Reading Railroad system lapel Pin

The Reading Company (/ˈrɛdɪŋ/ RED-ing) was a railroad in southeast Pennsylvania and neighboring states whose final iteration ran from 1924 until 1976, when it was absorbed by Conrail. The Reading’s oldest corporate predecessor, however, was the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Navigation Company incorporated, a canal company, making the Reading the oldest railroading corporation in the United States.[citation needed] Commonly called the Reading Railroad, and logo typed as Reading Lines, the Reading Company was a railroad holding company for the majority of its existence and was a (single) railroad during its later years. It operated service as Reading Railway System and was a successor to the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company founded in 1833. Until the decline in anthracite loadings in the Coal Region after World War II, it was one of the most prosperous corporations in the United States. Competition with the modern trucking industry that used the Interstate highway system for short distance transportation of goods, also known as short hauls, compounded the company's problems, forcing it into bankruptcy in the 1970s. Its railroad operations were merged into Conrail in 1976, but the corporation lasted into 2000, disposing of valuable real estate holdings. In 1976 it became part of conrail. .