Philadelphia, Newtown and New York Railroad
- Philadelphia, Newtown and New York Railroad
The Philadelphia, Newtown and New York Railroad was a railroad in southeastern Pennsylvania that is now a part of the SEPTA commuter rail system. Despite the name, it only ever extended between Philadelphia and Newtown, Pennsylvania.
History
The Pennsylvania and the National
The Newtown Railroad was chartered on April 2 1860 as the Philadelphia and Newtown Railroad Company. The Newtown's early history was a part of the competition to control rail traffic beteewn New York City and Philadelphia. By the 1860s, there were two lines running between Philadelphia and New York by the New Jersey Rail Road and Transportation Company and the Camden and Amboy Railroad. On February 1 1867, the C&A and NJRR were informally joined as the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Companies. The Pennsylvania Railroad approved a lease of the UNJ on May 15 1871, and the UNJ approved May 19. The lease was made December 1 and the PRR began operating the UNJ that day. The Pennsylvania thereby established a monopoly on New York-Philadelphia rail traffic.
A rival line, the National Railway, was planned, but the PRR's influence in the Pennsylvania and New Jersey legislatures hindered its development. Pennsylvania's legislature passed a bill on January 29 1873 to change the Newtown's name to Philadelphia, Newtown and New York Railroad Company and authorized it to extend its railroad to a bridge to be constructed across the Delaware River. The PRR leased the Newtown on October 22 of that year, in order to block the National's path.
Building the line
When the PRR leased the Newtown, 6.1 miles of track had been laid, bringing the line to Fox Chase. The 22-mile entire line opened as a branch of the Connecting Railway to Newtown on February 2 1878 with equipment furnished by the PRR. On November 22 1879 the North Pennsylvania Railroad began operating it, as it was no longer of use to the PRR. As the North Penn was controlled by the Reading Railroad, the Newtown line became a part of the Reading system.
Mergers and succession
The Newtown line maintained its existence as a separate corporate entity until 1945, when it merged into the Reading. Control passed to Conrail following the demise of the Reading, and then to SEPTA. SEPTA operated the line in full until 1983, when service was cut back to Fox Chase.
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