Built in 1892, Southampton station was a stop on the Reading Railroad's Newtown Line. It later became a part of SEPTA's Fox Chase Rapid Transit Line. The station, and all of those north of Fox Chase station, was closed on January 18, 1983 due to failing diesel train equipment. In addition, a labor dispute began within the SEPTA organization when the transit operator inherited 1,700 displaced employees from Conrail. SEPTA insisted on utilizing transit operators from the Broad Street Subway to operate Fox Chase-Newtown diesel trains, while Conrail requested that railroad motormen run the service. When a federal court ruled that SEPTA had to use Conrail employees in order to offer job assurance, SEPTA cancelled Fox Chase-Newtown trains. Service in the diesel-only territory north of Fox Chase was cancelled at that time, and Southampton station still appears in publicly posted tariffs. Although rail service was initially replaced with a Fox Chase-Newtown shuttle bus, patronage remained light, and the Fox Chase-Newtown shuttle bus service ended in 1999.
Fire
Three months after SEPTA assumed operations, on January 2, 1982, the crossing at Second Street Pike south of Southampton Station was the site of a fiery crash between a train, an ARCO gasoline truck, and a car. Motorman Donald Williams died from multiple burns. Five people were also injured; the accident caused flames to rise fifty feet in the air and created a plume of black smoke visible for miles. Photographs appear to indicate the crossing signal equipment was working properly, with warning lights continuing to warn motorists after the collision occurred, but a report by the National Transportation Safety Board suggested the lights were intermittently working as the tank truck approached the crossing, as mentioned by eyewitnesses. SEPTA was using a single RDC #9164 which was not equipped with signal excitation equipment required for single-car operation. The Reading Railroad had two RDC's equipped for single car operation, which were transferred to SEPTA, neither of which were in use on this holiday weekend when rail traffic was especially light. Also, due to the acute angle of the railroad crossing and the buildings nearby, the truck driver could not see the RDC approaching from his right until it was too late to stop short of a collision. SEPTA general manager David L. Gunn ordered additional safety precautions, but service ceased just over a year after the accident.
