Wilmington/Newark Line

The Wilmington/Newark Line runs on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, making local stops along the way.

Only weekday peak trains run to Newark. One morning train to Newark runs as an express service from University City to Chester before turning into a local serving Marcus Hook and the Delaware stations. All trains on weekends terminate at Wilmington. Service in Delaware is funded in part by the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT).

As of 2022, most weekday Wilmington/Newark trains operate through the Center City tunnel to and from Lansdale/Doylestown Line points. Most weekend Wilmington trains run through to and from Elm Street in Norristown on the Manayunk/Norristown Line.[2]

Silverliner V SEPTA Regional Rail train at Wilmington station

The line north of Wilmington was originally built by the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad. The original alignment was opened January 17, 1838, and on November 18, 1872, a realignment opened north of Chester (part of the old route is now used for the Airport Line). South of Wilmington the line was built by the Wilmington and Susquehanna Railroad and opened July 31, 1837. The Pennsylvania Railroad obtained control in the early 1880s. Electrified service was opened between Philadelphia and Wilmington on September 30, 1928. Electrified operation was extended to Newark and beyond to Washington, D.C., on February 10, 1935. In 1968, the Pennsylvania Railroad merged into Penn Central. In 1976 Conrail took over, and SEPTA took over on January 1, 1983. When SEPTA took over service, commuter rail service in Delaware was eliminated, with the Claymont and Edgemoor stations closed.[3]

Under SEPTA, commuter service from Philadelphia originally terminated in Marcus Hook. On January 16, 1989, service was extended south into Delaware to end at Wilmington. A stop was added in Claymont in 1991.[4] In the mid-1990s, a transportation study took place for extending SEPTA service from Wilmington to Newark. The proposal called for stations at Newport (near the former Newport Railroad Station), Metroform (now Churchmans Crossing), Newark, and West Newark (at Otts Chapel Road). A review by DelDOT challenged the locations of the stations in Newport, Newark, and West Newark.[5] SEPTA service was extended south from Wilmington to Newark September 2, 1997. The Churchmans Crossing station between Wilmington and Newark opened in 2000.[4]

On July 25, 2010, SEPTA renamed the service from the R2 Newark to the Wilmington/Newark Line as part of system-wide service change that drops the R-number naming and makes the Center City stations the terminus for all lines. This also ended the combined R2 Newark/R2 Warminster service.

SEPTA activated positive train control on the Wilmington/Newark Line on May 1, 2017.[6]

On April 9, 2020, service on the line was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic,[7] though Penn Medicine station was still being served by other rail services.[8] Service between 30th Street Station and Wilmington resumed May 10, 2020 on a modified schedule as part of the Southwest Connection Improvement Program.[9] Service to Newark resumed on January 25, 2021, in order to offer public transit options during a construction project along Interstate 95 in Wilmington.[10] Previously, Amtrak announced the completion of the Delaware Third Rail Project in December 2020. The project installed the third track between Wilmington and Newark that would increase the capacity.[11]

The Wilmington/Newark Line trains make the following station stops, after leaving the Center City Commuter Connection:

State	Zone[2]	Location	Station	Miles (km) from Center City	Date opened	Connections / notes
PA	CC	University City, Philadelphia	Penn Medicine	1.8 (2.9)		SEPTA Regional Rail:  Airport   Manayunk/Norristown   Media/Wawa   Warminster   West Trenton  SEPTA City Bus: 40, LUCY
	2	Darby	Darby	6.1 (9.8)
		Sharon Hill	Curtis Park	6.8 (10.9)	March 7, 1949[12]	SEPTA Suburban Bus: 115
			Academy			Closed March 7, 1949[12]
			Sharon Hill	7.2 (11.6)		SEPTA Suburban Bus: 115
		Folcroft	Folcroft	7.7 (12.4)		SEPTA Suburban Bus: 115
		Glenolden	Glenolden	8.3 (13.4)
		Norwood	Norwood	9.0 (14.5)
		Prospect Park	Prospect Park	9.5 (15.3)		The station was named Moore until April 1, 1932[13]
	3	Ridley Park	Ridley Park	10.4 (16.7)	1871[14]
			Crum Lynne	11.2 (18.0)		SEPTA Suburban Bus: 114
		Eddystone
			Baldwin			Closed October 4, 1981[15]
			Eddystone	12.3 (19.8)		SEPTA City Bus: 37
		Chester	Chester Transportation Center	13.4 (21.6)		SEPTA City Bus: 37 SEPTA Suburban Bus: 109, 113, 114, 117, 118, 119
			Lamokin Street			Closed July 1, 2003[16]
			Highland Avenue	15.5 (24.9)		SEPTA Suburban Bus: 113
		Trainer	Trainer			Closed 1979
		Marcus Hook	Marcus Hook	17.1 (27.5)		SEPTA Suburban Bus: 119
DE	4	Claymont	Naaman			Closed March 26, 1978[17]
			Claymont	19.6 (31.5)	1991[3][18]	DART First State: 61
		Edgemoor	Edge Moor			Closed January 1, 1983[3]
		Wilmington	Wilmington	26.8 (43.1)	1989	Amtrak: Acela, Cardinal, Carolinian, Crescent, Northeast Regional, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Vermonter Greyhound Lines DART First State: 2, 5, 6, 10, 11, 13, 14, 18, 20, 28, 33, 35, 37, 40, 52, 301, 305 (seasonal)
		Newark	Churchmans Crossing	32.5 (52.3)	2000	DART First State: 54, 62
			Newark	38.7 (62.3)	1997	Amtrak: Northeast Regional DART First State: 10, 33, 46 Cecil Transit: 4 UNICITY

Between FY 2008-FY 2018 annual ridership on the Wilmington/Newark Line ranged between 2.5 and 2.8 million.[note 1]

• Bell Tower (PRR)
• Lamokin Tower

• "SEPTA – Marcus Hook/Wilmington/Newark line schedule" (PDF).
• The Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society