Paoli station - believe it or not the 5th busiest Septa Regional station

Paoli, site of the Paoli massacre during the revolutionary war, and a growing center for transportation. According to Septa Paoli station is the 5th busiest regional transportation center in the system. When you look at the station it is hard to believe and you realize why for the past several years there has been a plan to move the station to a new site further west and create a brand new Transportation Center. The current station looks like something out of a third world country rather than a station in the suburbs of one of America's larger cities.

The parking lot here is tiny, in the morning, there are between five and eight jitneys lined up transporting commuters to local business centers and companies. You can see the station needs a little love and attention.

You can catch Septa and Amtrak trains here, and buy tickets for both in the station building. you can catch a train right through to New York without having to change in Philadelphia. There are two coffee shops close by as well as a Dunkin Donuts just across the road but the station building is a basic brick building with few amenities.

If you go west you can catch a train out to Harrisburg or even further. The Main Line has spread ever further west, Paoli used to be considered the end of the Main Line, today, Dowingtown and Exton might be considered by some to be on the Main Line. If you look carefully you can see one of the original signal boxes, this is going to be moved and updated when they build the new transportation center which wiull be located west of this position. See the photo below.

It is a big ambitious plan requiring cooperation between three townships and lots of officials, but way out west in the distance the transportation center would be located. it requires new roads, bridges to be widened, etc, etc. and lots of money. But can you imagine this is the 5th busiest Septa regional rail station in the Philadelphia area. Whilst the station has languished, the village/town has grown and there are some good restaurants and interesting shops to visit.