A lack of passengers due to Covid-19 caused the Cynwyd Line to be completely shut down on April 9, 2020. SEPTA restored limited service on the line, beginning on September 7 of this year
The Cynwyd Line is what remains of the Schuykill Valley Branch of the Pennsylvania Rail Road. The line, which follows the same path as the Thorndale Line from Center City to 52nd Street, branches off there and makes its first stop at Wynnefied. The next stop is Bala and then the severely truncated Schuykill Valley Branch, now known as the Cynwyd Line, terminates at Cynwyd Station.
Reading Times, March 29, 1884
Bala Station (1884) was the first station opened beyond 52nd Street. By August of 1884, the line was carrying passengers all the way to Norristown, with stops along the way at West Laurel Hill (later renamed Barmouth, Manayunk, Shawmont, Lafayette, Spring Mill and Conshohocken.
The line was extended to Pottstown in 1886, and a new station was added at Cynwyd in 1887.
Reading Times, Novermber 22, 1887
In the 1930s, The Pennsylvania railroad ended service on the Schuylkill Branch, north of Norristown. Then in 1960, service ended at Manayunk. And in 1986, SEPTA made Cynwyd the last stop on the line.
Ever since, the Cynwyd Line has been the shortest of any of SEPTA’s regional rail lines, and it has also been the line with the fewest passengers.
However, it has never been the line with the least assertive passengers.
In 1996, when SEPTA was already contemplating ending service on the Cynwyd Line, Michael J. O’Donaghue, a board member from Montgomery County quipped, “If there are 127 people who ride that line, I got a letter from every one of them.”
Lower Merion Historical Society Cynwyd Station, photo taken a long time ago.