Pennsylvania also features a blanket of transit, commuter and passenger rail services from Amtrak's Northeast Corridor (which operates through the southeastern corner of the state) to SEPTA and the Harrisburg electrification extension. After freight operations ceased in 1874 it operated as a roller-coaster tourist attraction until 1932. As coal demand increased it upgraded to a steam funicular system in 1846. Its first 9 miles utilized an old wagon road and operated on a gravity system with mules for power. Built to a gauge of 3-feet, 6 inches, which later became recognized as narrow-gauge, it handled coal from a mine near Mauch Chunk (Jim Thorpe). * Pennsylvania's very first railroad system was the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company's Mauch Chunk Switchback Gravity Railroad. Since the 1920s Pennsylvania has lost about 57% of its rail infrastructure due to so many abandonments of anthracite railroads and low-density branch/secondary lines.įor a more in-depth look at Pennsylvania's rail mileage over the years please have a look at the chart below. This bucolic system operated a roundabout, circuitousand steep route from Baltimore to York. Louis" streamliner) and Western Maryland's Connellsville Extension (Cumberland-Connellsville).įinally, be sure and check out the remnants of the fabled Ma & Pa short line, the Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad. Interestingly, most main lines across the state remain active two notable through routes since closed include the PRR's Baltimore-Harrisburg main line (the double-tracked Northern Central Railroad, which once handled its "Spirit Of St. To the west, components of the Baltimore & Ohio's subsidiaries Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh and Buffalo & Susquehanna have been removed. In eastern and northeastern Pennsylvania, where the state's rich seams of anthracite coal were located you can find scars of old branches operated by Lehigh Valley, Lehigh & New England, Central Railroad of New Jersey, and the Reading. Many of these lines served coal mines (anthracite and bituminous) while others were agricultural in nature.
There are thousands of miles of former PRR secondary and branches lines, alone, scattered throughout Pennsylvania. In total, today's railroads in Pennsylvania operate just over 5,000 route miles, which is well under half the state's all-time high of more than 11,500 miles.
Philadelphia Transportation Company PCC #2085 exits from the subway entrance at 40th Street, bound for the 61st Street station and loop on Baltimore Avenue during the 1960s.
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