The Maple Leaf was an international night train between New York City and Toronto, operated by the

Lehigh Valley Railroad The Lehigh Valley Railroad was a railroad built in the Northeastern United States to haul anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Pennsylvania. The railroad was authorized on April 21, 1846 for freight and transportation of passengers, goods, w ...

in coordination with the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

. It ran from

Pennsylvania Station Pennsylvania Station (often abbreviated Penn Station) is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) to several of its grand passenger terminals. Several are still in active use by Amtrak and other transportation services; others have been ...

in New York City and it concluded at Toronto's

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

. It began in 1937; and a predecessor LV train on a similar itinerary was the ''Toronto.'' The ''Maple Leaf'' and the ''John Wilkes'' were the last named passenger trains operated by the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The route was double tracked from New York City to Niagara Falls; and in the Finger Lakes Region it bypassed several local stations. In contrast to the LV's '' Black Diamond'' and ''Star,'' it bypassed

Ithaca Ithaca most commonly refers to: *Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey'' *Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca *Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College Ithaca, Ithaka ...

on the northbound trip. However, in the final years of the ''Maple Leaf,'' after the discontinuance of those trains, it did stop in Ithaca. The train had an alternate section operated with the

Reading Railroad The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and commercial rail transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states that operated from 1924 until its 1976 acquisition by Conrail. Commonly calle ...

, which originated at

Reading Terminal The Reading Terminal ( ) is a complex of buildings that includes the former Reading Company main station located in the Market East section of Center City in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It comprises the Reading Terminal Headhou ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and linked with the main part of the ''Maple Leaf'' train in

Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital o ...

. The train had its final departure on February 3, 1961.'Last of the Railroad - Era Passes Tonight as Lehigh Ends Service,' 'Geneva Times,' February 3, 1961 https://web.archive.org/web/20081013081023/http://www.enter.net/~lvrr/7a8.htm In 1981,

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

and

Via Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via, is a Canadian Crown corporation that is mandated to operate intercity passenger rail service in Canada. It receives an annual subsidy from Transport Canada to offset the cost of operating ...

reintroduced the ''Maple Leaf'' name for their New York–Toronto train, the first direct rail service between these cities since 1967. The modern ''Maple Leaf'' uses the

Empire Corridor The Empire Corridor is a passenger rail corridor in New York State running between Penn Station in New York City and . Major cities on the route include Poughkeepsie, Albany, Schenectady, Amsterdam, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo ...

through New York State rather than the historic route of the Lehigh Valley train, neither entering New Jersey nor Pennsylvania.

References

{{RDG named trains Canadian National Railway International named passenger trains Lehigh Valley Railroad Named passenger trains of Canada Named passenger trains of Ontario Named passenger trains of the United States Night trains of Canada Night trains of the United States Passenger rail transportation in Pennsylvania Passenger rail transportation in New York (state) Passenger rail transportation in New Jersey Railway services introduced in 1937 Railway services discontinued in 1961 Reading Company