Amtrak’s Susquehanna River Bridge is a two-track, swing-span rail bridge that was built in 1906. This aging bridge is a bottleneck along a critical link of the Northeast Corridor (NEC), one of the busiest and economically vital transportation systems in the world.

The bridge’s swing span must be opened manually by up to 30 personnel to allow taller marine traffic to pass, which causes disruptions to both rail and marine operations. The outdated design of the existing bridge requires passenger trains to slow down to 90 mph and freight trains to 30 mph or less as they cross over the Susquehanna River with speeds up to 125 mph adjacent to the bridge. Due to the two-track design, trains must reduce speed even further or stop on the bridge when crossing to their final designation. 

The Susquehanna River Bridge Project will replace the existing bridge with two new parallel, fixed-span structures featuring a total of four tracks that will improve capacity, trip time and safety for commuter, freight and intercity passenger rail services. The new structures will allow passenger trains to travel at high speeds on this part of the NEC. The NEPA environmental review for the project has been completed and the advanced design phase began in 2017. Amtrak selected a construction contractor in late 2023 and kicked off the project in the Summer of 2024. This roughly $2.7 billion project is supported by a Fed-State Grant and additional funding by Amtrak and the State of Maryland.

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