Amtrak Empire Service (New York State)

[Greg Moore]

Not sure you'd get any real benefit of a reroute there. You might save a few seconds, but that's it. You've already got to slow down for the bridge and the wye on the other side.

[hs3730]

They're replacing the bridge in the coming years, so a realignment would actually be do-able.

That said, not really worth. It would be one thing if the bridge were in the middle of nowhere, but even if the whole area were realigned for a new bridge, still gotta slow down for the station.

[Greg Moore]

BTW, what MIGHT have been an interesting choice would have been, decades ago, to move the Albany-Rensselaer station to where the Central Warehouse building is.
This would have allowed them to service the current routes, closer to downtown Albany itself, but also allow routes N/S on the west side of the river.
About a decade ago there was a plan to setup commuter service north to Clifton Park using that route (one of two proposed) but several factors conspired against it, including a lack of a station.

[R36 Combine Coach]

Food service might be coming back: The gist is, they're considering adding food service into the NYS Budget, so we'll know in about 20 days. My suspicion is it's going to be one of the things that makes it in if legal weed happens, as I don't see any other miracle money coming in to pay for it.

I know the Hiawatha once had on-board concession cart service on select weekday trips, until Wisconsin cut it, so some states have cut food service before. Is food service on the trains to Buffalo and Niagara Falls state funded? The NYP-Albany food service was cut in 2005, well before PRIIA and 209.

[Amtrak706]

I found something quite interesting the other day looking at the Empire schedule. For every single train except 64, the eastbound Maple Leaf, scheduled time between Amsterdam, NY and Schenectady, NY (18 railroad miles) is about 20 minutes. Even this seems on the generous side, with track speed for passenger on CSX from Amsterdam to Hoffmans, NY being 70mph with a few stretches of 50, and then exclusive 90mph and 100mph running for the other half of the stretch between Hoffmans and Schenectady. But 64 is scheduled to take a whopping HOUR between these two stations. This results in a pretty substantial pointless wait at Schenectady, which is then immediately followed by the necessary (but shorter!) wait at Albany for crew change, engine swap, etc. Does anyone know what shenanigans Amtrak is up to here?

[ExCon90]

Recovery time to allow for possible extended delay at the border while enabling 64 to come closer to hitting its slot at Albany-R? Certainly better than having it tie up a platform at A-R. (Oh, for the days of "did you acquire anything while you were in Canada?"

[Amtrak706]

If that were the case then I would expect 68 to have the same padding somewhere along its route, which it does not.

[ExCon90]

I keep reading about border delays to 64, not so much to 68. Could there be a difference in handling by Customs at Niagara Falls vs. Rouses Point that would result in fewer or shorter delays to 68? (I understand there are some differences in procedures at different locations because of different supervision.) Otherwise there doesn't seem to be a reason.

[Backshophoss]

#'s 68/69 operate as "sealed" trains between the US Border and Montreal,retains the Amtrak T&E,OBS crews.
#'s 63/64 change at the US border,Becoming a VIA RAIL train,Amtrak T&E,OBS crews Change to VIA RAIL T&E<OBS crews,
and does stop to do station work Border to/From Toronto.

[Railjunkie]

The change of crews on 63/64 takes place in Canada. T&E will cross the boarder twice on either train. OBS stays in NFS The crossing at NFS has always been a little longer even on a "normal" day. Back when I was going somewhat regularly they would bring Fido on, work the train, sometimes find something sometimes not. Almost always they find someone who docent have their papers in order.64 handles way more international tourist over the boarder than 68. At least that was my experience when working those trains, handed out plenty of customs forms on 69/68.

[hs3730]

I'm on train 255 right now (NYP-ALB)... and the cafe car is open. I think I'm in the twilight zone. Attendant announced the unusualness of this over the PA, and when I tried to get more details as to the circumstances the conductor simply said "it's a long story".
Anyone know what sorcery this is?

[Railjunkie]

I work in Albany and I didnt hear of this. Ill see the crew when they get in and see if I can glean any info.

[NaugyRR]

Junkie are you on duty tomorrow? The better half and I are going to the city for a few hours to get away for a bit on 284/259 out of RHI. We figured it'd be a nice day to ride along the river and grab some Shake Shack, haha.

[Riverduckexpress]

I suspect the padding in 64's schedule between Schenectady and Amsterdam is more due to freight interference.According to the Amtrak Status Maps/ASM website train 64 typically leaves the U.S. side of Niagara Falls on time (Going back to January 2010, average delay leaving Niagara Falls is 5 minutes and median delay exactly 0 minutes) which seems to indicate the almost 2-hour waiting time built into the schedule at Niagara Falls is adequate. On the other hand, it seems that delays accumulate along the route between Buffalo and Amsterdam, where going back to January 2010, train 64 leaves on average 46 minutes late and the median departure is 35 minutes late.

Anecdotally, I've only taken 64 once, between Syracuse and Albany, but the train did end up leaving almost 40 minutes late, with one freight train passing in each direction while I was waiting for 64 to arrive. However, because of the padding between Amsterdam and Schenectady, we ended up arriving at Schenectady and Albany right on time.

Just pointing out that there's plenty of space immediately surrounding Rensselaer station for development. Deck over the parking lots and voila.

Right now ALB needs more PARKING.

But that said, I think a decent developer could do well to build up some business in that area. CDTA used to (and may still) make a room available (for rent) for business meetings in the station.

I know I'm replying to a 4-month old post, but I'd love to give my two cents. The Albany-Rensselaer station really needs more bus service. The existing bus service CDTA operates to the station ranges from passable to mediocre depending on the day/time. Only two bus routes serve the station; one route runs hourly on Saturdays, doesn't run on Sundays and the other runs every 70 mins(!) on the weekend. Not to mention it's a two-seat ride to Troy and a three-seat ride to RPI. You definitely wouldn't expect a top ten ridership like Albany-Rensselaer to have such terrible public transit connections but I guess it's a consequence of the station not being located in downtown Albany itself. Additionally, even though the station is owned by CDTA, the two bus routes stop on the street closest to the station while the taxis are located in the station's lot right outside the station building, which is completely backwards. CDTA could easily provide robust bus service to the station, which I think could be well-utilized given the trip to Downtown Albany from the station is pretty short, but I guess it's better business for CDTA to promote the parking and the taxi services instead. What's most ironic about this is that CDTA generally has a reputation for providing good if not high quality bus service in the Albany area but the Amtrak station seems to be one of their blind spots.

[hs3730]

The Albany-Rensselaer station really needs more bus service. ... only two bus routes serve the station; one route runs hourly on Saturdays, doesn't run on Sundays and the other runs every 70 mins(!) on the weekend.
What's most ironic about this is that CDTA generally has a reputation for providing good if not high quality bus service in the Albany area but the Amtrak station seems to be one of their blind spots.

I talked to the CDTA execs back when the "Albany County bus reorganization" town hall meetings were held to specifically address these problems back when the 114 was just a proposal. It went down like a Seinfeld sketch:
Issue 1. Me: The 114 is great, it will provide a 1 seat ride from several college campuses and much of Albany's midtown to the Amtrak station! But, there's no Sunday service. The most common use of Amtrak among college students is to go down to NYC Friday afternoon/evening and come back Sunday.
CDTA: We want to see how well it does on Saturday before considering Sunday service. Besides, there's the 214.
Me: You realize this logic is akin to a new peak service that only runs mornings, as in "We want to see how many people use it to get to work before we look at getting them back home the same way they got there."
CDTA:... Fill out a comment form.

Issue 2. Me: The 214 doesn't run past 7PM Sunday. The arrivals from NYC at 7:45 PM, 9:45 PM are always sold out, yet there are no buses for them. These passengers often have to deal with waiting for the first or even second round of taxis to come back before they can get one.
CDTA: Our metrics show there is hardly any bus ridership at the Amtrak station at those times.
Me:... because there's no buses at all. How did you even get "some" ridership, did the 7PM run 3 hours late one Sunday?
CDTA: ... the 214 is considered a Rensselaer county bus and not part of this reorganization.

Here we are 7 years later, the 114 and 214 have had minor routing and schedule changes but nothing at all to address Sundays. I will only drive to the station now.

On a related note, they're closing the station parking garage 4th of July weekend, which almost certainly will result in an overcrowding situation at the surface lots. It would be nice to have a second garage now, I suppose...