The terminal is now the Convention Center. The train shed is the convention center and Reading Terminal Market operates at street level under the floor of the elevated trainshed. The market has been in operation since the Reading opened the terminal in 1893. Market East, the station that repaced the Reading Terminal is right across the street and underground. The viaduct leading up to the Reading train shed still stands (The Great Wall) and there has been talk of making it a linear park similar to the NYC High Line.
The Flying Saucer Restaurant in the Falls...huge nasty breakfast's.
Think they moved the ticket counter to Niigata Falls
RME I wouldn't want to go back to it instead of what's there now, though, as the train-riding to "get places" is tremendously better. Just a couple of days ago I was anticipating having to get from Silver Spring, MD to Yardley, PA, something that would have involved a considerable amount of consternation with the Reading network separate from SEPTA service south to Delaware. It's simple and relatively direct now.
Thanks. Yes I meant ex-Reading SEPTA lines.
Clearly connections now are much better, but I am going to assume (quite possibly in error) that most patrons in the past were commuters to Center City strictly using one SEPTA line from their suburb and return.
I recall a great Trains article about how quickly service was restored after the Reading fire. Doubtless that was another lost skill.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
schlimm Why was it closed?
It was an operational nightmare, a stub-end station with convergence from multiple suburban lines and the West Trenton connection to New York, and little connectivity with the ex-PRR commuter lines that in many cases provided parallel service. Don't even ask about convenient connections to Amtrak service (or SEPTA-NJT service north along the Corridor)
The 'right answer' (esthetically unpleasing as it is) was to build a tunnel connecting 30th St. with Suburban Square and connect the ex-Reading services through there. By that point neither the FP7 top-n-tail service nor the dedicated RDC Wall Street/Crusader trains were going through the area, so an all-electric connection underground was practicable.
I found it a bit difficult to anticipate where particular R-number trains will be in the new station organization -- but that's just me; there's little doubt that the new setup is greatly more convenient for commuters.
Were all the SEPTA trains moved to 30th St.?
I think it's more appropriate to think of them (meaning, as I think you are asking, the ex-Reading SEPTA trains) as being 'moved' to Suburban Square, with greatly enhanced connections to and via the facilities at 30th Street. Others may have a different opinion of what the actual SEPTA routes and operations do.
In conjunction with the 'tempus edat rerum' thread, I didn't have much time to watch the last great days of the Reading Terminal show -- but I did get to be there at least once while it was in its prime. I wouldn't want to go back to it instead of what's there now, though, as the train-riding to "get places" is tremendously better. Just a couple of days ago I was anticipating having to get from Silver Spring, MD to Yardley, PA, something that would have involved a considerable amount of consternation with the Reading network separate from SEPTA service south to Delaware. It's simple and relatively direct now.
Link activated
Great pictures.
RME: Why was it closed? Were all the SEPTA trains moved to 30th St.?
Reading Terminal was an amazing place in the 1970s: the range of equipment and colors had to be seen to be believed -- black and white doesn't do it justice. Think several flavors of Silverliner, RDCs, green MUs, Blueliner MUs, fancy-painted FP7s all lined up apparently at random beside one another.
Note the delightful ticket booth, apparently a result of alien abduction and cloning of an early Burlington Zephyr. I never cared for it then, as my design taste at the time was decidedly elsewhere, but you couldn't ignore the thing.
The shed ought to be compared with the one at PRR's Broad Street station, which very famously burned in the mid-'20s (and was, unlike the Reading one, removed along with its 'Chinese wall' approach). Note that even without trains, the Reading building remains amazing.
Wow, a great video!!!. The station with it circlar span looks a bit European.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH0DNd6s-f4
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