The Reading and Northern Railroad Passenger Department experienced its busiest season ever in 2021, breaking previous records for total amount of passengers carried.

Over 225,000 passengers enjoyed the train throughout several locations in the east-central Pennsylvania region. The majority of people rode the Jim Thorpe based Lehigh Gorge trains.

In 2019 over 143,000 people rode the rails.

In 2020 approximately 90,000 people visited the railroad between August and December.

A more detailed recap of 2021 included approximately 4,500 people riding the ever-popular Bike Trains, which offer guests the chance to view by train the entire Lehigh Gorge and ride bikes back to Jim Thorpe.

In October, the Fall Foliage trains from Reading Outer Station to Jim Thorpe brought roughly 6,300 people to town for the annual Fall Foliage Festival. To end 2021, nearly 30,000 people rode the Santa trains on the Reading and Northern system, a sharp increase from previous years.

With the 2022 season already underway, the railroad is excited to host an even bigger calendar of events with the reintroduction of massive steam locomotive number 2102 later this year. Lehigh Gorge trains depart the historic Jim Thorpe station Saturdays and Sundays through April.

From late April until early November, LGSR trains will depart daily, giving tourist and local residents many opportunities to visit the railroad. The year will end with many Santa Claus trains on the schedule.

Reading & Northern Railroad, with its corporate headquarters in Port Clinton, is a privately held railroad company serving over 70 customers in nine eastern Pennsylvania counties (Berks, Bradford, Carbon, Columbia, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Northumberland, Schuylkill and Wyoming).

It has expanded its operations over the last 30-plus years and now handles over 34,000 carloads of freight and 225,000 excursion train riders over 400 miles of track. Reading & Northern operates both freight services and steam and diesel-powered excursion passenger services, owns almost 1,400 freight cars, and employs nearly 300 dedicated employees.

Reading & Northern has repeatedly been honored as one of the premier railroad in the nation including being named Regional Railroad of the year in 2020 by Railway Age Magazine.