(Diverted) SEPTA Trolleys at 40th and Filbert

A city intersection with an attractive 3-story building with a turret, with a crossroads of trolley tracks in the street, and two trolleys right and left, one on each street

Aug 7th, 2011, by Alex Zorach

This photo is taken at the corner of 40th and Filbert street, facing northwest. The composition of this photo looks a little awkward in the way it cuts off the top of the building's attractive-looking turret, but it is deliberate in the sense that the photo is intended to capture the SEPTA trolleys and not the building.

This intersection has a confluence of all West Philadelphia's trolley routes, when the trolleys are diverted to 40th and Market instead of going into the downtown tunnel loop through the two subway-surface portals. The southern trolleys (all but route 10) follow a somewhat roundabout route, going east to 38th street and then north, making a left on Filbert, where they arrive at this intersection and let off their passengers, who walk a block to transfer to SEPTA's Market-Frankford line.

On the right in this photo is the Route 10 trolley, which has followed a different route, coming in Lancaster Avenue. Note that this intersection allows some turns, but not all possible turns, as these streets are both one-way. Trolleys turning to the left in this photo proceed to pick up passengers at the 40th street station of the MFL, and then proceed to travel into West Philadelphia through a somewhat zigzagging route.