As someone who has a fairly significant commute in and works 5 minutes from Jefferson, I would leave extra time because sometimes SEPTA can’t get its act together. Especially this summer they’ve been overhauling with construction so delays and schedule changes have been much more frequent. It might not be an issue with Amtrak but an issue with 30th street station being backed up.
As mentioned above, you can either take the regional rail train to Jefferson or the subway market frankfurt line and get off at 8th and market. In my opinion, Market Frankfurt would be easiest because those trains run about every 8 minutes and regional rail is much more infrequent (I’d say about every 30 minutes but if you’d like to go this route I can send you the schedule if that helps). Getting dropped off at 8th and market versus Jefferson isn’t really going to make a difference in how far you walk. If anything, 8th and market is probably about 2 minutes closer. You could uber if you want, but it’s really not necessary because you will see tons signs for market frankfurt (it involves crossing the street just so you don’t think you’ve gone wrong when you end up outside lol). But if you need help, once you get off at 30th street station there are so many workers there in yellow vests you can ask them and they’ll be really helpful. It might sound weird that you have to cross the street but I promise you it’s not far at all.
For regional rail you can just bring cash and pay when they come around. For 8th and market you would get a ticket from a kiosk and there are like 10 of them right before you would walk down the steps to get on the subway so you can’t miss it. I hope this helps!
