KOP Rail Project Gets $360K Federal Lifeline For 5 New Stations

KING OF PRUSSIA, PA — The Norristown High Speed Line extension, which would add five new rail stops in the King of Prussia area, is the recipient of a sorely needed funding boost.

The Federal Transit Authority has awarded the project a $360,000 Transit Oriented Development Planning grant to help actualize the extension, which was put in peril by COVID-19-related funding issues.

"We are proud to support local transit agencies as they plan for TOD that better connects residents to jobs, education and essential services," Federal Transit Authority Deputy Administrator K. Jane Williams. "This funding will encourage economic development and capture the value transit brings to communities as they respond to and recover from the public health emergency."

As recently as September and October, there were concerns that a SEPTA budget shortfall due to the lack of revenue from Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls would lead the funding for new projects to be slashed. "This (shortfall) requires that SEPTA immediately delay and stop altogether $250 million in capital projects," according to a late-summer analysis of the pandemic's impacts on SEPTA operations.

SEPTA was six similar public transit projects nationwide to receive some of the $6.2 million in federal aid.

The five stations include one at Henderson Road, two at the King of Prussia Mall, and two in Moore Park KOP, formerly known as the KOP Business Park.

This interactive map lays out the planned extension and exact locations of the stations.

SEPTA says that the rail would reduce travel time between Center City and King of Prussia by 30 minutes each way. It would improve the region's sustainability, with an estimated reduction in 18 million vehicle miles traveled per year.

The federal Transit Oriented Development Planning program aims to support economic development and mixed-use development near new transit projects nationwide.

The High Speed Line currently runs along 22 other stops from the 69th Street Transportation Center in Philadelphia, through Wynnewood, Ardmore, Haverford, and Radnor, and out to Norristown.