PATCO will stop running overnight trains to clean its stations

PATCO plans to stop running overnight trains on weekdays this spring for six months to allow deep cleaning and maintenance on its 13 stations in South Jersey and Philadelphia, officials said Wednesday.

The move comes amid persistent customer concerns about safety, the people who take shelter in some stations, and accumulated dirt and grime.

“Solutions have to date been defying our best efforts,” said John T. Hanson, CEO of the Delaware River Port Authority, which operates the high-speed line. Agency staff are working to coordinate a response with South Jersey municipalities, the City of Philadelphia, and advocates and social-service organizations that work with people who are homeless, he said.

Under the developing plan, PATCO will shut down from midnight to 4 a.m. Sunday through Thursday. Some details are still being worked out, including negotiations over a formal agreement with the city that would allow PATCO to close and clean the concourse and stairwells outside its fare gates at the 12th-13th and Locust Streets and 15th-16th and Locust stops.

Philadelphia owns those spaces, which have long been sites for encampments for unhoused people and are often strewed with trash, human waste, and even, at times, tents. PATCO controls the platforms and other spaces behind the turnstiles.

“We are committed to a clean and safe environment for our riders while being compassionate and respectful,” said board chairman James Schultz of Philadelphia. He thanked Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and officials across her administration for their “cooperation and support” to improve safety for people coming to the city.

Police and social-services workers will help move people who are sheltering in stations, officials said. Stations — including the Franklin Square station, slated to reopen after nearly 50 years on April 3 — will be locked while the maintenance personnel are cleaning them.

» READ MORE: PATCO’s Franklin Square station finally has a reopening date

Jeffrey Nash, a Camden County commissioner and board member, thanked Schultz, Hanson, and DRPA board member Pat Deon, former chairman of SEPTA’s board, for leadership on the issue.

“They tackled a very complicated problem,” Nash said. “It should be known that this is not just on PATCO. It is a national problem that’s experienced in every city and every transportation system.

In Philadelphia, SEPTA has had to deal with antisocial behavior such as drug use and smoking in stations and on transit vehicles as well as crime, though serious violent crimes have steadily declined over the last two years.

“Our friends and neighbors who regularly use the PATCO line deserve a safe and clean transit system and the repair and maintenance work is long overdue,” Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity said in a statement. She is an ex officio member of the DRPA board.

About 125 people who travel overnight on the line would be affected, officials said, adding that the work was scheduled to not interfere with health-care worker shifts. PATCO would operate 24 hours a day on Fridays and Saturdays.

Commissioners hope to vote on a completed legal agreement with Philadelphia for access to city property adjoining PATCO stations at next month’s meeting; work would begin soon afterward. PATCO does not yet have an estimate of how much these efforts will cost.

“Our board has taken a position, and staff agrees, even though this has not historically been our job or our problem,” Hanson said. “If nobody else is going to do it, we must take action.”