The ''Three Rivers'' was an

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 ...

passenger train that ran daily between

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and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

via

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 ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, and

Akron Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city prop ...

. It started in 1995, replacing the ''

Broadway Limited The ''Broadway Limited'' was a passenger train operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) between New York City and Chicago. It operated from 1912 to 1995. It was the Pennsylvania's premier train, competing directly with the New York Central R ...

'', and ran until March 7, 2005, when Amtrak cancelled a contract with the

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that was specific to the train.

History

Amtrak began the ''Three Rivers'' on September 10, 1995, as a replacement for the discontinued ''Broadway Limited''. The train originally ran between New York and Pittsburgh, extending a New York–

Harrisburg Harrisburg is the capital city of the Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the List of c ...

Keystone Service Amtrak's ''Keystone Service'' provides frequent regional rail, regional passenger train service between the Harrisburg Transportation Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, running along the Philadelphia to ...

'' train. Using train numbers 46/47, it exchanged mail cars with the Chicago–

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Capitol Limited The ''Capitol Limited'' is a daily Amtrak train between Washington, D.C., and Chicago, running via Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Service began in 1981 and was named after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's ''Capitol Limited'' which ended in 1971 u ...

'' in Pittsburgh, while through passengers disembarked and changed trains. Through service began on February 1, 1996, by coupling two ''Three Rivers''

Amfleet Amfleet is a fleet of single-level intercity railroad passenger cars built by the Budd Company for American company Amtrak in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Budd based the Amfleet design on its earlier Metroliner electric multiple unit. An in ...

coaches to the Superliner consist of the ''Capitol Limited''. Passage between the single-level and double-level cars was facilitated by a transition dorm car. Amtrak ended the switching operation on November 10, 1996, in favor of extending the ''Three Rivers'' to Chicago as an independent train. In doing so, they restored the ''Broadway Limiteds numbers (40/41), albeit neither its full dining service nor its sleeping cars due to equipment shortages and an unfavorable schedule. On April 1, 1999, Amtrak added a sleeping car to the ''Three Rivers'', using four previously stored

Heritage Fleet Amtrak's Heritage Fleet consisted of the rolling stock provided to it when it assumed passenger service on commercial railroads. The name was applied to a program begun in 1977 to convert the older, mainly streamlined, cars from steam heating to ...

sleepers that they had restored for $250,000 since no

Viewliner The Viewliner is a single-level railroad car type operated by Amtrak on most long-distance routes operating east of Chicago. The first production cars, consisting of an order of 50 sleeping cars, entered service in 1994. From 2015-2016, 70 View ...

s were available. The last standard 10-6 sleepers operated by Amtrak, they required a

Federal Railroad Administration The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is an agency in the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). The agency was created by the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. The purpose of the FRA is to promulgate and enforce rail saf ...

waiver to operate because of their direct-dump toilets. When the waiver expired in October 2001, Amtrak retired the Heritage sleepers and replaced them with Viewliners, which had since become available.

Route

The Pittsburgh–New York ''Three Rivers'' stopped at Pittsburgh, Greensburg, Johnstown, Altoona, Huntingdon, Lewistown, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Paoli, Philadelphia, Trenton, Newark and New York. With the extension to Chicago in 1996, service began to Hammond–Whiting and Nappanee. Other stops in Ohio were added as station improvements were funded: Youngstown (May 16, 1997), Fostoria (December 15, 1997) and Akron (August 10, 1998). Latrobe was added as a

flag stop In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a stop or station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or dropped off. In this way, st ...

on May 17, 1998. Highlights along the route included

Horseshoe Curve A horseshoe curve is a class of climbing curve in a roadbed which reverses turn direction (inflection) twice on either side of a single tight curve that varies through an angle of about 180 degrees or more. Such curves are more commonly found ...

near Altoona,

Pennsylvania Dutch Country The Pennsylvania Dutch Country (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Deitscherei'' Dutchery', also called Pennsylvania Dutchland (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Pennsylvania Deitschland'', german: Pennsylvania Deutschland), or simply the Dutch Country or Dutchland (Pen ...

, and the

Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range (; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany), informally the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less devel ...

. The New York–Chicago trip took about 20 hours. Service over the former route of the ''Three Rivers'' east of Pittsburgh is now provided by the '' Pennsylvanian''. While its route west of Pittsburgh to Hammond–Whiting is no longer served by passenger trains, the ''

'' still connects Pittsburgh and Chicago, albeit on a different route via

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Equipment

The ''Three Rivers'' used

coaches and either Amfleet or

Horizon The horizon is the apparent line that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This line divides all viewing directions based on whether i ...

dinettes in addition to the later Heritage sleeper. At the height of Amtrak's experiment with mail and express business, a typical late 1990s ''Three Rivers'' had 4–6 passenger cars and upwards of 25 mail cars.

References

External links

2004 timetable
{{Former Amtrak routes Former Amtrak routes Railway services introduced in 1995 Railway services discontinued in 2005 Transportation in Pittsburgh Passenger rail transportation in Pennsylvania Passenger rail transportation in New York (state) Passenger rail transportation in New Jersey Passenger rail transportation in Ohio Passenger rail transportation in Indiana Passenger rail transportation in Illinois Former long distance Amtrak routes