30th Street Station Philadelphia, PA
The main entrance to 30th Street Station in 2019
General information
Other names	William H. Gray III 30th Street Station
Location	2955Market Street[1] Philadelphia,Pennsylvania United States
Coordinates	39°57′21″N75°10′55″W / 39.95583°N 75.18194°W /39.95583; -75.18194
Owned by	Amtrak
Lines	AmtrakNortheast Corridor Keystone Corridor (Main Line) SEPTA Main Line
Platforms	9island platforms (3 upper level, 6 lower level)
Tracks	15 (6 upper level, 9 lower level)
Connections	SEPTA Metro: (Drexel Station at 30th Street) SEPTA City Bus:9,12,21,30,31,42,44,49,62,LUCY SEPTA Suburban Bus:124,125 At JFK Boulevard & 30th Street: Martz Trailways NJ Transit Bus:313,315,316,414,417,555 At Schuylkill Avenue & Walnut Street: Peter Pan
Construction
Parking	Yes
Bicycle facilities	Yes
Accessible	Yes
Other information
Station code	Amtrak:PHL
IATA code	ZFV
Fare zone	CC (SEPTA)[2]
History
Opened	1933 (ReplacedWest Philadelphia station)
Rebuilt	1989
Previous names	Pennsylvania Station–30th Street Penn Central Station–30th Street
Passengers
FY 2025	5,586,174 boardings and alightings annually[3] (Amtrak)
2024	451 boardings (weekday average)[4] (NJT)
2017	9,920 boardings (weekday average)[5] (SEPTA)
Rank	3 of 146 (SEPTA)
Services Preceding station Amtrak Following station Wilmington towardWashington, D.C. Acela Metropark towardBoston South Vermonter Trenton towardSt. Albans Wilmington towardChicago Cardinal Trenton towardNew York Wilmington towardCharlotte Carolinian Wilmington towardNew Orleans Crescent Wilmington towardSavannah Palmetto Paoli towardPittsburgh Pennsylvanian Wilmington towardMiami Silver Meteor Ardmore towardHarrisburg Keystone Service North Philadelphia towardNew York Wilmington towardNorfolk,Newport News orRoanoke Northeast Regional Trenton towardBoston South orSpringfield Preceding station SEPTA Following station Penn Medicine Station towardAirport Airport Line Suburban Station towardGlenside Terminus Chestnut Hill East Line Suburban Station towardChestnut Hill East Fox Chase Line (weekends and major holidays) Suburban Station towardFox Chase West Trenton Line (weekends and major holidays) Suburban Station towardWest Trenton Penn Medicine Station Terminus Chestnut Hill East Line (weekends and major holidays) Suburban Station towardChestnut Hill East Fox Chase Line Suburban Station towardFox Chase Lansdale/​Doylestown Line Suburban Station towardDoylestown Manayunk/​Norristown Line Suburban Station towardNorristown–Elm Street Warminster Line Suburban Station towardWarminster West Trenton Line Suburban Station towardWest Trenton North Philadelphia towardChestnut Hill West Chestnut Hill West Line Suburban Station towardTemple University Penn Medicine Station towardWawa Station Media/Wawa Line Overbrook towardThorndale Paoli/​Thorndale Line North Philadelphia towardTrenton Trenton Line Penn Medicine Station towardNewark Wilmington/​Newark Line Wynnefield Avenue towardCynwyd Cynwyd Line Suburban Station Terminus Preceding station NJ Transit Following station Terminus Atlantic City Line Pennsauken towardAtlantic City
Former services Preceding station Amtrak Following station Wilmington towardWashington, D.C. Metroliner Trenton towardNew York Paoli towardChicago Three Rivers 1995–2005 Broadway Limited Until 1995 Wilmington towardRichmond Staples Mill Road Atlantic City Express North Philadelphia towardAtlantic City Ardmore towardHarrisburg Trenton towardSpringfield Philadelphia International Airport 1990-1991 Terminus Chester towardWashington, D.C. Chesapeake Philadelphia–Suburban Terminus Overbrook towardHarrisburg Keystone Service 1981–1988 Wilmington towardWashington, D.C. Montrealer North Philadelphia towardMontreal Wilmington towardMiami Silver Star until 2024 Trenton towardNew York Preceding station SEPTA Following station 52nd Street towardDowningtown Paoli/​Thorndale Line Suburban Station Terminus 52nd Street towardIvy Ridge Ivy Ridge Line Preceding station Pennsylvania Railroad Following station Narberth towardChicago Main Line North Philadelphia towardNew York orExchange Place Glenolden towardWashington, D.C. Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Terminus 52nd Street towardPottsville Schuylkill Branch Suburban Station Terminus North Philadelphia towardChestnut Hill Chestnut Hill Line North Philadelphia towardWhite Marsh Fort Washington Branch 52nd Street towardNorristown–Haws Avenue Norristown Line 52nd Street towardPaoli Paoli Line North Philadelphia towardTrenton Trenton Line 49th Street towardWest Chester West Chester Line Darby towardWilmington Wilmington Line
Thirtieth Street Station
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Pennsylvania state historical marker
Built	1927–1933[7]
Architect	Graham, Anderson, Probst & White
Architectural style	Classical Revival
NRHP reference No.	78002456[6]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	June 7, 1978
Designated PHMC	December 17, 1996[8]
Location

30th Street Station, officiallyWilliam H. Gray III 30th Street Station, is a majorintermodal transit station inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The station opened in 1933 asPennsylvania Station–30th Street, replacing the 1881Broad Street station as thePennsylvania Railroad's main station in the city. The station is thethird-busiestAmtrak station in the nation with over 5.5 million passengers as of 2025.

30th Street Station is currentlymetropolitan Philadelphia's mainrailroad station and a major stop onAmtrak'sNortheast andKeystone corridors. The station is also a majorcommuter rail station served by allSEPTA Regional Rail lines and is the western terminus forNJ Transit'sAtlantic City Line. The station is also served by severalSEPTA-managedcity andsuburban buses and byNJ Transit,Amtrak Thruway, and various intercity operators.

The station served over five and a half millioninter-city rail passengers during the 2025 fiscal year (October 2024 through September 2025.^[9]

In 2020, the station was named in honor ofWilliam H. Gray III, a former U.S. Congressman who representedPennsylvania's 2nd congressional district from 1979 until 1991.

The station is located at 2955Market Street in the30th Street Station District of theUniversity City section ofPhiladelphia, near both theSchuylkill River andCenter City.^[1] The building opened in 1933, and has been named to theNational Register of Historic Places.^[10]

30th Street Station is Amtrak'sthird-busiest station in the nation, and by far the busiest of the 24 stations in Pennsylvania, serving over four million Amtrak rail passengers and over 12 million SEPTA and NJ TRANSIT rail commuters annually. On any average weekday, 30th Street Station provides train service to over 100,000 passengers.^[11]

Amtrak's code for the station isPHL.^[1] The station'sIATA Airport Code isZFV, which is used primarily by a codeshare agreement allowingUnited Airlines to sell Amtrak service between the station andNewark Liberty International Airport.

In the early 1900s, thePennsylvania Railroad (PRR), which was headquartered inPhiladelphia, acquired tunnel rights from theSchuylkill River to 15th Street from the city of Philadelphia in return for land that the city needed to construct theBenjamin Franklin Parkway. This eventually allowed the company to replace the inadequateBroad Street station with 30th Street Station, as well as buildSuburban Station.^[12] The old Broad Street Station was a stub-end terminal inCenter City Philadelphia, where through trains had to back in and out, and the company wanted a location which would accommodate trains betweenNew York City andWashington, D.C. Broad Street station also handled a large commuter operation, which the new underground Suburban Station was built to handle.

Construction on 30th Street Station began in 1927 and the station opened in 1933, starting with two platform tracks.^[7]Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, theChicago-based firm that succeededD.H. Burnham & Company,^[12] designed the structure, originally known as Pennsylvania Station–30th Street in accord with the naming style of other Pennsylvania stations. Its design was influenced by theNortheast Corridor electrification that allowed trains to pass beneath the station without exposing passengers to soot as steam engines of earlier times had. The station had a number of innovative features, including a pneumatic tube system, an electronic intercom, and a reinforced roof with space for small aircraft to land,^[13] and contained a mortuary, a chapel and more than 3,000 square feet of hospital space.^[12] The vast waiting room is faced withtravertine and the coffered ceiling is painted gold, red and cream. The building's exterior has columnedporte-cocheres on the west and east facades, and shows a balance between classical and modern architectural styles.^[12]

Due in part to theGreat Depression andWorld War II, the Broad Street station remained open until 1952.^[14] Until 1958, 30th Street Station was one of two major intercity stations in Philadelphia; the other was theBaltimore and Ohio Railroad'sstation onChestnut Street. However, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ended all service north ofBaltimore in 1958, making 30th Street the major intercity terminal in theDelaware Valley metropolitan region.

In the 1970s, Amtrak installed aSolari board bySolari di Udine in the main waiting room to display train departure information. On November 30, 2018, officials announced that the board—by then, the railroad's last remaining Solari device—would be replaced with a digital board.^[15][16] A minor public outcry followed, and within days, Rep.Brendan Boyle urged Amtrak CEORichard H. Anderson to reconsider.^[16][17][18] In January 2019, Amtrak sent the board to theRailroad Museum of Pennsylvania inStrasburg, reserving the right to reclaim it if it could be worked into the station's planned renovation.^[19] On February 28, 2019, the new digital board began operation.^[20] The Museum placed the Solari board on static display in July 2019;^[21] after the renovation it will return as a design element.^[22]

In 2005, Philadelphia-basedPew Charitable Trust asked Amtrak to change the name of 30th Street Station to "Ben Franklin Station" in honor ofBenjamin Franklin^[23] and as part of the celebration of Franklin's 300th birthday in January 2006. The cost of replacing signs at the station was estimated at $3 million.

In January 2005,John F. Street, then the mayor of Philadelphia, announced his support for the name change, but others had mixed reactions to the proposal. Pennsylvania GovernorEd Rendell, a former mayor of Philadelphia, was lukewarm, while Amtrak officials worried that a "Ben" station could be confused with its other three "Penn" stations.^[24] On January 25, 2006, Pew abandoned the campaign, giving no reason.^[24]

In August 2014,Congress passed legislation to rename the stationWilliam H. Gray III 30th Street Station in honor ofWilliam H. Gray III, a former U.S. Congressman from the Philadelphia area.^[25] At the time, the change was to occur "in the next few months".^[26]

In 2019, signs were installed outside the station with the new name and plans were announced for a statue of Gray and a memorial plaque.^[27] The name change officially took effect on February 6, 2020.^[28]

The building is owned byAmtrak and houses many Amtrak corporate offices, although Amtrak is officially headquartered nearUnion Station inWashington, D.C. The 562,000 ft² (52,000 m²) facility features a cavernous main passenger concourse with ornateArt Deco decor.

Prominently displayed is thePennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial, which honorsPennsylvania Railroad employees killed inWorld War II. It consists of a bronze statue of the archangelMichael lifting the body of a dead soldier out of the flames of war, and was sculpted byWalker Hancock in 1950. On the four sides of the base of that sculpture are the 1,307 names of those employees in alphabetical order.^[29]

The building was restored in 1991 by Dan Peter Kopple & Associates.^[12] When the station was renovated, updated retail amenities were added. They include several shops, a largefood court, car rental facilities,Saxbys Coffee,Dunkin' Donuts, and others.

The Amtrak 30th Street Parking Garage was designed by BLT Architects and completed in 2004. This nine-level, double helix garage provides 2,100 parking spaces and glass-enclosed stair tower and elevator to offer views of Philadelphia.^[30] The following year in 2005, theCira Centre office tower was opened between 30th Street and the garage, which was the station's firsttransit-oriented development built byBrandywine Realty Trust under a ground lease. A pedestrian bridge over Arch Street was also built, connecting from 30th Street Station's upper level to the parking garage and the Cira Centre; this prevents pedestrians from interacting with heavy traffic fromPA 3 andI-76.^[31]

In 2016, Amtrak, in partnership with Brandywine,Drexel University, andSkidmore, Owings & Merrill Architects, released the30th Street Station District master plan.^[32] Building off of Brandywine and Drexel'sSchuylkill Yards project, this 35-year plan envisions a modernized and expanded 30th Street Station capable of hosting 20 to 25 million annual passengers, an expansion of the outdoor plaza, new connections toSEPTA Metro, and a centralized intercity bus terminal. Similar to New York'sHudson Yards, the plan also envisions up to 18 million square feet of potential development through Schuylkill Yards and expansion over Penn Coach Yard, potentially hosting 10,000 residents and 40,000 jobs.

In 2023, Amtrak, in partnership withPlenary Group, announced that work would start on a $400 million renovation of the station aided by funds from the 2021Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, serving as the first phase of the District Plan.^[33] The project encompasses modernized retail and food court spaces, consolidation of ticketing and operations to create more concourse space, expansion of the Market Street "Porch" plaza, renovated Amtrak offices and Metropolitan Lounge, and state of good repair; a direct connection to SEPTA is not in scope. Work commenced in early 2024 and will last until October 2027.^[34]

Many important highways and streets pass next to or near the station. Vehicles andtaxicabs can reach the station from various major routes, includingMarket Street (PA 3),Interstate 76 (Schuylkill Expressway), andInterstate 676 (Vine Street Expressway).^[13] TheJohn F. Kennedy Boulevard Bridge is just east of the station.

v t e 30th Street Station track layout
Legend
SEPTAupper level
toSuburban Station Schuylkill River 6 4 2 5 3 1 Harrisburg Subdivision toZoo Junction to Powelton Yard toPenn Medicine Station fromZoo Junction
Amtraklower level
Northeast Corridor toNorth Philadelphia Keystone Corridor toArdmore Harrisburg Subdivision to Penn Coach Yard upper level 10 8 6 4 2 9 7 5 3 1 former pedestrian tunnel Market Street subway to Penn Coach Yard Northeast Corridor toWilmington
Legend
Passenger service tracks Yard/storage tracks

Trains fromSEPTA,Amtrak, andNJ Transit serve the station. The three east-west Upper Level platforms serveSEPTA Regional Rail; all 13 Regional Rail lines stop at the station. It is one of three stations that are part of theCenter City Commuter Connection. The north-south Lower Level platforms serve Amtrak trains, as well as NJ Transit'sAtlantic City Line.^[35]

SEPTA'sMarket-Frankford Line (also known as the "L") and all of SEPTA'ssubway–surface lines (routes T1 through T5) stop at the30th Streetsubway station, less than half a block, or 0.1 miles (0.16 km), from the southwest entrance to 30th Street Station. A pedestrian tunnel once directly connected the underground subway station with all five lower level passenger platforms of 30th Street Station.^[36] This was closed in the 1980s, reportedly due to safety concerns. SEPTA and Amtrak floated reopening the tunnel in the early 2000s, but theSeptember 11 attacks derailed those plans.^[37]

A number of SEPTA bus routes stop at or near the station, including Routes 9, 30, 31, 44, 49, 62, 124, 125, and LUCY (Loop through University City).^[38]

Cira Centre, a 28-story glass-and-steel office tower opened in October 2005, is acrossArch Street to the north and is connected by askyway at the station's mezzanine level next to the upper-level SEPTA Regional Rail platforms. The tower is owned by Philadelphia-basedBrandywine Realty Trust, was designed by architectCésar Pelli and BLT Architects,^[30][31] and sits on land leased from Amtrak.^{[citation needed]}

The station has an Amtrak Metropolitan Lounge, which is accessible to Amtrak Guest Rewards Select Plus and Select Executive members, Acela Express first-class passengers, sleeping car passengers on overnight trains, andprivate railcar owners and lessees when the car is being hauled by Amtrak.

Budget Rent a Car,National,Avis,Alamo, andHertz Rent A Car rent cars at counters in 30th Street Station.

Zipcar vehicles are parked outside 30th Street Station, mostly in reserved parking spaces on the south side of the station or, during construction, in the controlled-access parking lot outside Cira Centre.

30th Street Station is featured in several films includingGlass (2019),The Visit (2015),The Happening (2008),Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006),Unbreakable (2000),Witness (1985),Trading Places (1983),Blow Out (1981),Marnie (1964),The Burglar (1957), andPride of the Marines (1945).^[39][40]

In television, the station is featured in the recurring opening credits ofIt's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and inAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (season 2, episode 7). It also appears in the 2010 video gameHeavy Rain.^{[citation needed]}

Wikimedia Commons has media related to30th Street Station.

• Philadelphia 30th Street Station – Amtrak
• Philadelphia 30th Street Station – Station history at Great American Stations (Amtrak)
• SEPTA – 30th Street Station
• 30th Street Station atNJ Transit
• Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) documentation:
  • HAER No. PA-404-A, "Thirtieth Street Station, Power Director Center"
  • HAER No. PA-404-B, "Thirtieth Street Station, Load Dispatch Center"
• Google Maps Street View:Schyulkill Avenue (eastern entrance),30th Street (western entrance),Market Street (southern entrance)

• 1933 establishments in Pennsylvania
• Amtrak stations in Pennsylvania
• Art Deco railway stations
• Former Pennsylvania Railroad stations
• Historic American Engineering Record in Philadelphia
• Market Street (Philadelphia)
• NJ Transit Rail Operations stations
• Railway stations in Philadelphia
• Railway stations in the United States opened in 1933
• Railway stations located underground in Pennsylvania
• Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia
• Sculptures by Karl Bitter
• SEPTA Regional Rail stations
• Stations on the Northeast Corridor
• Stations on the SEPTA Main Line
• Terminating vistas in the United States
• Transit centers in the United States
• Transit hubs serving New Jersey
• University City, Philadelphia
• Wilmington/Newark Line

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