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Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line

Amtrak railway line

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ82666
Source-derived summary

The Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line is a rail line owned and operated by Amtrak in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. This is the only electrified Amtrak line in the United States outside of the main line of the Northeast Corridor. The line runs from Philadelphia, where it meets the Northeast Corridor at Zoo Junction at milepost 1.9, west to Harrisburg (MP 104.6), where electrification ends. The Main Line is part of the longer Keystone Corridor, which continues west to Pittsburgh along the Norfolk Southern Railway's Pittsburgh Line. This section is sometimes referred to as "Keystone East" and is part of Amtrak's Keystone Service.

Philadelphia's Broad Street Station was the original start of the line. It was replaced by Suburban Station, the headquarters for the Pennsylvania Railroad, in 1930. Current service patterns dictate that all passenger rail service on the line begins 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Suburban Station at 30th Street Station, Philadelphia's primary commercial rail station.

History

20th century

The Main Line runs along the route of the former Pennsylvania Main Line and passes through the Philadelphia Main Line, the suburban region for which it is named. The Pennsylvania Railroad originally electrified this line in the 1930s, but it fell into disuse in the 1980s under Amtrak's traction power system.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line” as amtrak railway line. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1930—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Main can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as amtrak railway line. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q82666. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1930.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line primary sources, Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line archive and Philadelphia research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.