B (SEPTA Metro)

Ridge spur

In 1916, the director of the Philadelphia Department of City Transit, William S. Twinning, proposed scrapping the initial plan of building an elevated line along Woodland Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia that would connect onto the existing Market Street Subway-Elevated at 32nd Street. He proposed to replace it with a branch of the Broad Street Subway that would have split off at Broad and Federal Streets, continued along Federal Street before merging onto Greys Ferry Avenue until the Schuylkill River. It would then cross the Schuylkill to merge with Woodland Avenue and continue down Woodland and Island Avenues where the line would end.^[11][12]

Twinning had an alternate plan which would have split off from the Broad Street subway at Broad and Ridge and continued down Ridge avenue before merging southwards onto 8th Street, then turning west on Walnut Street where it would have continued under the Schuylkill River into West Philadelphia before turning southward on 42nd Street then finally turning onto Woodland Avenue where it would have continued to Island Avenue.^[13] This alternate plan was adopted by the city, which authorized the construction of the subway-elevated line to southwest Philadelphia in 1922.^[14]

Ridge spur service to 8th and Market streets began on December 21, 1932.^[15] As part of that project, a tunnel shell running south under 8th Street then west under Locust Street to 18th Street (reusing parts of the never-completed Center City loop constructed in 1917) was completed in 1933 but not outfitted for service.^[16][17] Bridge Line service from 8th and Market to Camden began on June 7, 1936, sharing the Ridge Spur platforms at 8th and Market and splitting off from the Ridge Spur just south of Chinatown station. In the 1940s, the Department of City Transit started to seriously consider finishing the subway to at least 49th and Woodland, but it was instead converted into an extension of the Bridge Line^[18]

Beginning in June 1949, Ridge Spur and Bridge Line trains were through-routed at 8th and Market.^[19] The partially-built Locust Street tunnel was opened on February 15, 1953; Bridge Line trains were extended to a new terminus at 15th–16th Street station with two intermediate stops, while Ridge Spur trains reverted to running between 8th Street and Girard.^[20][21] In January 1954, due to low ridership, off-peak service and Saturday again began operating between Girard and Camden, with a shuttle train operating between 8th and 16th stations. Sunday service was suspended at that time due to minimal usage.^[22] Ridge Spur service was suspended from August 23 to 27, 1968, as tracks were switched to a new upper-level terminal platform at 8th Street station to allow conversion of the 8th–Locust Street subway into the Lindenwold High-Speed Line (PATCO Speedline).^[23]

The Ridge Spur was closed from February 1981 to September 6, 1983, during construction of the Center City Commuter Connection.^[24] Spring Garden station, by then exit-only, was closed on September 10, 1989, due to safety concerns.^[25][26] Never drawing high ridership, the spur has been proposed for closure on several occasions. The 2014 closure of the Gallery Mall, adjacent to 8th and Market station, caused ridership on the spur to drop by 25%.^[27]

Roosevelt Boulevard

Both the City of Philadelphia and SEPTA have studied extending the B along Roosevelt Boulevard, in order to serve a growing population in the northeast section of the city. The city government's archives contain a survey report, prepared in 1948, discussing a need for an extension of the B from Erie Avenue to the vicinity of Pennypack Circle (see Roosevelt Boulevard).^[33] Subway car destination signage even included station and terminus names for major streets along Roosevelt Boulevard such as Rhawn Street, in the newer "South Broad" cars. An expansion into another part of the city could better use the capacity of the four-track trunk line.^[34]

In 1964, the city proposed a nine-mile (14 km), $94 million extension of the then-Broad Street line along Roosevelt Blvd. in conjunction with a new Northeast Expressway to be built by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Development was limited to the building of one subway station by Sears, Roebuck and Company in 1967, at its complex on Roosevelt Boulevard at Adams Avenue, at the cost of $1 million, in anticipation of future service. This station was destroyed when the facility was demolished in October 1994.^[35] Ultimately the Northeast Expressway was never built, due to lack of funds, and the subway extension remained a paper concept.

On September 10, 1999, SEPTA filed a Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Northeast Extension with the EPA.^[36] In December 2001, the Philadelphia City Planning Commission supported extending the then-Broad Street Line along Roosevelt Blvd. to Bustleton Avenue, where it would be joined by the then-Market–Frankford Line (L), extended from its Frankford terminal (now the rebuilt Frankford Transit Center). The estimated cost had ballooned to $3.4 billion.

Philadelphia Naval Yard

Currently, the B terminates southbound at NRG Station at Pattison Avenue and three major stadiums. With the redevelopment of the Philadelphia Naval Yard directly to the south, a Health Impact Assessment report was issued in March 2012 to determine if extending the line to the Naval Yard would be a viable option for commuters. It determined that extending the line to the Naval Yard would more than halve the number of private cars commuting back and forth, with the remainder taking the proposed subway line and/or using a bicycle sidepath. The HIA recommends making an extension of the B a priority, and recently, the extension has garnered much support.^[37][38]