| Northeast Corridor |
Article Index for Northeast |
Articles about Northeast Corridor |
Website Links For Northeast |
Information AboutNortheast Corridor |
|
).]] The Northeast Corridor ('''NEC''') is the busiest passenger Rail line in the United States by ridership and service frequency.1 The route is fully electrified and serves a densely urbanized string of cities from Washington, D.C. in the south through Baltimore , Wilmington , Philadelphia , Trenton , Newark , New York , New Haven , and Providence to Boston . It also has branches connecting Philadelphia with Harrisburg, Pennsylvania ; New Haven with Hartford, Connecticut and Springfield, Massachusetts ; New York City with Albany, New York , and several other commuter destinations. The busiest passenger rail station in the United States is Pennsylvania Station in New York, the central hub of the Northeast Corridor. The NEC is immediately identified by the use of Overhead Wires and high speed Rolling Stock . Mostly operated and owned by Amtrak , the NEC offers the only true High-speed Rail service in the United States, Amtrak's '' Acela Express ''. Several commuter rail agencies provide local service along the Northeast Corridor, some electrified and some Diesel -powered. These rail networks include MARC in Maryland and Washington DC, SEPTA in Pennsylania, NJ Transit in New Jersey, Metro-North in New York and Connecticut, Shore Line East in Connecticut, and MBTA in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The Northeast Corridor mainline closely parallels Interstate 95 for its entire length. CURRENT PASSENGER SERVICES The busiest part of the Northeast Corridor is the segment between Philadelphia and New York City. Amtrak operates 54 round-trip trains each weekday on this route, with an extra train (the '' Cardinal '') on Wednesdays and Fridays. 344 round trips use the New York City to Philadelphia segment per week. Amtrak accounts for about 14% of all intercity trips (including those by automobile) between Washington, D.C., and New York City and about 47% of trips between those cities by rail or air carrier.Congressional Budget Office. "The Past and Future of U.S. Passenger Rail Service," September 2003. {Link without Title} The following Amtrak services run along the Northeast Corridor:
Other services using the NEC:
Non-Amtrak commuter rail services In addition to Amtrak, several commuter rail agencies operate passenger service using the Northeast Corridor tracks.
OWNERSHIP train with two AEM-7 locomotives running through New Jersey on the Northeast Corridor.]] Track With primarily passenger services, the Northeast Corridor is a cooperative venture between Amtrak and various state agencies. Amtrak owns the track between Washington and New Rochelle, New York , a northern suburb of New York City. The segment from New Rochelle to New Haven is owned by the states of New York and Connecticut. Metro-North Railroad commuter trains operate on this segment. North of New Haven, ownership again reverts to Amtrak, whose tracks stretch to the border between Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The final segment from the border north to Boston is owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority operates commuter trains on this stretch alongside Amtrak trains. Amtrak's ownership and upkeep of the line has become controversial after several high profile electric power failures in 2006 and other infrastructure problems.2 Intermittent power outages have caused delays, lasting up to five hours, for Amtrak and state commuter trains. Railroad officials have blamed Amtrak's Funding Woes for the deterioration of the track and power supply infrastructure, which in places is almost a hundred years old.3 Stations Amtrak owns Pennsylvania Station in New York, 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, Penn Station in Baltimore, and Union Station in Washington. Freight service Freight service is provided on the Northeast Corridor by Trackage Rights . The Norfolk Southern Railway operates over the line south of Philadelphia, and CSX Transportation has rights from New York to New Haven and in Massachusetts. Between Philadelphia and New York, Conrail , which formerly provided service on the whole line, still operates over the line, as a local switching and terminal company for both CSX and Norfolk Southern. The Providence And Worcester Railroad operates local freight service from New Haven into Rhode Island and has Incidental Trackage Rights from New Haven to New York. HISTORY Unlike most Europe an High-speed Rail lines, built on new Rights-of-way , the NEC uses existing lines that were built separately as early as the 1830s; the most recent section, the Hell Gate Bridge and New York Connecting Railroad in New York, opened in 1917. From 1893, when the NYNH&H acquired the Old Colony Railroad , including the Providence-Boston section of the NEC, the NEC has been owned by two companies - the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) from Washington to New York and the New York, New Haven And Hartford Railroad (NYNH&H) from New York to Boston. Under the PRR and NYNH&H, the lines were known as the Philadelphia-to-Washington Main Line, '''Philadelphia-to-New York Main Line''' and '''Shore Line'''. In 1968 the PRR merged with its former rival, the New York Central Railroad , to form Penn Central Transportation . The NYNH&H was merged into Penn Central in 1969, bringing the whole Washington-Boston corridor under control of one company. With the 1971 formation of Amtrak , the intercity passenger services were under government control. In 1976 the Bankrupt Penn Central was taken over by the Government Corporation Conrail , and the sections of line that had not already been sold to commuter transportation authorities were sold to Amtrak. The purchase of the Northeast Corridor was controversial at the time. The Department Of Transportation initially blocked the transaction and withheld purchase funds for several months for largely political reasons until Amtrak granted it control over reconstruction of the corridor.''A loss for Amtrak is Coleman's Gain.'' ''Business Week'', p.36 (Sept. 13, 1976). New York electrification The electrification projects of the steam railroads in the area which is now the NEC began with the Park Avenue Tunnel of the New York And Harlem Railroad , part of the New York Central And Hudson River Railroad (NYC) to its Grand Central Terminal in New York, and also used by the NYNH&H via Trackage Rights . With the 1900 opening of the Gare D'Orsay in Paris, France, the first electrified urban rail terminal in the world, a new technology was available, and the NYC began planning for electrification between Grand Central and the split at Mott Haven . Electricity was already in use on various branch lines of the NYNH&H, but was provided to Interurban Streetcar s via Third Rail or Trolley Wire . Low visibility caused by the air pollution of the Steam Locomotive s used at the time caused an accident killing 17 on January 8 , 1902 , and the resulting public outcry led to a push for electric operation in Manhattan . In 1905 the NYNH&H announced that it would electrify its main line from New York to Stamford, Connecticut . Along with the construction of the new Grand Central Terminal , opened in 1912 , the NYC electrified its lines, beginning on December 11 , 1906 with suburban Multiple Unit service to High Bridge on the Hudson Line . Electric Locomotive s began serving Grand Central February 13 , 1907 , and all NYC passenger service into Grand Central was electrified July 1 . NYNH&H electrification began July 24 to New Rochelle , August 5 to Port Chester and October 6 , 1907 the rest of the way to Stamford. Steam trains last operated into Grand Central on June 30 , 1908 , after which all NYNH&H passenger trains into Manhattan were electrified. On June 22 , 1914 the NYNH&H electrification was extended to New Haven , where it would end for many years. At the same time, the PRR was building its Pennsylvania Station and electrified approaches, served by the PRR's lines in New Jersey and the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR). LIRR electric service began in 1905 on the Atlantic Branch from Downtown Brooklyn past Jamaica , and in June 1910 on the branch to Long Island City , part of the main line to Penn Station. Penn Station opened September 8 , 1910 for LIRR trains and November 27 for the PRR, which changed engines and had platforms for transferring at Manhattan Transfer . On July 29 , 1911 the NYNH&H began electric service on its Harlem River Branch , a suburban branch that would become a main line with the completion of the New York Connecting Railroad and its Hell Gate Bridge . The bridge opened on April 1 , 1917 , but was operated by steam with an engine change at Sunnyside Yard east of Penn Station until 1918. Philadelphia electrification In 1905, the PRR announced that it would electrify its suburban lines at Philadelphia, eventually extending it all the way between New York and Washington. Electric service began September 11 , 1915 with Multiple Unit trains west to Paoli on the PRR main line (now the Keystone Corridor ). Electric service to Chestnut Hill (now the R8 Chestnut Hill West ), including a stretch of the NEC, began March 30 , 1918 . Local electric service to Wilmington, Delaware on the NEC began September 30 , 1928 , and the other way to Trenton, New Jersey on June 29 , 1930 . NEC southern section: New York to Washington PRR electric service began between Exchange Place , the Jersey City terminal, and New Brunswick, New Jersey on December 8 , 1932 , including the extension of Penn Station electric service from Manhattan Transfer. On January 16 , 1933 the rest of the electrification, between New Brunswick and Trenton, opened, giving a fully electrified intercity line between New York and Philadelphia, and beyond to Wilmington. Through trains to Washington began running under electricity to Wilmington February 12 , with the engine change moved from Manhattan Transfer to Wilmington. The same was done on April 9 for trains running west from Philadelphia, with the change point moved to Paoli. In 1933, the electrification south of Wilmington stalled due to the Great Depression , but the PRR managed to get a loan from the federal government, and resumed work the next year. The tunnels at Baltimore were rebuilt, and electric revenue service between New York and Washington began February 10 , 1935 . On April 7 the electrification of all New York-Washington passenger trains was complete, with 639 daily trains, 191 locomotive-hauled and the other 448 multiple unit. New York-Washington electric freight service began May 20 with the electrification of freight lines in New Jersey and Washington. Extensions to Potomac Yard across the Potomac River from Washington, as well as several freight branches along the way, were electrified in 1937 and 1938. The Potomac Yard electrification remained until 1981. The North American speed record for a production train The UAC Turbotrain set the speed record for a production train at 170.8 miles per hour on the Northeast Corridor between New Brunswick, New Jersey and Trenton, New Jersey on December 20 , 1967 , when that portion of the line was still under Pennsylvania Railroad control.4 NEC northern section: New York to Boston Electrification of the portion north of New Haven to Providence and Boston was planned by the NYNH&H, and authorized by the company's board of directors shortly before the U.S. entered World War I . This plan was not carried out because of the war and because of the company's financial problems. Decades later, a project for electrification between New Haven and Boston was included in a bill signed by President Gerald Ford in 1976. The project stalled after 1980 because of opposition from the Reagan Administration . Penn Central and Amtrak: forming the NEC Despite the New York Connecting Railroad and Hell Gate Bridge joining the two segments, they were operated almost entirely independently of each other until the merger of the PRR and NYNH&H into Penn Central Transportation in 1968 and 1969 respectively, and the establishment of Amtrak in 1971. On September 21 , 1970 all New York-Boston trains but the '' Turboservice '' were rerouted into Penn Station from Grand Central, and the ''Turboservice'' was moved February 1 , 1971 . Amtrak, which took over Intercity Service on May 1 , 1971 , soon began running more trains through New York, partly due to poor maintenance at Sunnyside Yard .Kevin McKinney, At the dawn of Amtrak, '' Trains '' June 1991 At the same time, rail freight service in New England was declining. The February 26 , 1975 Preliminary System Plan for Conrail proposed abandoning all freight on the Shore Line (NEC) between Groton, Connecticut and Hills Grove, Rhode Island . However, on March 14 , the U.S. Railway Association announced that it had reevaluated the line segment and would be keeping it in operation.United States Railway Association final system plan for reconstructing railroads in the northeast and midwest region pursuant to the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 | ||
| {class | "wikitable" |
|
|