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 (PRR) 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 (trains numbered in the 600s) 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 (HUD), 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. 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. 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. 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. Amtrak assumed formal responsibility for the
Silverliner Service and
Clockers around April 1974. Penn Central (and later
Conrail and finally
SEPTA Regional Rail) continued to operate Paoli–Philadelphia commuter service. Amtrak took over ticketing for the
Silverliner Service and
Clockers from Penn Central on July 1, 1975. 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. On October 25, 1981, the service was rebranded as
Keystone Service. 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. A decrease to 6 weekday round trips on January 12, 1986, and 5 round trips on April 27, cut ridership by an additional 45%. 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. After dieselization and the lengthening of schedules, on-time performance began to consistently exceed 90%. On October 28, 1973, Amtrak changed the weekday-only
Valley Forge from a Philadelphia–New Haven local train to a Harrisburg–New York City train. It only made the same intermediate stops as the
Keystone, including no direct service to 30th Street Station. However, its introduction meant that through passengers no longer had to change at Philadelphia or rely on the
Broadway Limited, whose on-time performance had plunged to just 6.8% in 1973. The Washington sections of the
Broadway Limited and
National Limited originally split at Harrisburg and reached the Northeast Corridor via the
Port Road Branch. The Washington section of the
Broadway Limited was rerouted through Philadelphia on October 26, 1975; the
National Limited followed suit on October 29, 1978. The
Keystone was renamed
Susquehanna on October 25, 1981. On October 30, 1983, the
Pennsylvanian was extended to New York City, eliminating the transfer at Philadelphia (although it continued to stop at 30th Street). On January 12, 1986, the eastbound
Valley Forge began serving 30th Street (as the westbound had for six years); this allowed it to effectively replace a canceled
Keystone Service train (#600, the first morning eastbound) to serve commuters. Amtrak began operating the Atlantic City–Philadelphia
Atlantic City Express in 1989, and later extended it along several busy corridors in hopes of increasing ridership. On April 4, 1991, one daily
Keystone Service round trip was extended to
Atlantic City under the
Atlantic City Express brand. Only a weekend round trip continued to be through-routed. The
Atlantic City Express was discontinued on April 2, 1995;
New Jersey Transit Atlantic City Line trains continue to serve 30th Street Station.
Modern improvements In November 1996, as part of a general cutback of Regional Rail service, SEPTA cut service back to Downingtown, leaving Parkesburg and as Amtrak-only stations. Amtrak added the stations to several existing round trips as a result. Amtrak discontinued its stops at and (both served only by a single round trip) on April 5, 1998, reducing the number of suburban stations shared by SEPTA and
Keystone Service trains to four. Beginning in 2000, Amtrak and
PennDOT spent $166 million to rehabilitate the Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line. This included the restoration of fully electrified service, as well as track improvements for a top speed of . When the project was completed and electric service began in October 2006, travel times between Harrisburg and Philadelphia were reduced from 120 minutes to 95 minutes, with further time savings for through trains by eliminating the need for an engine change at Philadelphia. Service was also increased from 11 to 14 daily round trips. By FY 2010, ridership was up 91% since FY 2000 and 58% since FY 2006. Later improvements aimed to develop a sealed corridor without public
at-grade crossings, which would allow future speed increases to west of Philadelphia. The last two such at-grade crossings on the line, located just east of
Mount Joy, were closed on September 24, 2014. They were replaced with a bridge connecting to a nearby street. However, private crossings continued to be used on the line. One private crossing east of
Mount Joy was closed soon after a train collided with a tractor using the crossing. Today, only one private crossing remains on the line, west of Lancaster on a private roadway leading to a substation. On March 18, 2020, Amtrak temporarily suspended all
Keystone Service trains due to declining demand because of the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic. Service between Philadelphia and Harrisburg resumed on June 1, 2020, with all-reserved seating. On July 6, 2020, Amtrak restored one
Keystone Service train in each direction running the full route between New York City and Harrisburg. Amtrak restored full service between Philadelphia and Harrisburg on September 8, 2020. On January 4, 2021, Amtrak reduced service levels along the
Keystone Service due to decreased ridership caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the reduction in service, the
Keystone Service had seven roundtrips on weekdays and six roundtrips on weekends between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, with three daily roundtrips running the full route between New York City and Harrisburg. Most pre-pandemic service was restored on April 25, 2022, with eleven weekday Philadelphia–Harrisburg round trips. From March to November 2024, midday
Keystone Service trains were replaced with buses west of Lancaster to allow for track work. Service between New York and Philadelphia was reduced to five daily round trips from February 14 to March 15, 2026, to allow one track from the
Portal Bridge to be cut over to the new
Portal North Bridge.
Proposed expansion Proposals for an
infill station in
Paradise Township have been under considerations since the 1990s. The stop would be about halfway between Lancaster and Parkesburg, serving the local
Plain community and allowing tourists to transfer to the
Strasburg Rail Road. A July 2004 plan was rejected by the
Federal Railroad Administration over concerns that the curved track would preclude
ADA-compliant boarding platforms. == Operation ==