The Reading Line is a main freight line in
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
owned and operated by
Norfolk Southern Railway. It stretches from the
Harrisburg Line
The Harrisburg Line is a rail line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The line runs from Philadelphia west to Harrisburg.
The Harrisburg Line was formed the day Conrail began operations, ...
at Wyomissing Junction in
Wyomissing, Pennsylvania
Wyomissing is a borough in Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The borough was established on July 2, 1906. As of the 2020 census, the population was 11,114, compared to 10,461 at the 2010 census. The growth was significantly larger betwe ...
to a junction with the
Lehigh Line in
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Bethlehem is a city in Northampton and Lehigh Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bethlehem had a total population of 75,781. Of this, 55,639 were in Northampton County and 19, ...
. The line sees about 65 trains a day, mostly trains running from
Northern New Jersey
North Jersey comprises the northern portions of the U.S. state of New Jersey between the upper Delaware River and the Atlantic Ocean. The designation of northern New Jersey with a distinct toponym is a colloquial one rather than an administrati ...
and
Allentown, Pennsylvania to points west and south.
The line is mostly double-track with the only area of single track between CP Blandon and CP West Laurel. Trains go faster on this line than most others.
History
The line opened as the
East Pennsylvania Railroad on May 11, 1859, connecting
Allentown Allentown may refer to several places in the United States and topics related to them:
*Allentown, California, now called Toadtown, California
*Allentown, Georgia, a town in Wilkinson County
*Allentown, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Taze ...
with
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...
.
This railroad became part of 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 call ...
, and carried traffic from the Allentown area to their main line. In 1976, The Reading Railroad was acquired by
Conrail, which continued to use the line as a conduit between North Jersey and the rest of the country. When Conrail was split in 1999, Norfolk Southern was assigned the line.
On March 14, 2018, Norfolk Southern increased speeds along the Reading Line from to at 33 grade crossings and from to at 3 grade crossings. The speed change was intended to increase the efficiency of rail operations and improve the flow of vehicular traffic at grade crossings.
References
{{reflist
*http://www.parailfan.com/NS/ns_reading_line_ett.pdf
*http://www.parailfan.com/Database/results.php
*https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/NSReadingline/info
Norfolk Southern Railway lines
Rail infrastructure in Pennsylvania
Reading Company lines
Railway lines opened in 1859