Keystone Corridor - Brief History

Brief History

Until 1968 the line was part of the Pennsylvania Railroad's (PRR) main line. The part east of Dillerville, just west of Lancaster, was originally the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, part of the state-owned Main Line of Public Works. From Lancaster west to Harrisburg, the Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy and Lancaster Railroad provided the rest of the line. Except for minor realignments, the Keystone Corridor runs along the same path.

In 1915, the PRR electrified the line from Philadelphia's former Broad Street Station to Paoli, then the west end of commuter service. Electrification west of Paoli to Harrisburg came in the 1930s, after the PRR successfully completed electrification on the present-day Northeast Corridor (New York-Washington, D.C. section). The total cost of electrification was over USD $200 million, which was financed by government-supported loans from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the Public Works Administration.

A major rehabilitation was made in the 1950s, but passenger services again became unprofitable as they had become in the 1930s until World War II. The PRR could not afford to invest into money-losing projects as the company had shareholder obligations to meet, and this included a stable dividend. The result was dilapidated stations, slow, disjointed track conditions, and antiquated rolling stock which frequently broke down.

In 1968, the PRR merged with the New York Central to become Penn Central, which declared bankruptcy in 1970. In 1976, Amtrak took ownership of the line between Philadelphia and Harrisburg while Conrail (the merger of Penn Central, the Reading Company, and several other Class I railroads) took ownership of the remaining part of the line and the many branches, both electrified and non-electrified, along it that the Penn Central had owned. Amtrak took over the express Harrisburg-New York intercity rail service in 1971, while Conrail, under SEPTA auspices, continued Harrisburg-Philadelphia commuter services until 1983, when SEPTA took over all commuter services and truncated operations to Parkesburg (later truncated in 1992 to Downingtown, but later extended to Thorndale).

Penn Central made an agreement with the federal government to provide a high-speed service called the Metroliner, which upgraded the Northeast Corridor tracks between New York and Washington by 1969, but neglected other areas such as the Keystone Corridor, a lack of maintenance that continued after Amtrak's takeover in 1976. The Keystone Corridor eventually served as a "depository" for the problem-prone Metroliner electric multiple unit cars. It also used the electric locomotive-hauled trains for Harrisburg-New York service. Before the introduction of Acela electric high-speed service over the Northeast Corridor, and after facing a shortage of electric locomotives (both E60 and AEM-7 models), Amtrak used GE Genesis diesel locomotives between Harrisburg and Philadelphia, with an engine change to an electric (usually AEM-7) locomotive at 30th Street Station. Because of this, higher ticket prices, and competition from SEPTA, ridership declined.

The line between Philadelphia and Lancaster was four tracks until the 1960s, when the PRR removed two of the tracks. The line is now two tracks from Paoli to Harrisburg, save for a three-track section between the Glen and Park interlockings, and a four-track section between the Downs and Thorn interlockings.

As of 2004, most of the track was limited to a maximum speed of 70 miles per hour (110 km/h), except for a few 90 mile per hour (145 km/h)) sections between Downingtown and Lancaster. There are also curves which require slower speeds (especially in the section between Merion and Overbrook), and speed restrictions within interlocking limits.