The Pennsylvania Railroad reached Newport in 1849 and connected with Pittsburgh by 1857, spurring business and population growth in the Newport area much as the Pennsylvania Canal had in 1829. By the late 1800s, as many as seven passenger trains a day stopped in Newport, and twenty or more freight trains passed through the borough on what was the nation's principal route west. Until 1905, the railroad ran through town along 3rd Street, where cinders from coal-burning engines sometimes started roof fires and, despite a 15 mph speed limit, frightened horses, wrecked carriages, and caused injury and death. Between 1903 and 1905, hundreds of Pennsylvania Railroad contractors relocated the tracks onto a massive roadbed over the abandoned canal, and an underpass connected Market Street to the Juniata River Bridge, reducing accidents while increasing railroad efficiency, though the town's view of and access to the river were greatly reduced. In 1891, the Newport and Sherman's Valley Railroad, a narrow-gauge line from western Perry County, opened with its terminus beside the Pennsylvania Railroad station on what is now a supermarket parking lot on Walnut Street, entering and leaving Newport through Peach Alley. The Newport and Sherman's Valley Railroad ceased business in 1921, and the Pennsylvania Railroad ended Newport passenger service by the mid-1950s. In 2015, Norfolk Southern trains still thundered through Newport carrying a significant portion of the nation's goods and raw materials, while Amtrak passed through twice daily without stopping.