Amtrak Empire Service (New York State)

As of 10/12/15 the LAB industrial track is back in service, only three ish months behind . As of same date the main track is OOS from CP LAB to CP 145. If your going west or coming east from SDY a little rare mileage can be had on the industrial as we almost never use it for regular service. Turning trains just got a little more difficult. Lots of C&S work on the new CP141 looks as though it might be getting close to being cut in. Almost all the crossings have been upgraded and tie work still continues south.

Here are links to a series of 25 photos that I took of the Albany-Rensselaer (ALB) terminal as we were passing thru it from north/west to south/east on train 48 on 9/22/2015. I believe I have the photos in correct sequence. This will give you a feel for the progress of construction as of about 3 weeks ago.

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Here are links to a series of 11 photos that I took of the Albany-Rensselaer (ALB) terminal as we were passing thru it from south/east to north/west on train 281 on 9/19/2015. I believe I have the photos in correct sequence. This will give you a feel for the progress of construction as of about one month ago.

As I look at these photos and the previous set of photos, I realize that I missed a few details that would be of interest to some folks, such as the west end of the LAB industrial track (which was out of service at that time) and some shots of the construction progress between West Albany and CP 156 at Carmen. However, I suppose some photos are better than no photos.

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Plenty of room there for a tail track for the Mount Vernon!

There was talk of putting in 1-2 tracks with hotel power for PVs, but I had thought it had gotten squashed.

BUT, when I've looked, it looks like they're two tracks there that could possibly be used as such.
Though it's not clear to me if they're simply for loading ties on to work trains.

The last of the trucks today with ties arrived today. 10000 more to go but there is no more room the rest will come by train and will be stored on the new yard tracks. Talking to the MTO today and he said the new CP141 will be cut in later this month followed by reworking CP142 and starting the ground work for CP143, contractor stated he will work through winter to get it in. Crossings protection should be finished next week. There will be a delay in the second track project as the TLM wont be in Albany until June?? The main track over LAB should be finished by December

Railjunkie wrote:The last of the trucks today with ties arrived today. 10000 more to go but there is no more room the rest will come by train and will be stored on the new yard tracks. Talking to the MTO today and he said the new CP141 will be cut in later this month followed by reworking CP142 and starting the ground work for CP143, contractor stated he will work through winter to get it in. Crossings protection should be finished next week. There will be a delay in the second track project as the TLM wont be in Albany until June?? The main track over LAB should be finished by December

if they are using the Amtrak TLM its gonna be tied up in NJ and some other places for a while. Right now NJ is waiting for it for the HSR project as they just got the undercutter in.

Unfortunately this sounds like one of those jobs where if we just had enough infrastructure money we could move a lot faster.

New CP141 gets cut in tonight followed by the reworking of CP142 in three stages the first begins Wed.?? Track two will be straight railed followed by track one the week after. Then the real fun begins when the main track gets straight railed and the new switches are put into play not sure how this is going to work out but I believe the station will be a mess come Turkey day. Best guess is the east end is finished by Christmas depending on weather.

Local Media is reporting that Amtrak moves into a temporary station in Rochester next week so the Amshack can get demolished in prep for building a new station complete with high level platforms and underground tunnel access.

Believe temp station is a modular one just to the east of existing station.

http://www.whec.com/article/stories/s3948648.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://13wham.com/news/features/candida ... r-54.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/sto ... /74938740/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

StLouSteve wrote:... Amtrak moves into a temporary station in Rochester next week so the Amshack can get demolished in prep for building a new station complete with high level platforms and underground tunnel access.
...
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http://www.democratandchronicle.com/sto ... /74938740/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Good news.

Demolition of the existing station should begin in "a couple of weeks or so" ... Construction of the ... slightly larger and more accessible station... will take about 18 months. An opening is slated for fall 2017. All this is part of a $29.8 million project... Track work already has begun, as has improvements to railroad bridges over St. Paul Street ... [and Joseph Avenue]

The project has been beset by delays. [Here the Democrat and Chronicle reports that 'dog bites man'. LOL] A ceremonial groundbreaking was held in late October 2014.

Spring construction scheduled for new Schenectady train station -- RT&S

Commissioner Matthew J. Driscoll unveiled plans for the new Schenectady Train Station, which will be a modern, fully accessible transportation hub connecting travelers to New York City, Niagara Falls and destinations between and beyond. Station construction is scheduled to get under way in the spring.

Times Union

Brief, fair-use <SNIPS>:

Manhattan-Albany ridership on Amtrak a record

Amtrak set a record for ridership on its Empire Corridor between the Capital Region and New York City in the 2015 fiscal year ending Sept. 30. The passenger railroad reported it carried 1,152,536 passengers, up 2.9 percent from 1,119,959 a year earlier. The Albany-Rensselaer station, meanwhile, was the ninth busiest on Amtrak's network, with 825,353 travelers arriving or leaving.
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The Ethan Allen Express, which connects New York City with Rutland, Vt., carried 0.4 percent fewer passengers, 52,553, but saw a 2 percent gain in revenue, to $2,956,374.

Trains traveling between Albany, Buffalo and Toronto carried 403,985 passengers, down 1.5 percent, while ticket revenues fell 1.6 percent to $24,307,719.

The Adirondack, which connects New York City and Montreal through the Capital Region, saw ridership decline 1.1 percent to 132,345. Revenue also fell 1.1 percent to $7,453,664.

Rochester's Amtrak station getting torn down. Although eveyone now refers to it as a temporary station which lasted almost four decades, I don't recall that term ("temporary") when it was built in 1977 and recall it being heralded as one of the first of Amtrak's standardized depot designs (later derided as "Amshacks") :

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/sto ... /75723912/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A co-worker who took the Lake Shore from Boston to Chicago and back over the Thanksgiving holiday reported that he took the train from Boston to Albany but had to transfer across the Albany platform to the train from New York. On the way home, the switches from the Post Road were torn up and so he got a bus back to Boston. So it sounds like work around Albany station is proceeding.