Route of the Week - Route 40
February 3, 2020
This week, we’ll be taking a look at Route 40. Starting in Society Hill/Queen Village at 2nd and Lombard, it travels west to Graduate Hospital and then travels through University City. It continues towards Fairmont Park and then loops towards Wynnefield, ending its route at Conshohocken & Monument In Bala Cynwyd.
Route 40 operates over 21 hours a day, seven days a week. On a typical weekday, it carries over 6,700 passengers over the course of 145 trips. In 2020, Route 40 is scheduled to travel 496,770 miles.
Originally, Route 40 traveled from the Parkside Loop in West Philly to 2nd and Lombard in Queens Village. At this point, it was a trolley line. It switched to bus service on September 8, 1956.
February is Black History Month, and you can take Route 40 to a number of events and sites. Take it to the Penn Museum to check out the all-day event CultureFest! African & Diasporic Cultures Celebration on 2/15 or to the Please Touch Museum on 2/20 at 6p to see Voices of Hope: A Black History Month Celebration. Check out Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, the oldest parcel of land in the United States continuously owned by African-Americans.Or ride it to the Philadelphia Tribune, the oldest continuously published African-American newspaper in the United States.
Do you ride the Route 40? Comment below and let us know where it takes you!
