Amtrak Empire Service (New York State)

I actually really need to have this information myself as I am re creating the Empire Corridor from New York to Albany in Train Simulator 2016. I am positive that the Empire Corridor passes through siding 4A to get to/from the tunnel. I just need to know if it passes above or below the Tunnels that NJ Transit and Amtrak uses. And it's very hard to get the tracking right.

It would be nice for NY State to have it's own Amtrak Thruway bus network just like California. Remember this, many of the schools, especially in the Ithaca and Binghamton area, are far enough south that many of the students who come from the NYC area will drive. If not, then they will take the bus. Binghamton is too far south from where the Empire Corridor runs and much closer to the PA state line. You might get people from Toronto who would use a train and bus combo who go to Binghamton. The same thing goes with Corning. Coach USA Short Line runs a very good business from Binghamton to NYC and has a stop in Ridgewood, NJ along Rt 17. Now, I could certainly see any larger town north of 90 or even at the most 10 miles from that interstate that could use the bus. It might be nice for a Thruway bus to connect the western end of the Adirondacks to Utica for more Amtrak options. The Adirondack runs on the eastern end of the park and takes forever, but at least, it's a very scenic ride.

It goes over the North River portal and under the West Side Yard ramp, if you dig further back in this post I *think* there's a track diagram. The whole thread's pretty interesting and worth a read though.

On a side note, I don't know if it's still on there or not, but on Train Simulator's Engine Driver site I did a write up proposing the Empire Corridor a couple years ago. If you can find it, there may be some useful info in it for you.

Seems to me that if-- emphasis on if-- Binghamton and the Southern Tier see passenger service again, it's going to be a train coming from NY via either Port Jervis or Scranton. And if said train continues past Binghamton it's going to join the Water Level Route at Syracuse, not Buffalo, and offer a bus connection to Ithaca via Cortland.

Correct. If you can find a diagram, it's pretty fascinating how they threaded the needle on getting that tunnel through there.

Definately a big if for restoring any passenger rail service on the Southern Tier west of Pt. Jervis. The tracks are very curvy and while the route might be scenic, people want to get to their destination in a timely manner. I wouldn't count on that anytime soon. In fact, unless if you are taking an express to Pt. Jervis, the ride is too long.

It's always an interesting sight coming into Penn Station from Empire Connection seeing an Amtrak or NJT train going in and out of the portal and the LIRR trains going up their ramp. It's a different perspective, haha.

I do miss the air gap though, the daylight made a big difference down there, as brief as it was.

Agreed. I will miss that.

I had the day off yesterday, and needed to head down to JP's to blow some of my night shift money on tiny trains. Since I got into town a bit early and it was a nice day I decided to swing down to the ALB station to grab a few pics of the ongoing work. I didn't bother to resize the pics when I uploaded them, so they are too big to embed here. The link is for the album, all the shots in it are from 7/30 as of right now. I will add more as I take them.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/archiv ... ?id=117501

I was talking with a friend who made a trip from New York to Montreal and return over the Labor Day weekend. His comments on work between ALB and SDY:

Concrete has been poured for the northern extension of both high level platforms at ALB.

New interlocking (CP 143 or CP 144?) is in place north of the high level platforms.

Two middle tracks are still stub ended roughly midway between north and south ends of the high level platforms.

Ballast cars are parked in new yard area north and east of high level platforms - this is the area to be used for long term storage and transient occupied parking of private cars.

Second track has been laid down, but with some noticeable short gaps, between CP 145 and CP 156. Alignment, ballasting, cutting in the signal system are a work in progress.

Completion date? I'm sure they would like to have the ALB improvements completed and in service in time for the Thanksgiving travel peak. We shall see.

As Scooby Doo would say, ruh roh: problems at Exchange St. in Buffalo:

The small train station in New York’s second biggest city, hidden beneath a four lane overpass, is closed. Rains caused the ceiling to collapse in the shoe box-sized station.

While trains still stop on Exchange Street, it’s not clear when the station will reopen.

But the closing has reopened the demand for a modern train station in downtown Buffalo.

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Part of the ceiling at the Exchange Street station also collapsed the weekend of Sept. 9 from another heavy storm, causing the ticket office to close for safety.

Public Works Commissioner Steven Stepniak said a decision on moving forward with the city-owned building would be made after determining the cost to repair the roof.

“We sent a contractor out to evaluate, and we need to explore our options before moving forward,” Stepniak said.

There’s a reason for the hesitation: The Brown administration and Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp., the state agency overseeing the waterfront, have said they would like to see an underground train station at Canalside, around the corner from the station, where two undeveloped acres sit north of the canal.

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The prospect of a new station seemed far off Monday, as water collected on the roof and dripped onto the office floor and above an area leading to the outside platform. Ticketing was shut down because of safety concerns with the ticketing computer.

“Trains are currently still servicing the station, and an Amtrak agent is available to assist passengers,” Amtrak spokesman Mike Tolbert said. “We continue to work with the State Department of Transportation to assess the damage and determine a solution.”

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Re: Buffalo ... "Never let a good crisis go to waste"

Roof collapsed under rain ? It is amazing that the roof was not built to the possible load of lake effect snows ?

The "station building" was built UNDER a highway overpass,so no"need" to build to code at that time,being somewhat shielded
from the weather.
If this was a"quick and dirty" build(a temp building),the time has arrived to build a new "station building" from scratch.

Any pics of this station bldg at Exchange St?

These photos are from 2005.

http://trainweb.org/usarail/buffalo_exchange.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;