Modern lines

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Brown, orange, dirty and smelly could be words used to describe stations along the SEPTA Broad Street Line, but millions in renovations over the past couple of years are helping change all that.

SEPTA has embarked on a plan, which allotted $29.7 million for the rehabilitation of the Broad Street Line through 2009, to renovate its train and subway stations. Riders and residents are seeing the impact at the Oregon Station, the only South Philadelphia stop to get a makeover. A new color scheme of pale yellow and green, along with stainless-steel columns, is helping transform 2700 S. Broad St. into a modern-looking facility.

"Oregon Station was designed and upgraded to address accessibility, maintenance and safety issues while improving the aesthetic qualities of the station," SEPTA spokeswoman Sylvana Hoyos said.

According to SEPTA’s Web site, the roughly $6.8 million project unveiled Oct. 10 included updates to station plazas, doorways and waiting area. The entrance sits at the edge of Marconi Plaza and now houses an elevator, making it American Disabilities Act compliant and accessible. On the northeast side of Broad, another headhouse serves as an exit. In the waiting area, more lighting was installed and the platform was raised to match the height of the subway cars — so no more tripping during boarding. The Community Life Improvement Project of Philadelphia (CLIP), which is an anti-blight initiative, worked on the landscaping, including adding concrete planters and benches. Windows also were revamped, either refitted with glass blocking or put in new with a film resistant to graffiti. New signs and trash cans were part of the rehab.

The goal, according to the Web site, was to "recreate this vital transit link in South Philadelphia into a modern and welcoming environment to promote the use of public transit in and around the City of Philadelphia and the five-county area SEPTA serves."

Traveling from Germantown to South Philly five days a week for work, Jeffrey Warner has been passing through the Oregon Station for a decade.

"It looked messed up until they fixed it. The new walls, tile on the ground and new cement on the steps — it’s a very nice improvement," he said.

Riders who did not see the facility before have noticed the difference between Oregon Station and other stops.

"As long as I have been coming here, I haven’t seen any difference, but it is nice compared to other stations," Natalie Maddox, a resident of 18th and Bigler streets who has been using the location to go to her Center City job for the past year, said.

During renovations, Oregon Station remained in operation and David Wade, though he does not use the line regularly, noticed the construction over the past year.

"The changes are great. It is a cleaner and safer stop," the resident of the 900 block of Oregon Avenue said.