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 intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

passenger train that ran daily between

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and

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

via

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, and

Akron Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 census. The Akron metropolitan area, covering Summit and Portage counties, had ...

. 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 from 1912 to 1995. It was the Pennsylvania's premier train, competing directly with the New York Central Railroad's '' 2 ...

'', 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–

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Keystone Service The ''Keystone Service'' is a 195 mile (314 km) regional passenger train service from Amtrak, that operates between the Harrisburg Transportation Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, running along the P ...

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

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'' Capitol Limited'' 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 car (rail), 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 Budd Metroliner, Me ...

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 1977–1983 program that converted the older, mainly streamliner cars (rail), streamlined ...

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 Vi ...

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

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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

, Greensburg, Johnstown, Altoona,

Huntingdon Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by John, King of England, King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver C ...

, Lewistown,

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, Paoli,

, Trenton, Newark and

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. With the extension to

in 1996, service began to Hammond–Whiting and Nappanee. Other stops in Ohio were added as station improvements were funded:

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(May 16, 1997), Fostoria (December 15, 1997) and

(August 10, 1998). Latrobe was added as a

flag stop In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a bus stop, stop or train station, 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 drop ...

on May 17, 1998. Highlights along the route included Horseshoe Curve near

Altoona, Pennsylvania Altoona ( ) is a city in Blair County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 43,963 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Altoona Metropolitan statistical area, metropolitan area, w ...

, and the

Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range ( ) — also spelled Alleghany or Allegany, less formally the Alleghenies — is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada. Historically it represented a significant barr ...

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

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Equipment

The ''Three Rivers'' used

coaches and either Amfleet or

Horizon The horizon is the apparent curve 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 curve divides all viewing directions based on whethe ...

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