Dilapidated Levittown SEPTA Station to be Rebuilt

After previous false starts and further deterioration, SEPTA’s Levittown Station in Tullytown moved one step closer to a complete rebuild.

SEPTA Deputy General Manager Jeffrey Knueppel said Thursday that the design phase for the proposed new Levittown station, which serves over 500 passengers a day, is nearing completion.

Exact details of the state reboot haven’t been confirmed. However, official documents provided by SEPTA outline a $26.7 million project that includes full ADA accessibility, high-level platforms, elevators and a parking lot expansion. There has previously been talk of a pedestrian bridge and covered waiting areas on both sides of the tracks.

Renderings of a proposed plan were provided to LevittownNow.com recently and show a pedestrian walkway and covered portions on walkway on either side of the tracks. The plans also shows a much different looking parking lot.

Anyone who has used the station recently has no doubt seen the cracks in pavement, out-of-date rail grading, a rotting station building and the water-damaged pedestrian tunnel. Knueppel called the tunnel’s condition “dreadful.”

The station was built along with Levittown in the 1950s. When asked in summer when the station last underwent a major overhaul, SEPTA officials told LevittownNow.com it has been years, likely decades. Aside from SEPTA’s Trenton Line, the Amtrak Northeast Corridor runs on the tracks at the station.

The announcement stating the station was a high priority project on SEPTA’s list came at last week’s meeting of the transportation’s board. The news also comes about a month after a new comprehensive transportation funding bill was approved in Harrisburg. The bill provides SEPTA with enough funds to significantly bolster its short- and long-term capital improvement program. SEPTA officials have launched a plan called “Catching Up,” which uses new state funding to work to advance on $5 billion in capital improvement backlogs.

The Levittown station plans have yet to formally be presented to Tullytown officials. However, that step would likely come once SEPTA has completed their design phase and fully mapped out the plan.

The new station would come as PennDOT works on a $36.5 million project to fix Route 13 from Bristol to Tullytown.

Previously, plans for the station were drafted, however,  work never went began  due to funding which never materialized.