Major Investment Study / Draft Environmental Impact Statement   1. Project Purpose and Need     1.2 Corridor Description

1.2 CORRIDOR DESCRIPTION 

1.2.1 CORRIDOR BOUNDARY AND STUDY AREA

Actual study area dimensions vary by impact category. Socioeconomic and land use data were collected using census data for all 52 corridor municipalities. Cultural and most environmental conditions and impacts were characterized and assessed within narrower, category-specific bandwidths, ranging between 150 feet and one-quarter mile, and spanning the full 62-mile length of the alignment. Select elements, including the travel demand ridership model, regional air quality and energy consumption impacts were evaluated on a larger geographic basis that included the entire Philadelphia region and Berks County.

1.2.2 ACTIVITY CENTERS LOCATED WITHIN THE CORRIDOR

Philadelphia - Philadelphia serves as the cultural and economic hub of the region. Philadelphia has over 1.4 million people and over 850,000 jobs, 67 percent and 70 percent, respectively, of the corridor's totals. The downtown business and cultural district, known as Center City, hosts over 300,000 jobs and provides an abundant variety of tourist attractions, shops, and restaurants. SEPTA's regional rail, city rapid transit, subway-surface streetcar and bus lines converge at one or more of three major Center City intermodal transit hubs - 30^th Street Station, Suburban Station, and Market East Station. 30th Street Station is also served by Amtrak's inter-city Northeast Corridor and long distance rail services and NJT Atlantic City commuter rail service. NJT bus service and PATCO rapid transit service are easily accessible from the Market East Station. Direct linkage with the Philadelphia International Airport via SEPTA regional rail is available from all three hubs. Philadelphia attractions within or linked to Center City via SEPTA include: Pennsylvania Convention Center, University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, Temple University, Franklin Institute, Independence Hall National Historical Park, Penns Landing, Boat House Row, First Union Center, Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia Art Museum, and Philadelphia Zoo. SEPTA's services are heavily used both to commute into Center City from outlying city neighborhoods and the surrounding suburbs and to commute from the city to jobs in the suburbs. Center City Philadelphia serves as the eastern terminus for the build alternatives.

52^nd Street (Philadelphia) - Located west of Center City in West Philadelphia, the proposed 52^nd Street station area is a strategic location near Lancaster Avenue (a major inner-city arterial road), a new Keystone Opportunity Zone, the Mann Music Center (Philadelphia's summer outdoor concert center), Fairmount Park, the West Philadelphia residential population, and several bus and subway/surface transit lines. 52^nd Street is proposed as a station location for SVM.

City Avenue (Bala Station) - The City Avenue Special Services District, the first joint city/suburb special services district in the nation, includes portions of Philadelphia and Lower Merion Township. The district includes the majority of the approximately 40,000 jobs in the township. The district also includes major apartment complexes, shopping centers, and St. Joseph's University. City Avenue itself is a major traffic artery (US Route 1) carrying several SEPTA bus routes and connecting with the Schuylkill Expressway (I-76) and Roosevelt Boulevard (US Route 1). The Bala station is served by SEPTA R6 Cynwyd regional rail line.

Manayunk (Philadelphia) - Manayunk is a former mill center on the Schuylkill River in northwest Philadelphia. In the last 20 years, Main Street in Manayunk has evolved into a highly popular restaurant, shopping, and residential district attracting new residents, restaurant goers, and boutique shoppers from the region. The Schuylkill River Bike Trail, which connects Center City and Valley Forge, is located on the towpath along the Manayunk Canal, behind the Main Street shops. Manayunk is served by SEPTA's R6 Norristown regional rail line.

Miquon, Spring Mill and Conshohocken - Each of these areas (as well as West Conshohocken) has experienced considerable job growth in the late 1990s as office buildings were created from abandoned factories or newly built. Conshohocken, especially, is experiencing a boom from the continued development of office and corporate complexes. Each of these areas is served by SEPTA's R6 Norristown regional rail line.

Norristown - Norristown, as the Montgomery County seat, provides extensive government, legal, and social services as well as a variety of shopping and commercial services. The Norristown Transportation Center serves as a suburban intermodal hub (i.e. SEPTA R6, Route 100, motor bus) and is located within walking distance of the downtown. A 500-car parking garage is under development to serve the transportation center. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection will be relocating 300 jobs into Norristown in 2001. Norristown appears to be positioned to capture private office development similar to the developments in Conshohocken.

Malls at King of Prussia and King of Prussia Corporate Center - The mall complex at King of Prussia is the second largest shopping mall in the United States and the largest mall on the east coast. The complex attracts approximately 16.1 million shoppers per year and contains more than 360 stores with approximately 5,720 employees occupying a total of 2.8 million square feet of leasable space. The mall's parking lot contains approximately 14,000 parking spaces. King of Prussia is located in Upper Merion Township where over 49,000 people are employed, nearly twice the number of people who live in Upper Merion. SEPTA provides bus service to King of Prussia from Philadelphia and Norristown on Routes 92, 99, 118, 123, 124 and 125.

Valley Forge National Historical Park (VFNHP)- Attracting approximately 7 million visitors annually, VFNHP is a major recreational, educational, open space, and historic resource for the region. The park is the site of General George Washington's Revolutionary War Headquarters which still exists approximately 50 yards from the existing railroad right-of-way proposed to be used by SVM. The park's Visitor Center is also less than one mile from the proposed Port Kennedy Station.

Phoenixville, Royersford and Pottstown - All three boroughs are old industrial and commercial centers, including both active and inactive industrial sites. Each of these communities is bounded by growing suburban areas, are ideal locations for train stations, and their relatively high land use densities offer excellent opportunities for economic revitalization serving the surrounding suburbs, through transit oriented developments. In Phoenixville, an approximately 100-acre, former industrial complex is being redeveloped as an integrated complex of offices, residences, and parkland. The complex, which is expected to employ over 5000, is adjacent to the proposed SVM station and the borough's main shopping street. The Montgomery County Community College West Campus is located within Pottstown and would accessible from the proposed SVM project.

Western Montgomery County and Eastern Berks County townships - The greatest population growth in the corridor and one of the greatest growth areas in the region are the townships from Lower Providence to Exeter along the US Route 422 corridor. Suburban sprawl residential developments resulting in losses of farmland and open space make this area a prime candidate for transit oriented development. Shopping is typically in strip malls rather than town centers and travel to these areas is automobile dependent due to their locations and the lack of public transportation.

Reading - The City of Reading, with a population of approximately 75,000, is the second largest city in the study corridor. It is the seat of Berks County and is located one mile east of the western terminus (i.e. Wyomissing) of the SVM project. Reading's attractions and facilities include Reading Municipal Stadium (minor league baseball), BARTA Intermodal Transit Facility (ITF), Albright College, and the Community General and St. Joseph's Hospitals. The new Berks County Civic Center in downtown Reading is forecast to attract thousands of visitors. SVM's western terminus will be at the nearby, nationally renowned Vanity Fair Outlets in Wyomissing. BARTA provides bus service within Reading and the surrounding communities, linked to the ITF, which would also be a SVM station location.

1.2.3 TRANSPORTATION CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CORRIDOR

The three public transit providers in the corridor are SEPTA, Pottstown Urban Transit (PUT), Inc. and BARTA. (See Figure 1.2-2 Existing Transit Services [PDF]). SEPTA provides an extensive network of regional rail (commuter rail), high speed transit subway (heavy rail), subway surface (light rail), and bus service within Philadelphia, between Philadelphia and the neighboring suburbs, and to a lesser extent between suburbs. Regional rail service within the corridor is currently provided between Norristown and Center City and Cynwyd and Center City. SEPTA bus service links Philadelphia and Norristown with King of Prussia and Pottstown with Norristown. BARTA provides bus services radiating from downtown Reading to the surrounding communities. Pottstown Urban Transit (PUT) serves the western portion of Montgomery County and Northern Chester County.

Norfolk Southern provides through and local freight services in the corridor on their Harrisburg main line, which parallels the Schuylkill river between Philadelphia and Reading, and the Phoenixville Industrial Track between Perkiomen Junction and Phoenixville.

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