Keystone Service
The Keystone Service is a 195 mile regional passenger train service from Amtrak, that operates between the Harrisburg Transportation Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, running along the Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line. Most trains then continue along the Northeast Corridor to Penn Station in New York City.
Trips between Harrisburg and New York take approximately hours, including hours between Harrisburg and Philadelphia. There are also several express services that can cut the journey times of both by approximately 15 minutes.
The line is considered higher-speed rail with trains operating at up to over parts of the Northeast Corridor and up to over parts of the Keystone Corridor.
it is Amtrak's fifth-busiest route nationally, and the third-busiest among services in the greater Northeast Corridor, carrying 1.27 million passengers, an increase of 13.7% over FY2023. Total revenue in FY2016 was $41,123,787, an increase of 7.5% over FY2015. The route is primarily funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
History
Takeover from Penn Central
The Keystone Service is the successor to numerous services running along the Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line dating back to 1857, when the Pennsylvania Railroad bought the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, enabling service between Philadelphia and Harrisburg.By the time the PRR merged with Penn Central in 1968, it operated three types of service on the Main Line: commuter service between the suburb of and Suburban Station via 30th Street Station, regional service between Harrisburg and Suburban Station via 30th Street Station, and express intercity service like the Broadway Limited and Duquesne, which skipped 30th Street Station entirely and used North Philadelphia station as their only Philadelphia stop.
When the Metroliner high-speed program had begun two years earlier, the state had attempted to capitalize on the opportunity to purchase upgraded rolling stock for the 600-series trains. On August 30, 1966, Governor William Scranton of Pennsylvania announced plans to purchase 11 Metroliners capable of service to replace the Silverliners then used. The cars were ordered through Philadelphia commuter agency SEPTA, as the state was not permitted to contract directly with the PRR. The state, SEPTA, and PRR reached an agreement on November 3; the state and SEPTA would each pay $2 million, funded mostly by mass transit grants from the newly formed Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the PRR would receive a free 15-year lease of the cars. The PRR soon withdrew after complaints from competing Red Arrow Lines and Capitol Trailways, and the HUD grants were later found to be inapplicable to intercity service.
In June 1968, an agreement was reached where the state Transportation Assistance Authority would pay $2 million and Penn Central would pay $2.5 million for the 11 Metroliners for Harrisburg service. On July 14, a 4-car train was tested on the line, with several demonstration runs for officials on August 21. On February 25, 1970, the cars intended for Harrisburg service completed their performance testing. Penn Central refused to accept the cars, citing numerous technical issues with the cars and their general unsuitability for the service. They had slower acceleration than the Silverliners already in service, tended to overheat when making numerous closely spaced stops, and had difficulty climbing the grade out of Suburban Station. Additionally, the corridor lacked high-level platforms to effectively use the cars, and 15 substations would require expensive modifications. The 11 cars were unused for some time before Penn Central ultimately decided to lease the cars for use on the core New York–Washington service. They were moved back to the Budd plant for modifications in April. In July 1970, the state authorized $100,000 to upgrade existing Silverliners for the Harrisburg service instead.
When Amtrak was created to take over intercity passenger rail service in 1971, there was substantial debate about whether some trains constituted intercity services or commuter services. Penn Central alleged that several of its regional services – the 600-series trains, connecting Lancaster–York buses, Clockers, and New York–Chatham service – were intercity services that could be discontinued since they were not included in Amtrak's initial system.
On March 31, 1971, Penn Central filed with ICC to discontinue the 600-series trains at the conclusion of their contract with SEPTA on June 30. The state filed suit against Penn Central on April 7 to stop the discontinuance. On April 23, Penn Central filed in District Court to discontinue the regional services. Five days later, the state and the UTU filed an opposing suit, calling the trains a commuter service. On April 30, Judge John P. Fullam ordered Penn Central to continue operating the trains and ultimately referred the case to the ICC.
When Amtrak took over intercity service on May 1, 1971, the 600-series trains continued to be operated by Penn Central, though they were listed in Amtrak schedules. The city of Philadelphia and the state both preferred to have Penn Central rather than Amtrak operate the service, as Amtrak was exempt from state control. On June 21, the ICC ruled that the service was not intercity rail, as sought by the state and not by Penn Central. On August 3, Fullam ordered Penn Central to continue operating the regional services.
On October 29, 1972, after further negotiations with Penn Central, Amtrak took over operation of the 600-series trains as Silverliner Service, named for the Silverliner cars used to run the trains. Amtrak assumed formal responsibility for the Silverliner Service and Clockers around April 1974. Penn Central continued to operate Paoli–Philadelphia commuter service. Amtrak took over ticketing for the Silverliner Service and Clockers from Penn Central on July 1, 1975. On October 26, 1975, SEPTA funded an increase from 9 to 11 daily round trips. Amtrak began including a listing of connecting trains to/from New York City in the November 1975 timetable.
Declining service
In the late 1970s, NJDOT's new Arrow III railcars arrived several years ahead of the completion of electrification projects to allow their use in New Jersey commuter service. By this time, Amtrak was desperate for electric propulsion, as the aging GG1 locomotives were nearing the end of their usefulness, replacement E60 locomotives were proving unreliable, and new EMD AEM-7 locomotives were only just beginning to arrive. In April 1978, Amtrak leased 70 of NJDOT's Arrow II cars for use on the Clockers, Keystone Service, and the new Chesapeake. By January 1979, the Arrows were rotated between the Clockers and Silverliner Service. The Arrows had bathrooms and water fountains, making them more suitable for regional service than the Silverliners. In late 1980, under pressure from NJDOT, Amtrak returned all but 32 of the Arrows, which quickly created the need to find other rolling stock for the Silverliner Service. Despite being pronounced unsuitable for Harrisburg service a decade before, the Metroliners were the only easily available rolling stock, as they were being slowly retired from the eponymous service. A test run with Metroliners was made on January 20, 1981, and Metroliners were used in revenue service for two weeks in February. Metroliners were used on the New York – Harrisburg Valley Forge for a week in August, and a maintenance facility at Harrisburg opened on October 13, 1981.As the new AEM-7 locomotives continued to arrive, Amtrak assigned them to haul crack Metroliner trains with Amfleet consists, and reassigned the less-reliable Metroliners for the secondary Philadelphia–Harrisburg service, dubbing them Capitoliners. On October 25, 1981, the service was rebranded as Keystone Service. All service was then operated by the Metroliners, which lacked the quick acceleration of the Silverliners or Arrows, making them unsuitable for the service. After a single Metroliner set was withdrawn from Clocker service in March 1982, the Keystone Service was the only remaining use of the Metroliners. On April 24, 1983, a pair of weekday trains – the 9:54am arrival and 3:55pm departure from Suburban Station – were renamed Keystone Executive. Intended to attract riders from the western end of the corridor, the trains made intermediate stops only at Lancaster, Downingtown, and 30th Street, with a 99-minute schedule.
The first westbound train of the morning made numerous local stops for commuters to Harrisburg, including some at stations not served by any other Amtrak train. This was first shown in the April 29, 1973, schedule. These one-off stops were gradually dropped: Merion in 1979; 52nd Street and Berwyn in 1980; Radnor and Narberth in 1982; and Bryn Mawr, Overbrook, and Wayne in 1987. Amtrak and SEPTA opened a station in on November 2, 1981, to serve fast-growing suburban areas.
The Silverliner Service carried over one million passengers in 1980, but ridership was in steep decline due to a variety of factors. On October 30, 1983, Amtrak reduced the service from 11 to 9 weekday round trips, prompting an 8% drop in ridership. A decrease to 6 weekday round trips on January 12, 1986, and 5 round trips on April 27, cut ridership by an additional 45%. The cuts included the termination of the Keystone Executive. Despite the loss of service, fares doubled from 1980 to 1987. The single SEPTA round trip past Paoli to was cut in 1983, but two round trips were restored in March 1985, with additional midday and weekend service added in 1988. Service was further extended to in 1990, with lower fares than Amtrak. By 1990, SEPTA carried 595,000 passengers west of Paoli, twice that of Amtrak's ridership on the entire Keystone Service.
The Metroliner cars, worn out from nearly two decades of heavy use, began to fail frequently. In April 1985, Amtrak began studying the possibility of removing electrification west of Paoli. On-time performance decreased from around 85% in 1985 to below 60% in early 1988. On January 25, 1988, Amtrak began towing the Metroliner cars with AEM-7 locomotives rather than running them under their own power, although the cars had their pantographs up to power lighting and heating systems. A wreck of the Night Owl four days later took two AEM-7 locomotives out of commission, exacerbating a shortage of electric power available to Amtrak. On February 1, Amtrak converted all Keystone Service trains to diesel power and terminated them on the lower level of 30th Street Station, as diesel-powered trains were not allowed in the tunnels to Suburban Station. The change was listed as "temporary" on timetables starting on May 15, 1988, and lasting into 1990. After dieselization and the lengthening of schedules, on-time performance began to consistently exceed 90%.