How to Get Around Pennsylvania

A car is necessary for everything except the two city centres. The state is wide and its best sites are rural.

Amtrak runs frequently between Philadelphia and New York on the Northeast Corridor, and the Keystone service continues west to the state capital. The cross-state service to Pittsburgh is slow and runs once a day.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike was the country's first long-distance limited-access highway, opened in 1940, and it remains the fastest east-west route — and a tolled one, with charges across the full state that add up.

Philadelphia has a genuine subway, bus and regional rail network; Pittsburgh has light rail, buses and two working funicular inclines that are also the best views of the city.

Both cities have international airports, and Philadelphia's has a direct rail link to the centre.