I was on an Acela train yesterday morning, traveling from Washington D.C. to New York City. It was a Sunday, so it was nice not to do any work on the train for a change and to have the 2 hour 50 minute journey to myself. I took a nap, browsed the internet, and relaxed.
As we made our way up to New York, I began to notice some of the station names we were passing by. I usually travel between New York and Boston, so I’m not as used to the DC to New York route.
Baltimore Penn Station, Newark Penn Station, and New York Penn Station.
I realized that there probably is a reason behind these station names, and did some research.
Answer: The Pennsylvania Railroad
Back in the 20th century, the Pennsylvania Railroad had a strong presence across the northeastern part of the United States.
The naming of these stations was quite simple. It mostly has to do with the Pennsylvania Railroad building and owning them, and they decided to name the stations after themselves. They couldn’t, however, name stations “Penn Stations” to those with multiple operating companies. Those were instead named Union Station, which we also see a lot around the northeast US. It was the stations that they were the dominant operator that saw “Penn Station” become their name.
As the railroad company lost business over time, went bankrupt, and eventually siezed operations, some stations changed their name, while others kept “Penn Station.”
There used to be many more Penn Stations outside of Baltimore, Newark, and New York, some of which are those in Wilmington, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh.
New York Penn Station was straight up named “Pennsylvania Station” back during the days of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
After arriving in New York yesterday, I was waiting for the Subway to go Uptown. I just so happened to notice “Pennsylvania” on the wall, a direct remnant of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s prime days. Remember, much of the Subway we know today was built in the first half of the 20th century.
The Subway is a museum itself. This particular one was located on the Uptown local platforms on the 7th Ave Line.
Although it might be easy to think about how Amtrak could change these station names, it’s not that simple logistically.
I was able to dig up an older Bloomberg article from 12 years ago (April 2013) regarding this. At this point, these Penn Stations have a historical factor to them, as many station names themselves are “…chiseled in granite on the façade, so any re-naming effort would have to obtain permission to alter a registered landmark.”
An Amtrak spokesperson even said that he wouldn’t “…want to give even the slightest encouragement to the idea that new names for Penn Stations were being considered.”
The next time you’re confused about whether you’ve arrived at Newark or New York Penn Station, remember that it’s not because Amtrak is crazy and decided to confuse people. Old remnants of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the long-gone past of America’s powerful private rail networks still stick around to this day.
Featured image by the author.
