Philadelphia is trying to get more clout with SEPTA by threatening to take its subways and go home.

The city owns the Broad Street subway and half of the Market-Frankford Subway-Elevated line, both of which it leased to SEPTA in 1968 when the transportation agency was created.

The lease was written to expire on Dec. 31, 2005, or when SEPTA made the last of its required rent payments, whichever came later. In 2005, unable to agree on whether the lease was about to expire, the city and SEPTA extended the lease until the end of 2007.

So, in theory, SEPTA could be required to return the subways by the end of this year.

Philadelphia: Mo-omm. SEPTA won’t give us our Subway back!
SEPTA: You only own half of the El, damn you. That’s like owning half of the sun. Not cool.
Mom (to be played by le foxy Fox29′s Kerri-Lee Halkett): Now, now, boys. Play nice.

Inky: It’s Our Subway And We’ll Cry If We Want To

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 at 10:16 am.