission to proceed further with the project. Lawyers
for the McCools (the developer) and the Borough disagree and
provided Council members with letters stating their arguments
this week. Council offered a compromise which the McCools
accepted, and granted preliminary approval, but added HARB review
to the conditions that must be met before Council can grant final
approval. [The other conditions are listed under item #8 of the
work session agenda for March
18, 2008.]
The only other item that has received much public attention
was the hotel proposed for the Warner Theater site on N. High
Street. At its work session, Council agreed that it should go
forward, so it appeared at Wednesday night's voting session as an
item on the "consent agenda." No one spoke for or against it, so
its approval, also with a lengthy list of conditions -- see item
#7 of the work session agenda --
was a formality.
The rest of the meeting dealt with contracts for aluminum
sulfate, plumbing inspections, correcting an error in the Borough
Code, and extending permit parking to the 400-block of W. Market
Street. All of this was carefully observed by about 25 members
of a West Chester University journalism class who were on
assignment to write a story about municipal government. Next
week, they will have WCJIM as a guest speaker in their class to
answer questions about what they observed.
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