Passenger Rail Service

The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) is a fallen flag and was acquired by the Reading & Chesapeake Railroad (R&C). The R&C operates daily passenger service on the Keystone Division trackage. The PRR's Passenger Rail service lives on as a viable operator under R&C management.

We run East-West and West-East trains daily between Eire and Pottsville with stops in Williamsport, Scranton, Harrisburg, Hazleton, Girardville, Ashland, Lancaster, Philadelphia, Reading, and Allentown.

We run a light rail elevated train between Scranton and Philadelphia and another between Williamsport and Philadelphia.

Much of this mainline as well as locomotives and passenger cars were acquired with the acquisition of the PRR. A short history of PRR passenger service follows below.

The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR) was founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The PRR was the largest railroad by traffic and revenue in the U.S. throughout the first two-thirds of the twentieth century and was at one time the largest publicly traded corporation in the world. At its peak, it controlled about 10,000 miles of rail line. During its history, the PRR merged with or had an interest in at least 800 other rail lines and companies. The corporation still holds the record for the longest continuous dividend history: it paid out annual dividends to shareholders for more than 100 years in a row. At one point the budget for the PRR was larger than that of the U.S. government; at its peak it employed about 250,000 workers.

In 1968, the Pennsylvania Railroad merged with its rival, the New York Central Railroad, to form the Penn Central Transportation Company. The Interstate Commerce Commission required that the ailing New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad be added in 1969. A series of events including inflation, poor management, abnormally harsh weather and the withdrawal of a government-guaranteed $200-million operating loan forced the Penn Central to file for bankruptcy protection on June 21, 1970

Norfolk Southern now owns most of the former Pennsylvania Railroad, including the old Pennsy Main Line across Pennsylvania.

Early History of  PRR Passenger Service :

With capital provided in part by the municipal government of Philadelphia, work on the western part of the main line was completed in 1854, and rail service from Philadelphia across the state to Pittsburgh was available. In 1857, the PRR purchased the main line from the State of Pennsylvania. This line is still an important cross-state corridor, carrying Amtrak's Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line and the Norfolk Southern Railway's Pittsburgh Subdivision.

In the early 1860s, the PRR gained control of the Northern Central Railway, giving it access to Baltimore, Maryland, along the Susquehanna River via connections at Columbia, Pennsylvania, or Harrisburg.

On December 1, 1871, the PRR leased the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company, which included the original Camden and Amboy Railroad from Camden, New Jersey (across the Delaware River from Philadelphia) to South Amboy, New Jersey (across Raritan Bay from New York City), as well as a newer line from Philadelphia to Jersey City, New Jersey, much closer to New York, via Trenton, New Jersey.

The PRR's Baltimore and Potomac Rail Road opened on July 2, 1872, between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The PRR's New York–Washington trains began using the route the next day. In the early 1880s, the PRR acquired a majority of PW&B Railroad's stock. This action forced the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) to build the Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad to keep its Philadelphia access, where it connected with the Reading Railroad for its competing Royal Blue Line passenger trains to reach New York.

In 1885, the PRR began passenger train service from New York City to Washington with limited stops along the route. This service became known as the "Congressional Limited Express." The service expanded, and by the 1920s, the PRR was operating hourly passenger train service between New York and Washington. In the early 1950s, 18-car stainless steel streamliners were introduced on the Morning Congressional and Afternoon Congressional between New York and Washington, as well as the Senator from Boston to Washington.

On June 15, 1887, passenger service began between New York and Chicago, Illinois as the Pennsylvania Limited. In 1902, the Pennsylvania Limited was replaced by the Pennsylvania Special, which in turn was replaced in 1912 by the Broadway Limited which became the most famous train operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad. This train ran from New York City to Chicago, via Philadelphia, with an additional section between Harrisburg and Washington (later operated as a separate Washington–Chicago train, the Liberty Limited).

In 1916 the PRR began using the slogan Standard Railroad of the World. This meant that it was perceived as the standard to which all other railroads aspired. For a long time this was true. It was the first railroad to completely replace wooden-bodied passenger cars with steel-bodied cars, and the first to introduce the vestibuled train. Over its history it led the way in many safety and efficiency improvements. In later years the PRR abandoned the use of the slogan.