New Britain Residents Want Weekend Train Service Back

Residents of New Britain Borough turned out at a SEPTA public hearing Thursday to voice their frustration over the weekend closure of their regional rail station.

While regional rail was not a scheduled topic of discussion at the public hearing, hearing examiner Joseph O’Malley and SEPTA representative John Calnan allowed the residents to speak.

The testimony on the regional rail service will be taken back to the SEPTA rail department. Residents said they have called and written letters to SEPTA about the issue and have not heard back.

O’Malley said a public hearing is not required when the closing affects less than 15 percent of the ridership.

In December 2011, SEPTA closed the New Britain Regional Rail station on weekends because of low ridership. Only 2.6 percent of the line's riders were getting on and off at the New Britain station on Saturdays and Sundays.

However, residents Doug and Donna Fischer argued, “Public transportation…is supposed to be the increase.” They believe they should be able to ride the train on the weekends as well as during the week.

Cornelia Humphries said, “We are extremely upset about this little thing.” She said from where she lives in New Britain, she can walk to the train station, but on the weekends she is either stuck at home or has to drive to DelVal College or Chalfont to get to an open train station.

“This is extremely important,” said Humphries.

Catherine Blake said the New Britain station should be a flag stop station. Trains slow down as they pass through the borough, anyway, she said.

David Holewinski, Mayor of New Britain Borough, said SEPTA told the borough that improvements along the line help save trains time, as does not stopping at New Britain station. However, he cited timetables from 2009 and from March 2012 where the times are identical, even with all of the improvements and not stopping in the borough.

“I have a great difficulty to understand why they stopped it as a flag stop,” said Holewinski.

He added he doesn’t think SEPTA understands all the implications of closing this station.

O’Malley thanked the residents for coming out to the hearing and said he will have the rail department communicate with Holewinski.