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The Keystone Corridor is a 349-mile (562 km) railroad line between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is one of the high-speed corridors designated by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). Since 2006, the track from Lancaster to Parkesburg has permitted trains of up to , while the section between Paoli and Philadelphia allows . Amtrak runs two intercity rail services along the Keystone Corridor: the Harrisburg-to-New York City ''Keystone Service'' and the Pittsburgh-to-New York City ''Pennsylvanian''. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) operates daily Paoli/Thorndale commuter rail service between Philadelphia and Thorndale, serving the communities along the eastern part of line known as the "Main Line". The tracks from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg are owned and maintained by Norfolk Southern (which acquired them from Conrail), and include the famous Horseshoe Curve west of Altoona. The tracks between Harrisburg and Philadelphia are owned and maintained by Amtrak, and are the only part of the Keystone Corridor that is electrified. The tracks join the Northeast Corridor at Zoo Interlocking near the Philadelphia Zoo and 30th Street Station. ==History== The right-of-way that would become the Keystone Corridor was mainly laid by two railroads. The tracks east of Dillerville, just west of Lancaster, were originally the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, part of the state-owned Main Line of Public Works. From Lancaster west to Harrisburg, the tracks were laid by the Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy and Lancaster Railroad. Except for minor realignments, today's Keystone Corridor runs along the same path. Both lines eventually became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad's (PRR) main line. In 1915, the PRR electrified the line from Philadelphia's Broad Street Station to Paoli, then the west end of commuter service. Electrification west of Paoli to Harrisburg came in the 1930s, after the PRR completed electrifying its New York-Washington, D.C. section (the present-day Northeast Corridor). The total cost of electrification topped $200 million, which was financed by government-supported loans from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the Public Works Administration. Passenger service remained unprofitable, returned to profitability during World War II, and then slumped again. The PRR overhauled much of the right-of-way in the 1950s, but chose to keep paying a stable dividend rather than reinvest in infrastructure. The result was dilapidated stations, slow, disjointed track conditions, and antiquated rolling stock which frequently broke down. In 1968, the PRR merged with the New York Central to become Penn Central, which declared bankruptcy in 1970. In 1976, Amtrak took ownership of the line between Philadelphia and Harrisburg while Conrail (the merger of Penn Central, the Reading Company, and several other Class I railroads) took ownership of the remaining part of the line and the many branches, both electrified and non-electrified, that the Penn Central had owned. Amtrak took over the express Harrisburg-New York intercity rail service in 1971, while Conrail, under SEPTA auspices, continued Harrisburg-Philadelphia commuter services. In 1983, SEPTA took over all commuter services and truncated operations to Parkesburg (later truncated in 1992 to Downingtown, but later extended to Thorndale). Penn Central made an agreement with the federal government to provide a high-speed service called the Metroliner, which upgraded the Northeast Corridor tracks between New York and Washington by 1969, but neglected other areas such as the Keystone Corridor, a lack of maintenance that continued after Amtrak's takeover in 1976. The Keystone Corridor eventually served as a "depository" for the problem-prone Metroliner electric multiple unit cars. Amtrak also used electric locomotive-hauled trains for Harrisburg-New York service. Before the introduction of ''Acela'' electric high-speed service over the Northeast Corridor, and after facing a shortage of electric locomotives (both E60 and AEM-7 models), Amtrak used GE Genesis diesel locomotives between Harrisburg and Philadelphia, with an engine change to an electric (usually AEM-7) locomotive at 30th Street Station. Due to the slower schedules combined with higher ticket prices and competition from SEPTA, ridership declined. The line between Philadelphia and Lancaster was four tracks until the 1960s, when the PRR removed two of the tracks. The line is now two tracks from Paoli to Harrisburg, save for a three-track section between the Glen and Park interlockings, and a four-track section between the Downs and Thorn interlockings. As of 2004, most of the track was limited to a maximum speed of , except for a few 90 mile per hour (145 km/h)) sections between Downingtown and Lancaster. There are also curves which require slower speeds (especially in the section between Merion and Overbrook), and speed restrictions within interlocking limits. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Keystone Corridor」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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