Wilmington to get late-night Philadelphia SEPTA service

Mark Fields wants to help theater buffs get to and from downtown Wilmington. So, in April, the executive director of the Grand, on Market Street, wrote a letter to DART, asking for help in extending late-night SEPTA train service.

By calling for more service, he joined downtown banks and restaurants in petitioning Delaware's transit company, which funds SEPTA trains in the First State.

Those efforts apparently have worked, according to DART CEO John Sisson.

Starting in December, Sisson expects two additional round-trip trains to travel between Philadelphia and Wilmington on weekdays, including the last run of the night. He also expects one additional Saturday train.

The new weekday service will cost approximately $500,000 annually, Sisson said. DART will receive a credit from SEPTA after the operating costs are initially funded, based upon the number of riders that travel to and from Delaware stations. Revenues from passengers typically account for 40 percent of operating costs on SEPTA in Delaware, he said.

DART will have to draw money from other operations to pay for the added service, Sisson said. He has an idea where he will get the funds but said it is too early to disclose that information.

"We'll reallocate some resources to fund this," he said.

Fields sees this as a way to remove an obstacle that could hinder Pennsylvanians from choosing to attend a show in Wilmington. With curtain times starting at 8 p.m., and shows typically lasting two hours, theatergoers have little time to visit other Wilmington establishments before the 10:48 p.m. SEPTA train to Philadelphia leaves Wilmington, the last one of the night, currently.

Fields says that 10 to 12 percent of the Grand's guests arrive from Delaware's northern neighbor.

"If somebody [from Pennsylvania] doesn't have a car, they'd have to forgo it," Fields said. "There's a misperception that Wilmington only exists in the day."

Stephen Bailey, managing director of programming at the Grand, says that it's Philadelphia suburbs, such as Chester, which supply most of the venue's customers from Pennsylvania.

"Philadelphia proper is not a market we draw from, but we draw disproportionately from the outlying areas," Bailey said.

The additional service will reach only Wilmington. The new northbound service is expected to leave Wilmington from 12:15 to 12:20 a.m., according to Sisson. SEPTA's last southbound train of the night now leaves Philadelphia's 30th Street Station at 11:40 p.m. Sisson expects that trip to extend to Wilmington in December.

Contact Karl Baker at (302) 324-2329 or kbaker@delawareonline.com.