Amtrak to add second Pittsburgh-NYC train

The latest: A second train on the Pennsylvanian route will be added later this year, said outgoing Amtrak president Roger Harris at a July 29 board meeting.

• The Pennsylvanian currently travels between Pittsburgh and New York City via Harrisburg and Philadelphia, leaving Pittsburgh at 7:30am and arriving in NYC around 5pm.

Catch up quick: PennDOT struck a deal with Norfolk Southern — which operates the tracks between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg — in 2023 to upgrade tracks and stations along the route.

• Those upgrades are nearly complete, and they will allow freight trains to more easily pass passenger trains, increasing Amtrak's reliability on the route.

Zoom in: Amtrak serves Pittsburgh, Greensburg, Latrobe, Johnstown, Altoona and beyond on the Pennsylvanian lines.

• Train travelers can also reach Chicago or Washington, D.C., on the Floridian line.

Zoom out: The Pennsylvanian is already showing "big improvements" even before additional service, said Amtrak COO Gery Williams in a May board meeting.

• The route had some of the lowest delays per 10,000 train miles traveled of any Amtrak service, said Williams.

What's next: Harris did not specify when exactly this year the new service will be added, but PennDOT officials told Axios earlier this year that they were targeting late 2026.