Broad Street Subway's Spring Garden and Girard Station Upgrades Unveiled
By Steve Tawa
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Two 1920s-era Philadelphia subway stations have a new look, part of a $30-million project funded by federal stimulus money.
SEPTA's Spring Garden and Girard stations on the Broad Street Line, which serve nearly 10,000 riders a day, hadn't seen any upgrades since they were originally built.
Fast forward to now, and riders are seeing new stairs, new turnstiles, new floor tiles, enhanced lighting and, for the first time, elevators.
Following this just-completed modernization project, both stations are now more accessible to people in wheelchairs, and the blind or visually impaired.
"It should give people with disabilities a sense of more independence now that they have another two stops that they can use with some ease," notes rider Denice Brown.
The rehabbed Spring Garden station platform includes what SEPTA calls "Art in Transit." Installation artist Margery Amdur calls her work "Walking On Sunshine." It's a collage of flower-like shapes on the platform floor.
"Given that the station's name is Spring Garden," she says, "I thought I would play on that notion. I wanted to bring this idea of garden downstairs, into an underground situation."
