Wawa celebrating opening of Wawa Station with free coffee, pretzels, and cold drinks for commuters
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The new Wawa SEPTA line is now up and running. It officially opened for service on Sunday and the first riders took a trip from the Wawa Station to Elwyn.
The expanded Media/Wawa Line connects commuters from the heart of Delaware County into Center City and all the stops in between.
CBS3's Chandler Lutz was one of the first people to catch a ride.
"It's a great moment for us, restoring service here after 35 years," SEPTA General Manager & CEO Leslie Richards said.
It marks the return of commuter rail to this growing area where passengers last had service in the 1980s.
"This station over 100 years ago was called the Wawa Station and it helped deliver the fresh daily milk into West Philadelphia and customers all over the city," Wawa CEO Chris Gheysens said.
It's located on Route 1 in Middletown Township. The new station sits across the creek from Wawa's Dairy Headquarters.
"This is a great partnership. On SEPTA everyone gets around in the city in the region, so it's important to us since we have a corporate office here to really have that expansion of the line," Gheysens said.
In addition to the history and art, the Wawa Station features a 600-space parking deck and connects to 19 inbound trains to Center City and 21 outbound trains to Wawa daily.
"We've been seeing how these areas been growing economically and residentially and how businesses are coming here and it made a lot of sense to connect this to the rest of our network," Richards said.
The inaugural trip from Wawa to Elwyn brought the community together, even young train enthusiasts.
"This line, it looks great, all the scenery on the side, the new catenary posts," Maurice McGuire, of Wilmington, Delaware, said.
Maurice heard about the new station and made the trip with his mom and sisters for the first ride.
"I used to ride on the Elwyn Line a lot and now it's called the Wawa Line," Maurice said.
Monday is the first day the line will be open for rush hour commuters and Wawa is doing it Wawa style... with free coffee in the morning and pretzels and cold drinks on the way home.
Check out the new schedule here.
