PA: Amtrak completes $122M rail project between Harrisburg, Lancaster in time for Thanksgiving

Amtrak’s Keystone Service is back in time for holiday travel.

On Monday, officials were in Elizabethtown to celebrate the full restoration of weekday Keystone Service and the conclusion of the $122 million Harrisburg Line Track Renewal Project. They also remarked on how fast the work was completed thanks to partnerships with PennDOT and Norfolk Southern.

Officials estimated the work would take approximately two years, but Amtrak said it developed an accelerated approach that expedited the project, which reduced the duration of the project to eight months.

“We definitely recognize the importance of this service, particularly at the holidays, and that’s why we planned this outage to finish before Thanksgiving,” said Laura Mason, Amtrak executive vice president of capital delivery. “Our original end date was actually November 21, and we did so well with our productivity we actually ended early on November 7.”

Amtrak crews replaced more than 43 miles of track and installed 113,000 concrete ties — used to connect rail tracks — and cleaned/renewed 226,500 feet of gravel ballast during the infrastructure project on Amtrak-owned tracks between Lancaster and Harrisburg. The railroad tracks on Amtrak’s Harrisburg Line were installed as early as the 1950s. A tie is a piece of wood or concrete that holds the rails in place. Each one of the wood ties is roughly about 200 pounds. The wood ties were replaced by concrete ties, which are about 1,000 pounds. The project started on March 15.

Mason says travelers will be able to have a smoother and more comfortable ride.

“So what’s better now is we have much more reliable track,” she said. “So we’ve replaced it with new concrete ties and new rail which have a much longer life expectancy and lower maintenance. So this track will now last for the next 50 years. And in doing so is much more stable so we’ll be able to keep those top speeds up for longer so we have more reliable service and better on-time performance for our customers.”

While the work was being done, one track was out of service but the other track was being used to move the people doing the work. That track was cleared so the Pennsylvanian train could run through during the lunch hour and the Keystone train could resume normal service after 4 p.m. until the end of the day Monday through Thursday. The Pennsylvanian travels daily between New York City and Pittsburgh. The Amtrak Keystone Service train runs between New York City and Harrisburg by way of Philadelphia;

During the project, Amtrak provided replacement bus transportation at all affected stations and preserved midday Pennsylvanian train service through the area. Amtrak worked with PennDOT to provide the alterative transportation. It also worked with Norfolk Southern as many freight shippers use these same tracks to transport raw materials and finished products on the corridor.

“The fact that this project is now complete is just a wonderful thing for our community,” said state Rep. Tom Jones (R- Lancaster/ Lebanon). “It reestablishes the connection between Harrisburg and here in Elizabethtown, and onward to Mount Joy, down to Lancaster and of course onto Philadelphia. The fact that this was done in such a quick and safe manner displays how we can get things accomplished in a more efficient manner when we see coordination of these agencies like PennDOT [which] worked closely with Amtrak to provide the bus service during the interruption.”

Given the project’s success, Amtrak says it is actively exploring opportunities along the Northeast corridor to collaborate with stakeholders in developing and implementing innovative outages like the Harrisburg Line Track Renewal Project.

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