Broad Street Line

Broad Street Line (B)
Broad Street Line train at Race–Vine station
Overview
Status	Operational
Owner	City of Philadelphia
Locale	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Termini	NRG station (south) 8th & Market (spur south) Fern Rock Transportation Center (north)
Stations	25
Website	septa.org/service/bsl
Service
Type	Rapid transit
System	SEPTA
Services	B1 (Local)   B2 (Express)   B3 (Broad-Ridge Spur)
Operator(s)	1928–39: Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co. 1940–68: Philadelphia Transportation Co. 1968–present: SEPTA
Depot(s)	Fern Rock Transportation Center
Daily ridership	79,155 (FY 2023)[1]
History
Opened	September 1, 1928
Technical
Line length	12.5 mi (20.1 km)[2]
Number of tracks	2–4
Character	Underground and surface
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Electrification	Third rail, 600 V DC
Route map Show interactive map Legend SEPTA Main Line to Glenside Fern Rock T.C. Fern Rock Yard Olney T.C. Logan Wyoming Hunting Park Roosevelt Boulevard Subway Erie Allegheny Northeast Corridor North Philadelphia North Philadelphia North Broad Susquehanna–Dauphin Cecil B. Moore Girard Broad–Ridge Spur Fairmount Spring Garden Broad Street│Ridge Spur Chinatown PATCO to Lindenwold Race–Vine 8th Street PATCO 8th & Market Suburban Main Line to 30th Street 15th Street City Hall PATCO 12–13th Walnut–Locust PATCO 15–16th Lombard–South Ellsworth–Federal Tasker–Morris Snyder Oregon NRG Underground concourse/transfer station Free transfer between services Out-of-system transfer between services Surface buses connect at all stations This diagram: view talk edit Show route diagram map

The Broad Street Line (BSL), also known as the Broad Street subway (BSS), Orange Line,^[3] or Broad Line, is a subway line owned by the city of Philadelphia and operated by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). The line runs primarily north-south from the Fern Rock Transportation Center in North Philadelphia through Center City Philadelphia to NRG station at Pattison Avenue in South Philadelphia; the latter station provides access to the stadiums and arenas for the city's major professional sports teams at the South Philadelphia Sports Complex, about a quarter mile away. It is named for Broad Street, under which the line runs for almost its entire length. In 2024, as part of the SEPTA Metro plan, the Broad Street Line is undergoing a rebrand to the service letter B.

The line, which is entirely underground except for the northern terminus at Fern Rock, has four tracks in a local/express configuration from Fern Rock to Walnut-Locust and two tracks from Lombard-South to the southern terminus at NRG station. It is one of only two rapid transit lines in the SEPTA system overall alongside the Market–Frankford Line, though Center City Philadelphia is also served by four stations of the PATCO Speedline rapid transit line which runs from Center City Philadelphia through Camden, New Jersey to Lindenwold, New Jersey. With about 115,000 boardings^[4] on an average weekday in 2019, it is the second busiest route in the SEPTA system.

The line and its trains were leased to SEPTA in 1968^[5] after it assumed operation of the city transit systems from the former Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC).^[6] Broad Street Line subway cars bear both the SEPTA logo and the seal of the City of Philadelphia to reflect the split ownership-operation arrangement.