The Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway, and the Reading & Northern Passenger Department at large, are seeing unprecedented growth in ridership in 2025.

As owner and CEO Andy Muller Jr. aptly summarized the situation, “People want to ride trains, and no one else in the country can do what we are doing!”

The Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway, based in historic Jim Thorpe, hosted 8,277 riders over its nine scheduled hourly passenger train departures on Oct. 11.

That total eclipsed the prior single-day record of 6,619 riders set in 2024.

For the week of Oct. 6-12, the LGSR surpassed 20,000 total riders for only the second time in its history, a remarkable feat previously accomplished in 2024.

With the peak of the fall colors expected to be reached this week, the railroad may very well see another 20,000 riders as October passes its midway point.

When combined with the popular all-day weekend passenger excursions from such locations as Pittston, Pottsville and Reading, overall annual ridership for 2025 is already fast approaching a quarter of a million as of this writing.

That puts Reading & Northern’s passenger department in position to shatter 2024’s record overall ridership of 340,000. Many of the fall foliage excursion trains have sold out, particularly those featuring steam locomotive 2102; however, there are still plenty of opportunities available for guests to take a ride on the Reading & Northern in the autumn and beyond.

The Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway operates daily and will continue to do so through Jan. 4, 2026, apart from Christmas Day.

The weekend excursion trains to Jim Thorpe from Pittston and Reading will resume their regular schedule on the weekend of Nov. 8 and 9, and will continue through Sunday, Dec. 28.

Special Black Friday runs of these trains are also being offered for the same reasonable prices guests have come to expect. Despite the phenomenal 2025 that the passenger department is having, plans are already underway for 2026.

Many of these events in 2026 will center around the semiquincentennial of our country.