Housing
SEPTA to reopen Somerset Station after a two-week closure with new safety and relief measures
The closure was met with immense backlash from community members, who marched up Kensington Ave. two days after it closed on March 23.
Transportation
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SEPTA says it will reopen Somerset Station
Initially, SEPTA officials estimated the station might remain closed for months. Residents banded together and demanded transparency and participation in the process to safely reopen the station. | From: PlanPhilly (Read more.)
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‘Inaceptable’: Los residentes de Kensington protestan por el cierre de la estación Somerset de SEPTA tras un aviso de una semana
Los residentes dicen que no había que llegar a esto, si la ciudad hubiera invertido en la comunidad de Kensington cuatro años antes. | From: AL DÍA (Read more.)
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‘Unacceptable’: Kensington residents protest closing of SEPTA’s Somerset Station after one week notice
SEPTA closed the Market-Frankford Line’s Somerset Station in Kensington on Sunday, March 21, to repair two elevators, citing public urination and trash disposal for the damage. The elevators will take months to repair, and those 800 average riders every weekday — 40% of pre-COVID’s average — are met with several dilemmas in transportation, ranging from inaccessibility, safety, and the solidifying sense that the city isn’t paying attention to the real problems in Kensington, and refuses to meet them with real action. | From: AL DÍA (Read more.)
Housing
How Kensington became an island
SEPTA’s temporary closure of the Market-Frankford Line’s Somerset Station is not a solution to the poverty and substance use problem that is impacting the station — and our city. The closure is instead another step toward a displacement of some of our most vulnerable citizens — another divestment in a community already depleted by capital flight. | From: PlanPhilly (Read more.)
Housing
Kensington residents share concerns about Somerset Station closure with SEPTA
The dysfunction at Somerset Station reflects problems visible across the SEPTA system — and the city. The closure speaks to a surging crisis of drugs, violence, and homelessness that has burdened residents of Kensington for years and is now unavoidable for the transit agency depended on by the community. | From: PlanPhilly (Read more.)
Housing
‘We shouldn’t have to get less’: Kensington residents protest Somerset Station closure
Station users and SEPTA workers have become increasingly vocal about safety concerns at the station, citing drug use happening there and the growing community of people who are experiencing homelessness and using it as a sheltering place.
But those issues are not isolated to Somerset, and the station’s users shouldn’t have to bear the cost, Kensington residents protesting the closure said. | From: PlanPhilly (Read more.)
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SEPTA hiring 60 security guards for Market Frankford Line
SEPTA officials are working out a contract with a firm to bring 60 security guards to the Market Frankford Line.
The unarmed guards would be stationed between 15th Street Station and Frankford Transportation Center and would be a temporary measure to supplement the 186 SEPTA police officers tasked with covering the sprawling city transit system. | From: PlanPhilly (Read more.)
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SEPTA to reopen Somerset Station with police booth
The round-the-clock effort to improve the station will cost more than $1 million, she told Kensington residents. In addition to the elevator repairs, the effort includes a full cleaning of the station — power washing and getting rid of debris, in-depth structural inspection of the entire station, repairs to the stairs throughout the station, painting, and lighting upgrades. | From: PlanPhilly (Read more.)
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SEPTA may temporarily close Kensington’s Somerset Station over safety issues
Patricia Codina, co-director of community development at Impact Services, a nonprofit organization in Kensington, said conditions at the station made it virtually inaccessible to some riders even before the elevators ceased working, but closing the station could have even bigger repercussions for people who rely on transit to get to work, school, medical appointments, and other destinations. | From: PlanPhilly (Read more.)