Chestnut Hill West line is ‘freedom’ for Germantown seniors fighting to save it

Dottie Jackson draws comfort from the predawn horn blast of the Chestnut Hill West train as it approaches Tulpehocken Station behind her apartment.

“It’s just a pleasure to hear. You know the world is up and moving around,” Jackson said.

People who live in Four Freedoms House, a federally subsidized apartment building for people 62 and older in Germantown, say they fear their Regional Rail line will disappear if SEPTA has to implement drastic service cuts to close a $240 million deficit.

Their attachment runs deeper than mere transportation.

“The train feels like freedom,” said Yvonne Haughton, 64, who added that going places “keeps our brains fresh.”

For now, the death of the Chestnut Hill line remains theoretical. SEPTA officials say that possible cuts are months away and that no decisions have been made. But the authority is preparing contingency plans for an overall 20% cut in service, in case a boost in state transit funding does not arrive in time.

Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed an infusion of $282.8 million a year in new state funding for public transit. SEPTA would initially get $160 million under the proposal, if it passes the legislature.

People in Northwest Philadelphia may have reason to worry. Ridership is always a criterion in setting transit-service levels, and the Regional Rail line that winds through Chestnut Hill, Mount Airy and Germantown to Center City has been lightly used compared with others.

Plenty of buzz has attended the organizing efforts of West Mount Airy activists to save Chestnut Hill West. Nobody wants to lose service they use, but cuts could fall harder on less privileged neighborhoods in Germantown, where some rely on the line.

Although it was sparked in West Mount Airy, the “Save the Train” group has built a broader coalition of concerned residents across the Northwest, including in Germantown — and a sizable cadre of Four Freedoms House tenants are part of it.

In a recent conversation, about a dozen people met in the building’s small library to discuss what the Chestnut Hill line means to them.

Above all, the train is direct and fast, the residents said, about 25 minutes to Jefferson Station, the final stop. “I get there before I have to pee … a 60- or 70-year-old bladder has limitations,” Haughton said.

The same trip might take an hour or more by bus; other journeys are longer, requiring transfers to other routes at transportation centers or catching the Broad Street or Market-Frankford Lines.

Most ride the Route 65 bus, which hugs the western edge of the city en route to the 69th Street Transportation Center. It stops on West Walnut Lane, just down the block and across the street. “It’s a pain,” said Lila Bricklin, 68. “Cars are whizzing by and they don’t stop. … We have people with a range of mobility. On the other side, you wait at the curb with no bus shelter.”

Buses are often late, or some runs are canceled. “Most of all, it’s hard for seniors to get a seat on the bus,” said Toni Barrett, 74. Passengers don’t move and can be rude and rowdy.

Sometimes, it’s hard to get off in time. “God forbid you stay on long enough for the schools to let out,” said Diane Holland, 70, who moved to the building in 2016 to be close to her daughter.

“Mercy,” Holland said. “I’ve had to take a lap in this neighborhood more than once on the 65 because I had not been able to get off. Go back and pass the building again.”

On the train, by comparison, conductors help people with suitcases or walkers and other mobility aids, Haughton said.

“Safety wise, there’s someone on the train to make sure there are no shenanigans,” she said. “No one’s going to snatch your purse and jump off. No one’s going to sit next to you and start cursing or start drinking.”

Residents said they take the train as many as four times a week: to medical appointments; to visit friends or family, to shop downtown or at local business up the line in West Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill; to attend neighborhood festivals; to go out to dinner and listen to music.

Alphonso Wyche, though retired at age 66, gets to his job as a home-health worker in North Philadelphia three days a week.

“We can take a little mini vacation in the summer. A lot of us go down to Atlantic City,” said Chea “Ce Ce” Villanueva, 70, a novelist and poet. They ride Regional Rail to 30th Street Station and buy a cheap round-trip NJ Transit ticket.

“I use it to connect with Amtrak to go to my sister’s in Massachusetts” and for trips downtown or Chestnut Hill, said Tim Ford, who is 68. “It’s a lot easier than taking the 23 bus because from here you’ve got to take the 65 over to Germantown Avenue to get the 23, which is usually crowded.”

Like several other Four Freedoms House folks, Holland said she picked the building because the Tulpehocken platform is a short walk from the back exit. She has access to her family in Wynnewood and takes the train to Upsal Station to see her 11-year-old granddaughter perform acrobatics at the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts.

Sometimes, she goes nowhere in particular. “I ride and meet people and just have the loveliest time — and I don’t feel old anymore.”

Please don’t take away the train, the residents agreed. “If they cut it, we’re going to be trapped,” said Villanueva, who likes to go out at night and feels safe on the rails. “I’m going to feel like a prisoner, along with other people here who don’t see so well in the dark.”