The Pennsylvanian is Amtrak's Regional Rail Train that runs between Three Rivers (Pittsburgh) and New York City's Pennsylvania Station (better known as NY Penn Station). As of October 1, 2013 the line is fully funded by the State of Pennsylvania as the Federal Government mandated states to fund any line under 750 miles and with the current Pennsylvanian only being 444 miles it falls under the new regulation laid out in a 2008 funding act by the US Congress,
The 1980's was a real trial time among Amtrak with how to run trains and how to fund them and ultimately led to the true formation of what we know today as the Pennsylvanian Line. The Pennsylvanian prior to the 1980's was filled with multiple trains linking various points together but was not one continuous train from point A to point B (Which never come along till 2003). Today we have one train that services NYC to Pittsburgh but the 80's and 90's actually saw 3 trains operating across the state as we had the Pennsylvanian operating between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, The Philadelphia which was the early time connection for people to go from Philadelphia to NYC, and the Fort Pitt which covered Altoona-Pittsburgh during the booming days of the region as Altoona and Johnstown was a thriving metropolitan section of the state with all the steel and heavy manufacturing jobs.
The 90's brought about experimentation among Amtrak where they decided to reach more people across a vaster area and ultimately extended the Pennsylvanian farther west to Cleavland, Chicago and Kansas City (Now-a-days serviced by the connecting Capital Limited Train from DC in Pittsburgh). That line while better and more expansive for travel proved costly and without ridership could not keep steam and was ultimately shipped out the the now Capital Limited Line and the Pennsylvanian was changed to service NYC to Pittsburgh with the loss of the Philadelphia-NYC Line.
Today the Pennsylvanian services a much needed region of the country and services some of the most major cities as you can learn about on the very next page "Follow the Line" where we highlight some of the major stops and landmarks along the 444 mile journey. Amtrak today is experiencing the highest ridership levels in its entire history and keeps breaking records each month and the Pennsylvanian is no different with its steady rise in ridership and ticket sales trending upward significantly over the past few years (none more evident than this past year 2012/2013 where ridership grew 3.3%, ticket sales 12.8% and saw 219,000 riders). We citizens/advocates for passenger rail in the commonwealth invite you to explore and interact with the page and learn about the line and consider hopping aboard sometime soon.
For a full in-depth history of the Pennsylvanian Line that reaches back into the early days prior to the 1980's we invite you to visit the page below that American-Rails.com runs that provides fascinating detail and a vivid history.
http://www.american-rails.com/pennsylvanian.html
The 1980's was a real trial time among Amtrak with how to run trains and how to fund them and ultimately led to the true formation of what we know today as the Pennsylvanian Line. The Pennsylvanian prior to the 1980's was filled with multiple trains linking various points together but was not one continuous train from point A to point B (Which never come along till 2003). Today we have one train that services NYC to Pittsburgh but the 80's and 90's actually saw 3 trains operating across the state as we had the Pennsylvanian operating between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, The Philadelphia which was the early time connection for people to go from Philadelphia to NYC, and the Fort Pitt which covered Altoona-Pittsburgh during the booming days of the region as Altoona and Johnstown was a thriving metropolitan section of the state with all the steel and heavy manufacturing jobs.
The 90's brought about experimentation among Amtrak where they decided to reach more people across a vaster area and ultimately extended the Pennsylvanian farther west to Cleavland, Chicago and Kansas City (Now-a-days serviced by the connecting Capital Limited Train from DC in Pittsburgh). That line while better and more expansive for travel proved costly and without ridership could not keep steam and was ultimately shipped out the the now Capital Limited Line and the Pennsylvanian was changed to service NYC to Pittsburgh with the loss of the Philadelphia-NYC Line.
Today the Pennsylvanian services a much needed region of the country and services some of the most major cities as you can learn about on the very next page "Follow the Line" where we highlight some of the major stops and landmarks along the 444 mile journey. Amtrak today is experiencing the highest ridership levels in its entire history and keeps breaking records each month and the Pennsylvanian is no different with its steady rise in ridership and ticket sales trending upward significantly over the past few years (none more evident than this past year 2012/2013 where ridership grew 3.3%, ticket sales 12.8% and saw 219,000 riders). We citizens/advocates for passenger rail in the commonwealth invite you to explore and interact with the page and learn about the line and consider hopping aboard sometime soon.
For a full in-depth history of the Pennsylvanian Line that reaches back into the early days prior to the 1980's we invite you to visit the page below that American-Rails.com runs that provides fascinating detail and a vivid history.
http://www.american-rails.com/pennsylvanian.html