SEPTA’s University City Station to become Penn Medicine Station in $3.3 million deal

University City Station will be known as Penn Medicine Station following a multimillion-dollar naming rights contract that looks to provide funding for SEPTA through alternative sources of revenue, the transportation authority announced Monday.

The Regional Rail station’s 6,400 daily riders should expect to see changes to signage, maps, and screens in the near future, with full implementation coming in two months. The station is served by SEPTA’s Airport, Warminster, Wilmington/Newark, West Trenton, and Media/Elwyn Lines.

“I’m very optimistic about the future, and partnerships like the one we’re announcing today with Penn Medicine show why," SEPTA General Manager Leslie Richards said during a Monday press conference.

Penn Medicine will pay $3.3 million over the five-year contract to keep the naming rights — but it’s no first. Penn Medicine Station is SEPTA’s fourth big rebrand in recent memory, with Pattison Station becoming AT&T Station for $5.44 million in 2010 before changing to NRG Station in 2018 for $5.25 million. The former Market East Station was rebranded to Jefferson Station in 2014 for $4 million.

The funds from Monday’s partnership announcement will go toward “the everyday costs of running the transit system,” SEPTA board chairman Pasquale T. “Pat” Deon Sr. said in a statement.

The Philadelphia area has seen its fair share of name changes as of late: The Electric Factory’s transformation into Franklin Music Hall stirred feelings of nostalgia for music lovers in 2018, while Amtrak’s 30th Street Station was renamed to honor late Congressman William Gray last year.

University City Station’s rebranding comes as Penn is expected to open the Pavilion, its private-room patient tower, in 2021.

Richards, former PennDot secretary, highlighted finances as a challenge facing SEPTA as she begins her new role as the agency’s general manager in an interview with The Inquirer last week. She believes transit funding is in “a real precarious point."

Last year, she was part of an advisory council looking to identify solutions, with taxes and fees eyed as possibilities.

Richards called Monday’s announcement “a big deal” for SEPTA.

“Obviously, this is just a drop in the bucket of what we need, but it allows us to plan and we know that we can count on that money for the next five years,” she said. “So when you have dedicated money that’s coming in, it allows you to plan for the longterm and that’s what this partnership’s going to allow us to do.”