First State commuters looking to get home to Philadelphia a little faster after work are getting some good news from DART and SEPTA.
Two SEPTA regional trains leaving Wilmington for Center City Philadelphia will start offering express service next month.
DART announced Monday that the weekday SEPTA regional 5:15 and 6:15 pm departures will make that switch April 10th and Delaware Transit Corporation spokeswoman Julie Theyerl says it will cut riders commute.
“If a commuter is leaving Wilmington and going into Center City, the one train saves them about 9 minutes and the later train saves them about 13 minutes each day,” said Theyerl.
Theyerl says that adds up to between 45 to 65 minutes per week.
She adds that DART sees the move as helping the state in its efforts to keep companies already in Wilmington and perhaps lure new ones to locate there.
“We often get requests from commuters, especially those going between Delaware and Philadelphia, to have faster service," said Theyerl. "And with JP Morgan bringing in 18 hundred jobs – and a lot of their employees coming from Delaware County and from Philadelphia – it just made a lot of sense to extend these trains into express service.”
The move comes just a few months after SEPTA added late night service between Philadelphia and Wilmington. Train arrivals from Philadelphia and departures from Wilmington to Philly after midnight started back in December
