The original Claymont, Delaware station was a commuter rail stop between Philadelphia and Wilmington. The original depot burned down in 1981. Service first ceased to operate at this station when SEPTA took over from Conrail on January 1, 1983 and politics discontinued all service in Delaware with all commuter rail service ending at the previous station, Marcus Hook, the last stop in Pennsylvania where SEPTA's main train yard on the Newark/Wilmington Line is located to this day.
Service was restored to this same site on October 29, 1990 by the Delaware Department of Transportation and Federal Railroad Administration, as an intermediate stop when DART First State (a division of DelDOT) started funding SEPTA Commuter Rail service into Delaware. Service at this location in Claymont was discontinued on December 3, 2023 when service was relocated to the Claymont Regional Transportation Center a half mile east of this station. As of Fall 2024 the former shelters at the station are still in place but covered in graffiti.
The reopened station was definitely rebuilt in 1990 on the cheap, with two low-level side platforms for the four-tracked Northeast Corridor. A fence runs down the middle of the tracks to prohibit trespasses and wooden boarding boards allow trains to stop at the middle express tracks. The platforms each also have a wooden mini-high platform to allow one accessible door to be opened at the front of the train.
The two platforms are connected via the station's original stone arched pedestrian subway under the tracks. The center of this tunnel has painted white stone walls. At each end a staircase leads up to a small modular building with a blue roof that uses the same materials as a bus shelter. Each of these staircases contains an inclined wheelchair ramp along one side of the staircase (with the ramp stored at street level). A security guard is always on hand when the station is open with a small desk area along the Wilmington-bound platform and is available to operate the wheelchair lift as needed.
The Philadelphia-bound platform contains a single extra-long (five-normal bus shelters length) wide shelter covering a bench for waiting passengers. Its only access point is via the pedestrian tunnel, otherwise it backs up to forests and the wide Delaware River out of view just beyond.
All access to the station is from the Wilmington-bound side of the station. This platform is along the station's parking lot, nestled between I-495 and the railroad line. The parking lot has 497 spaces. This platform has no further amenities other than the modular shelter around the staircase down to the underpass. It does have two fences along it, a shorter more normal platform fence, because of a slight grade down to most of the parking lot below plus a taller chain link fence to allow the platforms to be closed off when no train service is scheduled. There are two openings to reach the station via gaps in the fence, one by the entrance to the underpass, the other at the northern end of the platform.
The station does have a bit of an attempt at pedestrian access via a nearby neighborhood with a footbridge crossing over I-495 with ramps at both ends to some modest looking apartments and a neighborhoods in Claymont beyond. Vehicle access to the station is via a single entrance at the extreme eastern end of the parking lot at the corner of Myrtle Avenue (that crosses over I-495 on a bridge) and Marion Avenue. This vehicular entrance is at the southern end of the former site of Evraz Claymont Steel where the new replacement Claymont Transportation Center station has been developed.
Photos 1-62: October 23, 2013; 63: September 4, 2024;
