The New York Short Line was a railway 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, ...

. It was operated by the

Reading Company 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 called ...

and built by the New York Short Line Railroad, a subsidiary. It was opened in 1906 to provide a more direct route between

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. Since ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, bypassing the existing route via

Jenkintown Jenkintown is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is approximately 10 miles (16 km) north of Center City Philadelphia. History The community was named for William Jenkins, a Welsh pioneer settler. Jenkintown is located just ...

. The line was conveyed to

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do bus ...

in 1976 and is now part of the Trenton Subdivision of

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of trac ...

History

The

Philadelphia and Reading Railway 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 called ...

, together with the

Central Railroad of New Jersey The Central Railroad of New Jersey, also known as the Jersey Central or Jersey Central Lines , was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s. It was absorbed into Conrail in April 1976 along with several other prominent bankrupt railroads of ...

, maintained its own route between

and

independent of the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

Northeast Corridor The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston through Providence, New Haven, Stamford, New York City, Philadelphia, Wilmington, ...

. Trains came north up the

Ninth Street Branch The Ninth Street Branch was an elevated railway line in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was operated by the Reading Company; ownership was split between the Reading and its subsidiary the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad. It was a f ...

from

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 Headho ...

via to the

Bethlehem Branch The North Pennsylvania Railroad was a railroad company which served Philadelphia, Montgomery County, Bucks County and Northampton County in Pennsylvania. It was formed in 1852 and began operation in 1855. The Philadelphia and Reading Railway, ...

, then east at

on to the

New York Branch The New York Branch or the Bound Brook Route was a railway line in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It was operated by the Reading Company and owned by two of its subsidiaries, the North Pennsylvania Railroad and the Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad. ...

. The New York-bound trains of the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

(B&O) also used this route. The New York Short Line Railroad was incorporated on May 6, 1903, to build a new cutoff extending from the Newtown Branch at to the New York Branch at . This line, some long, was shorter than the existing route and avoided the congested junction at Jenkintown. To reach Cheltenham, trains would move on the Newtown Branch at Newtown Junction, north of Wayne Junction. The new line opened on May 27, 1906. To support the additional traffic, the Newtown Branch was double-tracked between Cheltenham and Newtown Junction. Administratively, the Newtown Branch's southern terminus was cut back to Cheltenham Junction once the New York Short Line opened, with the new branch extending from Neshaminy Falls to Newtown Junction. The New York Short Line Railroad was one of twelve Reading properties merged at the end of 1923 to create the new

. The section of the line from Newtown Junction to Cheltenham Junction was electrified on September 29, 1966, along with the Newtown Branch to . With the Reading Company's final bankruptcy in 1976, the New York Short Line was conveyed to

SEPTA The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly 4 million people in five c ...

regional rail trains, now the

Fox Chase Line The Fox Chase Line SEPTA Regional Rail service connecting Center City Philadelphia with Fox Chase. It uses the Fox Chase Branch, which branches off from the SEPTA Main Line at Newtown Junction north of the Wayne Junction station. It runs enti ...

, continued to share the branch with freight trains between Newtown Junction and Cheltenham Junction. In the mid-1980s, SEPTA studied the possibility of electrifying the branch between Cheltenham Junction and Neshaminy Falls. The New York Short Line was eventually combined with several other lines to become part of the

Trenton Line The Trenton Line is a route of the SEPTA Regional Rail ( commuter rail) system. The route serves the northeastern suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with service in Bucks County along the Delaware River to Trenton, New Jersey. Route Trento ...

, later the Trenton Subdivision. Beginning in 1989 the shared double-tracked portion was functionally split, with Conrail and SEPTA each using one track. The two lines were physically separated in 2004–2005.

Notes

References

* * * * * {{Cite web , author=

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to elimina ...

, date=1931 , title=Interstate Commerce Commission Reports: Decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission of the United States. Valuation reports , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gsMFAAAAIAAJ , publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office , language=en , ref={{harvid, ICC, 1931 Railway lines opened in 1906 Rail infrastructure in Pennsylvania Reading Company lines