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The West Chester Branch was a local passenger and freight railroad line owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and later Penn Central. The line connected with the Philadelphia-Washington Main Line (Northeast Corridor) at Arsenal Junction near the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia-Chicago Main Line near Frazer, Pennsylvania. A portion of this line is now called the Media/Elwyn Line and is owned by SEPTA. ==History== The branch was composed of rail lines built by two companies in the 19th century. One portion, a line from West Chester to Malvern, was built after 1831 by the West Chester Railroad.〔Jones, James A. ("A Brief History of Transportation in West Chester". ) Accessed 2010-01-02.〕 The PRR leased the line in 1859,〔 and moved the Malvern end to a junction at Frazer in 1880. The PRR acquired the West Chester Railroad in 1903. The other portion, a line from Philadelphia to West Chester, was built by the West Chester and Philadelphia Railroad (WC&P) between 1852 and 1858. In 1880, the WC&P was purchased by the PRR-controlled Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (PWB), which merged it the following year into the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central Railroad.〔(ICC valuation report ) of the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad, filed June 30, 1918〕 As the PRR's West Chester Branch, the line offered commuter rail service between Philadelphia, Media, and West Chester, the county seat of Chester County. In the 1920s, the PRR electrified the Paoli and Chestnut Hill lines, then its Philadelphia-Washington Main Line to Wilmington and the West Chester Branch out to West Chester.〔Transportation History Sources (railsandtrails.com). ("Pennsylvania Railroad Electrification." ) Accessed 2010-12-31.〕 The PRR ended passenger service from West Chester to Frazer in 1932 and removed those tracks in the early 1960s.〔Jones, James A. ("Railroad and Stations in Chester County." ) Accessed 2011-01-02.〕 In 1971 and 1972, there were washouts on the nearby Chester Creek Branch and Octoraro Branch, due to heavy storms and Hurricane Agnes. Subsequently, the Penn Central (PC) ended service north of West Chester and parts of the nearby branches and removed some of the tracks. Today, the right-of-way can still be seen in places. 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「West Chester Branch」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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