PSA: It’s the El & the Subway

A friend of mine recently told me he was taking the subway from 5th & Market to the University of Pennsylvania.  I told him that was impossible.  He was perplexed. Since then, I’ve become aware of people referencing SEPTA trains, which run through the city limits, by the wrong names.  It’s practically an epidemic among the 18-30 year-olds that are new to the city. If you’re one of those people, this post is for you.

I’ve heard Broad Street Line, Blue Line, Orange Line, Market-Frankford Line, both called subways, and a few other misnomers.  They may all seem reasonable and acceptable to you. Technically, some of them may be right. However, that’s not how those born and raised here have been referring to them for decades.  Just like people from San Francisco never call their city Frisco.  That’s what people from Los Angeles and other cities call it.

Philadelphia has two SEPTA trains.  The El and the Subway.  The Subway runs North and South, up and down Broad Street from Fern Rock to Pattison Avenue.  The El runs from Bridge & Pratt to 69th Street. The El basically runs East/North Easternly & West.

If you don’t get out of the Center City/University City/Norther Liberties areas you may be unaware that the El is actually an elevated train from Bridge & Pratt to Spring Garden Streets and then along Market Street from 46th to 69th Street.

Underneath the El looks along its elevated sections looks like this:

There you have it.  Use El and Subway instead of Orange Line, Blue Line, Broad Street Line or whatever else you were using and you’ll sound like a lifelong Philadelphian.  Or not. You’re call.

The More You Know!