Amtrak Empire Service (New York State)

And while I understand how fascinating the operations may be of the TLM, let's give some credit to the TLM crew. It's not as if the TLM is working all by itself. Kudos to the crew for their swift and efficient work!

+1. Out of curiosity, who's actually doing the work?

Its a company out of Texas running the TLM, dont know the name. When I go back in on Wed. Ill get the reporting marks off one of the tie cars. Theses guys where quick, only two small issues one mechanic and one operating.

I just have to say, it's great to finally see all this coming together.

I think NYS really has to start thinking about the next steps (and heavily investing in them).

Well, they do have the new Niagara Falls station possibly nearing completion (hopefully), and work is underway at Rochester. Has anything started at Schenectady? To my knowledge, there are not issues with stations at Amsterdam (limited service), Rome, Utica or Syracuse. At Buffalo, there have been some minor improvements at Depew, but nothing more than chatter (IIRC) about improving/replacing Exchange St.

As far as other infrastructure improvements, what are the major bottlenecks west of Albany that can be addressed on an incremental basis (assuming that trying to get CSX to agree to significantly higher speeds is on a far back burner)? I would assume that the single track through the station at Rochester is one, but am not familiar enough with the route to comment beyond that.

Good questions.

The Schenectady station, last I heard went back out for rebid as the current bids came in too high.

I really think the next incremental improvements really are the ones you suggest and additional service.
This I think means NY buying a captive fleet of cars.

Increase the number of ALB-NYP trains by 2-3 (there's ALMOST hourly service).

I'd extend the first train to Buffalo to Chicago as a "day" (ok, that one is on Ohio and other states, not NYS).

I'd add at least one train to Buffalo and look into bus feeder service along the ALB-BUF corridor so that the "reach" of the existing trains can be extended.

I'm alone in thinking an additional BOS-NYP train (in the morning) is worth considering.

But, now that ALB is close to completion, it can definitely handle more traffic. Let's take advantage of it and make it a mini-hub of its own.

Something I would like to see is a Thruway bus to provide more service across the border into Toronto when the new Niagara Falls station goes live; from what I was told by both US CBP and CBSA, by agreement, buses can cross the Whirlpool Bridge.

Interestingly, I heard that NFTA was interested in providing something like the Tunnel Bus that Windsor transit operates in Detroit...

Before Amtrak adds anymore trains between Albany and Buffalo lets see if CSX will allow 281 and 284 back onto their property. Now that the track work on the Mohawk is nearing its completion date. On the railroad once it goes away it generally does forever.

Is there currently enough traffic between Albany and Schenectady for the single track to be a significant bottleneck? I always wondered why the second track there was such high priority.

Greg Moore wrote:I just have to say, it's great to finally see all this coming together.

Pictures... ??

Matt Johnson wrote:Is there currently enough traffic between Albany and Schenectady for the single track to be a significant bottleneck? I always wondered why the second track there was such high priority.

The single track section makes for quite a bottleneck at certain times of the day. Here's an example from the current Amtrak timetable:

68 SDY 1727 ALB 1757
291 ALB 1800 SDY 1824
64 SDY 1827 ALB 1856
49 ALB 1905 SDY 1932

On Sundays train 296 is scheduled to leave SDY for Albany at 1923 - a neat trick on single track. You can see that a late arrival of 68 (from Canada subject to US customs) could push 49 off schedule before it even gets to Albany.

Matt Johnson wrote:Is there currently enough traffic between Albany and Schenectady for the single track to be a significant bottleneck? I always wondered why the second track there was such high priority.

Purely anecdotally, but more than once I've sat in Albany waiting for a SB train that has been delayed and held at Schenectady because of a train travelling from Albany to points north and west.

So even with 5 trains a day, it happens enough to be noticeable.

Greg Moore wrote:So even with 5 trains a day, it happens enough to be noticeable.

It happens all the time.

288 also sometimes has to wait for 49. When you're scheduled to arrive in NYC at a quarter to midnight, every minute of delay hurts.

Greg Moore wrote:

Matt Johnson wrote:Is there currently enough traffic between Albany and Schenectady for the single track to be a significant bottleneck? I always wondered why the second track there was such high priority.

Purely anecdotally, but more than once I've sat in Albany waiting for a SB train that has been delayed and held at Schenectady because of a train travelling from Albany to points north and west.

So even with 5 trains a day, it happens enough to be noticeable.

There are 12 Amtrak trains between Albany and Schenectady on a peak day. Plus one to two sets of CSX locals. So up to 16 trains on the single track, typically within a 12 hour window.

FYI, the initial laying of the second track should be complete within the next day or so. The TLM was getting close to CP-156 this morning.