From Tyrone it's the Bald Eagle railroad up to Julian, which continues up in a northeasterly direction. There isn't a good spot to cross the mountain with a rail line till Bellefonte.

Also as the previous poster said , Norfolk Southern owns the line, Amtrak just gets a chance to use it. That's why freight gets priority over people and there is only 1 passenger train a day. Compare that with easy of Harrisburg where Amtrak owns the line and there is a commuter train into Harrisburg and out of Harrisburg every day.