Amtrak Empire Service (New York State)

According to Trains Magazine (note, you can only reach the story if you're a Trains subscriber), the contract for the new Schenectady station will be put out to bid this year, with construction to start next year and be complete by 2017.

New tracks will be laid this spring for a new Amtrak station in Schenectady, and ground will be broken for the new $15 million station in 2015.
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Plans for the new station presently include a four-story, 80,000 square foot building, with a transportation-related museum, restaurant/retail shop, and public plaza.
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The city will design the station in a more “classic” style like the original Union Station.
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If the city truly gets involved it will be a double wide trailer on cement blocks. The place just ran better when the boys with "crooked" noses were in charge.

Railjunkie wrote:If the city truly gets involved it will be a double wide trailer on cement blocks. The place just ran better when the boys with "crooked" noses were in charge.

Excuse me? "Crooked" noses? Perhaps you want another phrase there?

In any event, with the work around Metroplex, I suspect the powers that be will do fine.

Besides, not like they can do too much worse than the current station.

(also, you'd need a BIG pile of cement blocks given the tracks are above street level.)

Nope, crooked noses works just fine. My family has lived in and around Schenectady since the early 1900s. Had a couple of uncles and a grandfather who had connections with the boys and trust me it was way better then it is now. All I can say for the Metro Plex is Center City and the reconstruction of Erie Blvd. A true waste.

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for improvements to the Empire Corridor is now available on-line. Note also that six public hearings at various locations across the state have been schedule for dates in March.

The full EIS, which is a whopping 1,772 pages in length, can be found on this Federal Railroad Administration web link:
https://www.fra.dot.gov/Page/P0679

An interesting news reports on this topic can be found on this link:
"New York’s forgotten high-speed rail study"
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/a ... rail-study
Capital - 01/30/2014

BenH wrote:The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for improvements to the Empire Corridor is now available on-line. Note also that six public hearings at various locations across the state have been schedule for dates in March.

The full EIS, which is a whopping 1,772 pages in length, can be found on this Federal Railroad Administration web link:
https://www.fra.dot.gov/Page/P0679

An interesting news reports on this topic can be found on this link:
"New York’s forgotten high-speed rail study"
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/a ... rail-study
Capital - 01/30/2014

Pathetic if you ask me.

The whole thing is simply pathetic. Honestly, ALB-NYP should be at least under 2-hours and then ALB-BUF 5.

"Is high-speed rail really a reality in New York State?" Dilan said, in a follow-up interview. "I don't think so, personally."

It was in 2003, for that brief period of hope before the long period of darkness! I'm glad I at least got to see it.

The EIS points out that there is no ability to commute into Albany from the south, and a quick check of the schedule says the same from the west. Has Amtrak ever considered or tried sending out an early Empire from Penn or laying over an early Empire in Schenectady, perhaps if space was available in Mohawk Yard?

Greg Moore wrote:

BenH wrote:The . . . (EIS) for improvements to the Empire Corridor
is now available on-line. . . .
The full EIS, which is a whopping 1,772 pages in length,
can be found on this Federal Railroad Administration web link:
https://www.fra.dot.gov/Page/P0679

An interesting news reports on this topic can be found on this link:
"New York’s forgotten high-speed rail study"
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/a ... rail-study
Capital - 01/30/2014

Pathetic if you ask me.

The whole thing is simply pathetic.

Pathetic. We can all agree on that.

From the capitalnewyork.com site:

Here, in rough outline,. . .

The "base" do-nothing option, with average speeds of 51 mph
and nine-hour travel times from New York City to Niagara Falls.

There's a $1.66 billion option that would add 64 miles of new
mainline track, allowing speeds of up to 90 miles per hour
between Schenectady and Buffalo, but with an average speed
of 57 mph. The New York City to Niagara trip would take eight hours.
. . .
. . .
And, finally, the $14.71 billion option: a two-track, grade-separated,
283-mile corridor between Albany and a new Buffalo station, some
of it along new elevated tracks. Average speeds would hit 108 mph
for non-Amtrak trains between Albany and Buffalo. Trains in some
places would hit maximum speeds of 125 miles per hour, with the
overall average speed hitting 77 mph on the express track (53 on
the local). The travel time to Niagara would, on the express tracks,
fall to six hours.

Lemmee. St Louis to Chicago is costing close to 1 billion including
new trains, but mostly for getting 75% of the route able to handle
trains going up to 110-mph. For the billion bucks, Illinois will chop
an hour out of the running time. For another billion or two, it will
upgrade tracks Joliet-Chicago, thru Springfield, and Alton-St Louis
to further cut the run time.

New York can get trains to go one hour faster NYC-Albany-Buffalo-
Niagara Falls for $1.66 billion. For $14.7 billion, we could cut a total
of two hours. Oy vey.

Infrastructure construction must be cheap in Downstate Illinois but
very costly in Upstate New York. They plan to use the team now
busy with East Side Access or what?

Pathetic.

Anybody remember the phantom 2.5 hour NYC - Albany express train that appeared on the schedule back in 2005 but never ran? I suspect that non-stop run was intended to operate with the Turboliner equipment, but alas, it was another failure in a long string of failures.

As for Chicago - St Louis, that does have the potential to be the showcase for the potential of incremental upgrades. However, thus far, with all the work that's been done Amtrak is still only running at 110 mph on that short Dwight to Pontiac stretch, even though many more miles of track have been upgraded. I hope that changes soon. The Michigan route actually has a lot more 110 mph running.

Matt, Empire Service runs between NYP and ALB are regularly 2.5 hours; some express trains like 237 make it in 2:20.

Considering how little of the corridor Amtrak owns/controls, and considering the limits that track and third rail impose south of Albany I don't know what people expect. Chicago-St Louis is a tough comparator given the topographic challenge which imposes a basically L shaped journey between NYC-Buffalo.

The EGE wrote:Matt, Empire Service runs between NYP and ALB are regularly 2.5 hours; some express trains like 237 make it in 2:20.

Yes, you're right, my bad. I think the express was actually in the schedule for 2:05 or something just over 2 hours flat.

Woody wrote:Infrastructure construction must be cheap in Downstate Illinois but
very costly in Upstate New York.

It's very very flat in Illinois. It makes it easy to build very very straight railroad lines which is what they did back in the 19th Century. If there's a very very straight ROW that's very very flat it's very very cheap to upgrade it.

Adirondacker wrote:

Woody wrote:Infrastructure construction must be cheap in Downstate Illinois but
very costly in Upstate New York.

It's very very flat in Illinois. It makes it easy to build very very straight railroad lines which is what they did back in the 19th Century. If there's a very very straight ROW that's very very flat it's very very cheap to upgrade it.

There's also something to be said for lower labor and land costs in rural Illinois as opposed to semi-urban New York, especially along the Hudson.