The
Altoona Transportation Center is an
intermodalIntermodal passenger transport involves more than one mode of transport of passengers. Some modes of transportation have always been intermodal; for example, most major airports have extensive facilities for automobile parking and have good rail or bus connections to the cities nearby. Urban bus...
passenger facility built in 1986 providing local bus, intercity bus, and rail services. It is located at 1231 11th Avenue in downtown
Altoona, Pennsylvania-History:A major railroad town, Altoona was founded by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1849 as the site for a shop complex. Altoona was incorporated as a borough on February 6, 1854, and as a city under legislation approved on April 3, 1867, and February 8, 1868...
.
AMTRAN is the local public transit provider in the greater Altoona area. The primary user of the Altoona Transportation Center, almost all regular AMTRAN bus routes and selected "Tripper" routes stop at the center. The Transportation Center is considered the AMTRAN system's primary
hubA transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include train stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stop, airports and ferry slips. Freight hubs include classification yards, seaports and truck...
.
GreyhoundGreyhound Lines, Inc., based in Dallas, Texas, is an intercity common carrier of passengers by bus serving over 3,700 destinations in the United States, Canada and Mexico, operating under the well-known logo of a leaping greyhound. It was founded in Hibbing, Minnesota, USA, in 1914 and...
provides intercity bus service to the station. It connects Altoona via one-seat rides to cities such as
State CollegeState College is the largest borough in Centre County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is the principal city of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Centre County. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 42,034, and roughly double...
,
HarrisburgHarrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 49,528, making it the ninth largest city in Pennsylvania...
,
PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, and New York to the east and
JohnstownJohnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States, west-southwest of Altoona, Pennsylvania and east of Pittsburgh. The population was 20,978 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Cambria County...
and
PittsburghPittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
to the west. Greyhound also links Altoona with many other cities and towns beyond those listed via transfers.
The Altoona Transportation Center is also served by
AmtrakThe National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...
PennsylvanianThe Pennsylvanian is a 444-mile daytime Amtrak train running between New York and Pittsburgh via Philadelphia. The trains travel through Pennsylvania's capital, the Pennsylvania Dutch Country, suburban and central Philadelphia, and pass through New Jersey up to New York. Trains run once daily in...
trains. These trains operate once per day in each direction. Until 2005, Altoona was served by a second daily train, the
Three RiversThe Three Rivers was a daily Amtrak train running between New York, New York and Chicago, Illinois. It operated via Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Akron, Ohio. The Three Rivers replaced the Broadway Limited in 1995...
(a replacement service for the legendary
Broadway LimitedThe Broadway Limited was the Pennsylvania Railroad's premier named passenger train, operating daily in each direction between New York City and Chicago, via North Philadelphia. It replaced its predecessors, the Pennsylvania Limited and the Pennsylvania Special...
), an extended version of the
Pennsylvanian that terminated in Chicago. Upon its cancellation, the sole
Pennsylvanian marked the first time in Altoona's significant railway history that the town was served by just a single, daily passenger train.
Primary cities served on Amtrak to and from Altoona include Harrisburg,
LancasterLancaster is a city in the south-central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the county seat of Lancaster County and one of the older inland cities in the United States, . With a population of 59,322, it ranks eighth in population among Pennsylvania's cities...
, Philadelphia, and New York to the east and Johnstown and Pittsburgh to the west. Staffed ticket service is available for both daily departures. It is the busiest Amtrak station on the
Keystone CorridorThe Keystone Corridor is a Federal Railroad Administration "designated high speed corridor" with a 349-mile railroad line between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with a top speed of...
between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh.
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