North Pennsylvania Railroad (NPR) was a railroad company formed in 1855, and served Philadelphia, Montgomery County, Bucks County and Northampton County, Pennsylvania.
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Construction of the line started in 1852 under the name Philadelphia, Easton and Water Gap Railroad Co., and became operational three years later. The railroad formally opened on Monday, July 2, 1855, with an excursion from the Cohoquinoque station, at Front and Willow Streets, Philadelphia, to Wissahickon (present-day Ambler), an outlying area to the northeast.
In 1856, the company suffered its first accident in The Great Train Wreck of 1856. The following year, a branch was built from Lansdale to Doylestown and during the 1860s another extension was built to Sellersville, running parallel to Bethlehem Pike. This railroad was eventually completed to Bethlehem, and later became the Reading Company's Bethlehem Branch, a two-track main line, with one portion near Telford being three-tracked. A single-track tunnel is in Perkasie.
The Reading Company leased North Pennsylvania Railroad on May 14, 1879, which later led to the eventual demise of NPR due to the bankruptcy of the Reading Company and subsequent merger into Conrail.
As of 2011, the line is owned by SEPTA, which only operates its electric commuter trains as far north as Lansdale, where the Lansdale/Doylestown Line continues on a branch line to Doylestown. Freight trains are operated on the portion from Lansdale to Quakertown by Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad and East Penn Railroad.
The former Jersey City main line of the Reading branches just north of the Jenkintown/Wyncote station, although SEPTA only operates the West Trenton Line as far as Ewing, New Jersey.
A branch extends from Glenside to New Hope, although SEPTA only operates the Warminster Line line as far as Warminster. The 17 miles (27 km) portion from Warminster north to New Hope is owned and operated by the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad.
North of Quakertown, the double-track line is out of service. Until 2008, most of the rail infrastructure was intact except for a cut made near DeSales University to extend Porter Lane. In addition, the northernmost section between Bethlehem and Hellertown including Saucon Yard, which is owned by freight operator Norfolk Southern Railway, was removed.
None of the former stations remain north of Quakertown, and all of the block signals north of Lansdale have been destroyed by vandals, although many are still in place.
Rail trail discussions began in 2008 between Hellertown, Upper and Lower Saucon officials and SEPTA. Talks of converting the unused, double-track rail corridor into a bicycle and pedestrian pathway had floated around for a while, but pro-rail advocates protested that commuter service be reinstated (it had terminated on July 1, 1981). Proposals had been made to reinstate passenger service north of Lansdale since the 1990s, but SEPTA showed little interest in operating trains without electrification. To remedy this, local residents along the line suggested that PPL Electric run their proposed high-tension electric line along the right-of-way, which would allow SEPTA to electrify the line.
Rather than abandoning the line outright, SEPTA leased the line to the communities, as the transit agency was looking for a "caretaker" for the line. SEPTA has emphasized that they are aware service restoration will terminate the lease with the communities. SEPTA currently owns the right-of-way and has no plans to abandon or sell the land.[1]
To this end, the trail will be a simple dirt path: a paved trail would increase the cost of the restoring the line should service be resurrected. Though the suggestion of maintaining one track and removing the other had been discussed—known as "rails with trails"—township officials balked at the idea, as it would still involve rail infrastructure maintenance and create a tripping hazard. Officials also cited the possibility of being struck by a train using the remaining track, though SEPTA had no plans of reinstating any sort of train activity.[2]
In March 2011, the Pennsylvania Transit Expansion Coalition, a passenger rail advocacy group, requested that SEPTA consider demarking their dormant railroad lines acting as rail trails with signage. PA-TEC was willing to work with the transit agency on this project, in hopes of maintain a high profile for the dormant rail corridor. Their request was based on a Federal study completed by the National Transportation Research Board in 2007, which stated the following:
| “ | Some public agencies develop specific programs that preserve a higher profile of future needs and possible use for dormant alignments, giving notice to adjacent landowners and the public generally that an interim period of low-impact or recreational use does not proscribe future development of active passenger or freight rail activity. Provisions may include large, conspicuous signage along the trail alignments (see photo on right) and/or disclosure requirements for adjoining property sale transactions that make clear the potential future use of the [rail] corridors in question.[3] | ” |
Choosing to the keep their involvement low profile, SEPTA rejected PA-TEC's request, citing the following:
| “ | The benefit of your proposed signage was deemed non-existent, since SEPTA's rights to the out-of-service Newtown Branch right-of-way (ROW) are clearly protected as matters of real estate/railroad law, as well as the individual lease with the County. The same would apply to any other recreational trails presently being used by municipalities over SEPTA out-of-service railroad ROW's. Therefore, any expense incurred by the Authority (no matter how small) in the fabrication, installation and maintenance of signage for the sole purpose of demarcating SEPTA's otherwise well established legal ownership rights in the ROW, cannot be financially justified. As such, it was believed that your proposed signage is unwarranted and unnecessary under the circumstances.[4] | ” |
PA-TEC responded with the following statement:
| “ | Since SEPTA terminated rail service, the authority has been abhorrent to maintaining the rail corridor, and preserving it with some form of train activity. Going against their enabling legislation per Pennsylvania State Law[5], SEPTA has dismantled the corridor, allowed other parties to remove infrastructure, and in an act resembling Pontius Pilate, has washed their hands of the line by refusing to associate their name with it in public.[4] Without any analysis, SEPTA has rejected a taxpayer funded federal study that provides specific recommendations that best preserve dormant railways.[4] | ” |