SEPTA Subway–Surface Trolley Lines

Center City

Starting from their eastern terminus at 13th Street Station near City Hall, the trolleys loop around in a tunnel under City Hall before stopping at under Dilworth Park at 15th Street station and then realign back under Market Street.

All five routes also stop at 19th Street, 22nd Street, 30th Street, and 33rd Street, which are all underground stations. From 15th to 30th Streets, they run in the same tunnel as SEPTA's Market–Frankford Line, which runs express on the inner tracks while the trolleys utilize the outer ones.

Passengers may transfer free of charge to the Market–Frankford Line at 13th, 15th, and 30th Streets, as well as to the Broad Street Line at 15th Street. Connections to the Regional Rail are also available via underground passageways connecting 13th and 15th Street stations to Suburban Station, one of the city's main commuter rail terminals.

University City

After traveling under the Schuylkill River, the trolley lines provide access to 30th Street Station, a passenger terminal located across the street from the trolley and rapid transit station. Connection is available to Regional Rail, many Amtrak services, and New Jersey Transit's Atlantic City Line. An underground passageway that connects these two stations is currently closed. The closure was due to passenger safety issues after a passenger attack in the 1990s. In 2016, the 30th Street Station District proposed overhauling both 30th Street Station's SEPTA and trolley stations including, by public demand, the reopening the tunnel that connects the two (currently separate) stations, thus ceasing the need for passengers to resurface, walk outside to cross the busy 30th Street, and then enter the other station. The timeline called for the tunnel overhaul to be part of Phase 1 and thus completed by 2020. ^[4]

All routes then stop at 33rd Street, near Drexel University. After this stop, Route 10 diverts from the others and emerges from the tunnel at the 36th Street Portal just south of Market Street, then turns north onto 36th Street and then northwest along Lancaster Avenue and other surface streets. The other four lines make underground stops at 36th and Sansom streets and 37th and Spruce streets on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania before surfacing at the 40th Street Portal near Baltimore Avenue, heading southwest on surface streets.

Points south and west

The Route 11 line, traveling along Main Street in Darby, crosses CSX Transportation at grade. This, along with the TECO streetcar is currently one of the few locations in the U.S. with an at-grade crossing between a trolley line and a major freight rail line.^[5][6]

Diversion services

When tunnels are closed due to maintenance, an accident or some other obstruction, all five trolleys can be diverted onto auxiliary surface tracks west of the 40th Street Portal.

Tracks for Route 10 start at Lancaster Avenue (Route 10) and proceed southbound along 40th Street. At Market Street, the line connects to the Market–Frankford Line at its 40th Street station. The surface tracks continue southbound to Spruce Street, where they splits either eastbound or westbound. Westbound tracks run to 42nd Street where they turn south to either Baltimore Avenue (Route 34), Chester Avenue (Route 13), or Woodland Avenue (Routes 11 and 36).

Tracks for the other four routes run northbound along 42nd Street, then turning east onto Spruce Street and then north onto 38th Street (US 13). From here, it travels to Filbert Street, then turning left and crossing the 40th Street tracks. When Filbert Street terminates at 41st Street, the tracks turn right, and head north until reaching Lancaster Avenue.^[7]

Another set of diversionary trolley tracks begin near the 49th Street Regional Rail station, connecting Chester Avenue to Woodland Avenue (where Routes 11 and 36 separate) by way of 49th Street.