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Meagan Macklin relies on the SEPTA trolley to travel from her home on Baltimore Avenue in West Philadelphia to her job teaching pilates in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood. Macklin’s two children rely on the trolley to get to school. But for the last two months while the trolley tunnel was closed, the family has had to find alternate routes — walking farther distances to stops on the Market Frankford Line, driving at rush hour or riding buses, which Macklin describes as less reliable than the trolley.

Macklin said during the tunnel closure, she’s been late numerous times and even missed appointments with clients.

“The past couple months have been awful,” Macklin said.

On Monday, SEPTA trolleys started running again through the tunnel between 13th Street in Center City and the 40th Street trolley portal in West Philadelphia, more than two months after the transit agency closed the tunnel to repair the overhead wires inside.

“I’m ecstatic,” Macklin said. “It’s going to make my life much better.”

SEPTA closed the tunnel last fall after hundreds of riders were forced to evacuate when trolley cars became stranded inside. SEPTA discovered that new sliders used to connect trolley cars to the overhead wires were degrading faster than expected and damaging the wires.

Since then, SEPTA has replaced about 20% of the 5 miles of overhead wire that run through the tunnel, said spokesperson Andrew Busch. He said all of the wire will likely eventually need to be replaced.

This means that the tunnel closure isn’t completely over. SEPTA plans to close the tunnel for additional wire replacements for three shorter periods in the coming weeks:

  • 10 p.m. Jan. 23 to 5 a.m. Jan. 26
  • 10 p.m. Jan. 30 to 5 a.m. Feb. 2
  • 5 a.m. Feb. 15 to 10 p.m. Feb. 22

The shuttle bus that replaced the trolley on Market Street between 40th and 15th streets during the closure will resume during these three outages.

“We thank you for your patience during this extended outage and sincerely apologize for the disruption that it has caused,” SEPTA wrote in a statement on its website.