Penn Central's cruel joke at Batavia - 1969?

[Otto Vondrak]

Ok, so I dug out my Penn Central "Empire Service" timetable of April 27, 1969. Train 71 from Grand Central Terminal leaves Batavia at 3:35 pm, and arrives in Buffalo 4:00pm. However, there are no trains heading east that stop at Batavia! Was this Penn Central's subtle way of making travel to Batavia difficult to make a strong case to close the station?

-otto-

[Noel Weaver]

Seems to me that there was/maybe still is a private school in the area
which used the passenger trains a fair amount of times. Penn Central
had an understanding with this school that any train would stop at Batavia
on their request.
Incidentally, when I was working that line, the old passenger station at
Batavia was still in use by the railroad. They had a track supervisor as
well as other M of W facilities in that building.
Noel Weaver

[shlustig]

That Batavia stop was for the New York State School for the Deaf.

The westbound stop was by schedule. The eastbound stop was arranged weekly with the school.

[TB Diamond]

Actually the arranged stop was for the Batavia School For the Blind.

[TB Diamond]

Should not have been rude. I rode the train on a couple of occasions in the early 1970s. Seems that on a Sunday afternoon Syracuse-west there were several blind kids on the train. Questioning the conductor, it was related that they were students at the Batavia School For The Blind and that the train stopped in Batavia to let them off. Later I photographed the stop a few times as I felt it was unusual to see a passenger train stopping at Batavia in the 1970s.
Visited old depot last August while on vacation. Amazed to see that it was still in use and still bore most of its big aluminum "New York Central" sign. Some things don't change, even after 37 years, it seems.

[Otto Vondrak]

Still... only one scheduled departure in one direction?

-otto-

[keeper1616]

Still... only one scheduled departure in one direction?

-otto-

I questioned a person who used to teach at that school, and apparently it was scheduled that way so the kids could take the train back to buffalo (where most of the them lived) on friday after classes got out, and thier parents would drive them back to school on Sunday in the afternoon. She recalled that the train used to stop both ways on both Friday and Sunday, but the school woudn't pay for it, so they only stopped when they made money....Friday afternoon.

[TB Diamond]

Amtrak continued the stop. Photographed No. 71 making the station stop at Batavia on 01 and 08 April and 14 October 1973. All dates were on Sunday. Noticed last summer that the old passenger platforms at Batavia had been ripped up. Does anyone know when this work was done?

[nessman]

When did NYC relocate the mainline south of Batavia?

[WNYRailfan]

The NYC tracks were relocated in late 1956 with the "new" depot opening in 1957.

[brockportman]

i thought the relocation project was in 57 ? or maybe it was completed in 57 in batavia ? i dont know. but amtrak hasnt stopped in batavia sence the 80s ? right ?

[joshuahouse]

I didn't know Amtrak had ever stopped in Batavia, does anyone have firm dates for that?

[Otto Vondrak]

I didn't know Amtrak had ever stopped in Batavia, does anyone have firm dates for that?

Curious if we ever answered this. When was the last Amtrak service at Batavia?

=otto=

[BR&P]

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[The EGE]

Only very briefly. The May 1, 1971 timetable shows one eastbound-only stop; the July 12, 1971 timetable shows none.