Why Should Delaware Care?
Thousands of Delawareans rely on SEPTA’s Wilmington/Newark train line to get to Philadelphia. The additional train service will allow riders to stay in Philadelphia later than they would have on both weekdays and weekends.
Late-night train service from Philadelphia to Wilmington is back — for now.
SEPTA’s newest schedule, published Monday, extends service on its latest weekday and weekend Wilmington/Newark Line trains to Wilmington, rather than ending at Marcus Hook, Pa.
The new schedule will go into effect on Sunday, July 5. It is separate from SEPTA’s temporary increase of regional rail frequency for the World Cup and the Fourth of July.
SEPTA riders at the Wilmington station on Thursday said they were surprised and happy that the service will improve.
“That’s what should’ve been done in the first place,” Chester, Pa., resident Elizabeth Richardson said.
She uses the Wilmington/Newark Line to visit family, she said, and the limited night service was difficult to work around.
Wilmington resident Jasmine Geiger said she sometimes has to take an Uber home from Philadelphia after the trains stop running at night.
“People need it to be able to get home,” she said.
While riders said the late-night train service is a welcome change, it might not be here to stay. Catherine Smith, a spokesperson for Delaware’s transit agency, DART, said the agency cut late night train service last fall because of low ridership.
Often only one or two people would take the late night train from Philadelphia, she said. And DART has to pay the full cost of the train service in Delaware, which has amounted to $10 million annually in recent years.
Smith said DART has heard from riders that there is a demand for late-night service, especially in the summer, but noted the agency will monitor ridership closely over the next few months.
If ridership stays low, DART may cut the service again, she said.
The increased service comes after SEPTA threatened to cut the Wilmington/Newark Line entirely due to a major budget shortfall.
Last year, SEPTA proposed cutting nearly half of its service because of a $213 million budget deficit that, it said, emerged as inflation increased and COVID-era dollars dried up.
Then, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration reversed the service cuts by authorizing SEPTA to dip into its capital dollars — which it uses for new vehicles and infrastructure — to pay for its daily operations. The agency also instated a 21.5% fare increase.
SEPTA General Manager Scott Sauer said at the time the agency can avoid service cuts until 2027, but that the solution “exacerbated the future need.”
What are the schedule changes?
With the new schedule, Wilmington-bound riders will be able to leave Philadelphia later.
The latest SEPTA weekday train to Wilmington will leave Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station at 10:40 p.m. — about three hours later than the current latest weekday train.
Wilmington riders will also be able to leave from 30th Street Station at 11:14 p.m. on weekends. The current latest weekend train to Wilmington leaves two hours earlier.
The latest trains to Philadelphia from Wilmington will not change. On weekdays, the latest train leaves Wilmington just after 8 p.m., and on weekends, it leaves at 10:30 p.m.
The service change did not increase train frequency, which remains below pre-pandemic levels. Trains depart from Philadelphia every two hours on weekends and at various frequencies on weekdays.
It also did not extend the late night service to Newark or Churchman’s Crossing, but the trains to Wilmington will stop at the Claymont Transit Station.
The train ride to Wilmington from Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station takes about 45 minutes. The one-way fare is $8.75 on weekdays and $8 on weekends. The fare increases to $11 if riders pay onboard the train.
