SEPTA Route 103

SEPTA Bus Route 103 is a former street car line and current bus route, operated by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) on the outskirts of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. As it has done in the days as a streetcar line Route 103 ran between Ardmore, Pennsylvania and the 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, and was originally operated by the Philadelphia and Western Railroad, then the Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company (aka "Red Arrow Lines") until December 1966.

The route begins at a loop around Suburban Square shopping center in Ardmore, then heads west along Montgomery Avenue where it turns left at the Woodside Road bridge over the SEPTA R5 line near Ardmore (SEPTA station), which also serves Amtrak's Keystone Service. After Woodside it takes a left onto Lancaster Avenue While Route 103 is close to Ardmore station in this area, it doesn't have a direct connection to the station.

From Lancaster Avenue, Route 103 is divided. Southbound buses use Rittenhouse Place, East Athens Avenue, and Cricket Avenue to County Line Road. Northbound buses from County Line Road use Ardmore Avenue to Lancaster Avenue. Shortly after the split between Lancaster Avenue and County Line Roads, Route 103 makes a turn onto a private busway known as Hathaway Lane(a.k.a.; Ardmore Busway), where it immediatley encounters County Line Road Station, which is little more than a shed. The road was originally right-of way for the trolley rails until it was paved over, which is why some of the old P&W/Red Arrow Line sheds still remain in tact. The exception to this is the plexglass bus shelter at Belmont Avenue Station.

Although Hathaway Lane continues to serve as a private road strictly for the Route 103 bus south of Haverford Road, there are some sections that contain parallel roads for residents and the general public. Both the busway and West Hathaway Lane go under SEPTA Route 100 line(Norristown High-Speed Line) at Ardmore Junction (SEPTA station). Merwood Road Station contains residential parallel roads on both sides of the busway, in the form of both West Hathaway and East Hathaway Lane. East Hathaway is a dead end street north of Merwood Road and a one way street betwen Eagle and Merwood Roads. West Hathaway Lane moves away from the busway at the intersection of Huntington Lane.

Though the Ardmore Busway ends at the intersection of Darby Road & Eagle Road in Oakmont, a "Red Arrow" bus shelter can be found after the intersection on Darby Road. The former trolley right-of-way runs west of Darby Road while the current bus route runs down Darby until making a left turn at Brookline Boulevard in Havertown. From there, the bus heads east and makes a right turn onto Earlington Road as it runs south again through Penfield. When Earlington Road ends at Township Line Road the bus turns left again, only to make an instant right turn onto Lynn Boulevard, which borders the western edge of the McCall Field Golf Course and eventually curves at a 90-degree intersection with Pennsylvania Route 3(West Chester Pike). Originally, Llanerch Avenue, near the intersection of Pennsylvania Route 3 and Darby Road and Lansdowne Avenue was where it joined SEPTA Route 104, another former street car converted into a bus route. A mural of a trolley station was painted on a building on the corner where the right-of-way used to exist. Both the Route 103 and 104 buses continue eastward along West Chester Pike unitl roaching the 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby, the same location they reached when they were trolley lines.

External links

* [http://www.septa.org/service/sched/pdfs/bus_81_x/103.pdf SEPTA Route 103 Schedules and Map]
* [http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?16733 Old Ardmore Junction Photo (World-NYCSubways.org)]