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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 in the north to Washington, D.C., in the south, with major stops in Providence, New Haven, Stamford, New York City, Newark, Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore. The NEC is roughly paralleled by Interstate 95 for most of its length. Carrying more than 2,200 trains a day, it is the busiest passenger rail line in the United States by ridership and service frequency.
The corridor is used by many Amtrak trains, including the high-speed Acela (formerly Acela Express), intercity trains, and several long-distance trains. Most of the corridor also has frequent commuter rail service, operated by the MBTA (Keolis), CT Rail, Metro-North Railroad, Long Island Rail Road, New Jersey Transit, SEPTA, and MARC. While large through freights have not run on the NEC since the early 1980s, some sections still carry smaller local freights operated by CSX, Norfolk Southern, CSAO, Providence and Worcester, New York and Atlantic, and Canadian Pacific. CSX and NS partly own their routes.
Long-distance Amtrak services that use the Northeast Corridor include the Cardinal, Crescent, and Silver Meteor trains, which reach 125 mph (201 km/h), as well as its Acela trains, which reach 150–160 mph (240–260 km/h) in parts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Jersey. Some express trains operated by MARC that reach 125 mph (201 km/h) also operate on the Northeast Corridor. Acela can travel the 225 mi (362 km) between New York City and Washington, D.C., in under three hours, and the 229 mi (369 km) between New York and Boston in under 3.5 hours.
In 2012, Amtrak proposed improvements to enable "true" high-speed rail on the corridor, which would have roughly halved travel times at an estimated cost of $151 billion.
Most of what is now called the Northeast Corridor was built, piece by piece, by several railroads constructed as early as the 1830s. Before 1900, their routes had been consolidated as two long and unconnected stretches, each of them a part of a major railroad. Anchored in Washington, D.C., the stretch owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad, approached New York City from the south. Anchored at Boston, the stretch owned by the New Haven Railroad entered New York State from Connecticut. The former terminated at New Jersey ferry slips across the Hudson River from Manhattan Island. The latter extended to the Bronx, where it continued into Manhattan via trackage rights on the New York and Harlem Railroad. It also reached the Bronx via the Harlem River and Port Chester Railroad, which extended to the Bronx from the New Haven at New Rochelle.
From 1903 to 1917, the two railroads undertook a number of projects that connected their lines and completed, in effect, the Northeast Corridor. These included the New York Tunnel Extension, which extended from New Jersey to Long Island (and was composed of the Manhattan Transfer station, the North River Tunnels, a new Pennsylvania Station, the East River Tunnels), the New York Connecting Railroad, and the Hell Gate Bridge. Combined, these constituted a stretch that started just outside of Newark, New Jersey, on the Pennsylvania Railroad side, and connected with the Harlem River and Port Chester Railroad (and thus New Rochelle) on the New Haven side. With the opening of the Hell Gate Bridge in 1917, this final connecting stretch, and thus the Northeast Corridor itself, was complete.[citation needed]
With the 1968 creation of Penn Central, which was a combination of those two railroads and the New York Central Railroad, the entire corridor was under the control of a single entity for the first time. After successor Penn Central’s 1970 bankruptcy, the corridor was almost entirely subsumed by the subsequently-created Amtrak on May 1, 1971.[citation needed]
In 1899, William J. Wilgus, the New York Central Railroad (NYC)'s chief engineer, proposed electrifying the lines leading from Grand Central Terminal and the split at Mott Haven, using a third rail power system devised by Frank J. Sprague. Electricity was in use on some branch lines of the NYNH&H for interurban streetcars via third rail or trolley wire. An accident in the Park Avenue Tunnel near the present Grand Central Terminal that killed 17 people on January 8, 1902, was blamed on smoke from steam locomotives; the resulting outcry led to a push for electric operation in Manhattan.
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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 in the north to Washington, D.C., in the south, with major stops in Providence, New Haven, Stamford, New York City, Newark, Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore. The NEC is roughly paralleled by Interstate 95 for most of its length. Carrying more than 2,200 trains a day, it is the busiest passenger rail line in the United States by ridership and service frequency.
The corridor is used by many Amtrak trains, including the high-speed Acela (formerly Acela Express), intercity trains, and several long-distance trains. Most of the corridor also has frequent commuter rail service, operated by the MBTA (Keolis), CT Rail, Metro-North Railroad, Long Island Rail Road, New Jersey Transit, SEPTA, and MARC. While large through freights have not run on the NEC since the early 1980s, some sections still carry smaller local freights operated by CSX, Norfolk Southern, CSAO, Providence and Worcester, New York and Atlantic, and Canadian Pacific. CSX and NS partly own their routes.
Long-distance Amtrak services that use the Northeast Corridor include the Cardinal, Crescent, and Silver Meteor trains, which reach 125 mph (201 km/h), as well as its Acela trains, which reach 150–160 mph (240–260 km/h) in parts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Jersey. Some express trains operated by MARC that reach 125 mph (201 km/h) also operate on the Northeast Corridor. Acela can travel the 225 mi (362 km) between New York City and Washington, D.C., in under three hours, and the 229 mi (369 km) between New York and Boston in under 3.5 hours.
In 2012, Amtrak proposed improvements to enable "true" high-speed rail on the corridor, which would have roughly halved travel times at an estimated cost of $151 billion.
Most of what is now called the Northeast Corridor was built, piece by piece, by several railroads constructed as early as the 1830s. Before 1900, their routes had been consolidated as two long and unconnected stretches, each of them a part of a major railroad. Anchored in Washington, D.C., the stretch owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad, approached New York City from the south. Anchored at Boston, the stretch owned by the New Haven Railroad entered New York State from Connecticut. The former terminated at New Jersey ferry slips across the Hudson River from Manhattan Island. The latter extended to the Bronx, where it continued into Manhattan via trackage rights on the New York and Harlem Railroad. It also reached the Bronx via the Harlem River and Port Chester Railroad, which extended to the Bronx from the New Haven at New Rochelle.
From 1903 to 1917, the two railroads undertook a number of projects that connected their lines and completed, in effect, the Northeast Corridor. These included the New York Tunnel Extension, which extended from New Jersey to Long Island (and was composed of the Manhattan Transfer station, the North River Tunnels, a new Pennsylvania Station, the East River Tunnels), the New York Connecting Railroad, and the Hell Gate Bridge. Combined, these constituted a stretch that started just outside of Newark, New Jersey, on the Pennsylvania Railroad side, and connected with the Harlem River and Port Chester Railroad (and thus New Rochelle) on the New Haven side. With the opening of the Hell Gate Bridge in 1917, this final connecting stretch, and thus the Northeast Corridor itself, was complete.[citation needed]
With the 1968 creation of Penn Central, which was a combination of those two railroads and the New York Central Railroad, the entire corridor was under the control of a single entity for the first time. After successor Penn Central’s 1970 bankruptcy, the corridor was almost entirely subsumed by the subsequently-created Amtrak on May 1, 1971.[citation needed]
In 1899, William J. Wilgus, the New York Central Railroad (NYC)'s chief engineer, proposed electrifying the lines leading from Grand Central Terminal and the split at Mott Haven, using a third rail power system devised by Frank J. Sprague. Electricity was in use on some branch lines of the NYNH&H for interurban streetcars via third rail or trolley wire. An accident in the Park Avenue Tunnel near the present Grand Central Terminal that killed 17 people on January 8, 1902, was blamed on smoke from steam locomotives; the resulting outcry led to a push for electric operation in Manhattan.