Harlem River and Port Chester Railroad

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Harlem River and Port Chester Railroad

Locale	New Rochelle, NY to the Bronx, NY
Dates of operation	1873 –
Track gauge	4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge)
Headquarters

The Harlem River and Port Chester Railroad was a branch of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, upgraded to main line status in 1917 with the completion of the New York Connecting Railroad and its Hell Gate Bridge. It is now part of Amtrak's high-speed Northeast Corridor.

[edit] History

The Harlem River and Port Chester Railroad was chartered April 23, 1866 to build from the Harlem River at the north end of the Harlem Bridge (now the Third Avenue Bridge) to Port Chester at the Connecticut state line. Instead, only the part south of New Rochelle was built, merging with the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad there. The line opened on November 23, 1873, and served commuters as well as freight to the Mott Haven Yard.

The New York, Westchester and Boston Railway, a high-speed, electric commuter rail line, opened in 1912, paralleling the HR&PC just to the west, south of the crossing of the Bronx River. Until 1924, when a new combined station was built, the short Willis Avenue Spur of the elevated IRT Third Avenue Line ran to the Harlem River terminal of the HR&PC and NYW&B.

In 1917 the New York Connecting Railroad opened for passenger service between the HR&PC at Port Morris and the Pennsylvania Tunnel and Terminal Railroad at Sunnyside Yard. This allowed NYNH&H trains to run over the HR&PC and into New York Penn Station, though most continued to serve Grand Central Terminal until Amtrak took over intercity operations in 1971.

On January 1, 1927 the HR&PC was merged into the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The NYNH&H was merged into Penn Central in 1969, and in 1976 Penn Central became part of Conrail. At that time, the former HR&PC was sold to Amtrak, which now serves as part of their Northeast Corridor, hosting the high-speed Acela Express as well as several other services.