Amtrak Empire Service (New York State)

RandallW wrote: ↑Sat Nov 26, 2022 6:47 am The 28x trains carry cafes. It's the 23x trains that do not offer cafe services.

Once again as I have mentioned before cafe service was close to returning to all Empire service trains. Like spring of 2020 close. Amtrak was busily cleaning and preparing the commissary in the ALB station. The only thing that had yet to happen was the official job bids hiring. COVID killed that and it has yet to return. NYS has no money, we are just getting trains back that we were running pre-COVID.

The only part of the service that NYS is currently is not happy about, Amtrak is not going north to Montreal.

New York State gave 100s of millions of Dollars to CSX for track upgrades and yet we have only 3 trains going in each direction Buffalo/NF-Syracuse and Albany---

What does that have to do with CSXT? The tracks are fine. You're missing one, 4 EB Amtraks went through Fairport yesterday.

sextant wrote: ↑Sat Nov 26, 2022 8:16 am New York State gave 100s of millions of Dollars to CSX for track upgrades and yet we have only 3 trains going in each direction Buffalo/NF-Syracuse and Albany---

They did??? For what??? Same speeds poor dispatching

4 westbound 63 281 283 49
4 eastbound 280 284 48 64
Current train numbers have been for quite a while except for a brief period during COVID. Unless you want to count the LSL as long distance but its still crewed by Empire service T&E all the way to Buffalo. The Engineer side has it to Toledo I believe.

RandallW wrote: ↑Sat Nov 26, 2022 6:47 am The 28x trains carry cafes. It's the 23x trains that do not offer cafe services.

I stand corrected. Still... should be a separate line.

STrRedWolf wrote: ↑Sat Nov 26, 2022 2:59 pm

RandallW wrote: ↑Sat Nov 26, 2022 6:47 am The 28x trains carry cafes. It's the 23x trains that do not offer cafe services.

I stand corrected. Still... should be a separate line.

And to clarify (though most probably know this), ALL Empire Service trains actually HAVE a cafe car. It's simply not staffed for any that originate or terminate in Albany. (the Berkshire Flyer was an exception that went "beyond" Albany but also was not staffed).

So the real key as said above is "do not offer cafe services". It's money for the staff. The equipment is there.

Railjunkie wrote: ↑Sat Nov 26, 2022 7:57 am
Once again as I have mentioned before cafe service was close to returning to all Empire service trains. Like spring of 2020 close. Amtrak was busily cleaning and preparing the commissary in the ALB station. The only thing that had yet to happen was the official job bids hiring. COVID killed that and it has yet to return. NYS has no money, we are just getting trains back that we were running pre-COVID.

That's interesting, but sad that it took that long to even try to get it restored. We're talking 15 years or more! Hard to believe it's been that long, but cafe car service elimination and the short lived Subway debacle were right after the Turboliner fiasco. My thoughts on how New York is basically a cautionary tale for high speed rail proponents, policymakers, and taxpayers in general: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/high-spe ... w-johnson/

Service restored: TheDailyCatch.org

Two Amtrak Train Runs Restored, Adding Early-Morning and Very Late-Night Trains

Two Amtrak train runs between New York City and Albany will be restored to service on March 4, the final step to returning regional operation to pre-Covid levels, the Empire State Passengers Association (ESPA) confirmed Thursday.

One is the early morning southbound train leaving Albany-Rensselaer at 5:10 a.m. and arriving at Rhinecliff at 5:53 a.m. before it continues southbound into the city for 7:30 a.m. arrival into Moynihan Trail Hall.

In addition, the 10:45 p.m. northbound train departing Moynihan Train Hall will also be returned to service, arriving at Rhinecliff at 12:22 a.m.
...

Jeff Smith wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 6:52 am Service restored: TheDailyCatch.org

Two Amtrak Train Runs Restored, Adding Early-Morning and Very Late-Night Trains

Two Amtrak train runs between New York City and Albany will be restored to service on March 4, the final step to returning regional operation to pre-Covid levels, the Empire State Passengers Association (ESPA) confirmed Thursday.

One is the early morning southbound train leaving Albany-Rensselaer at 5:10 a.m. and arriving at Rhinecliff at 5:53 a.m. before it continues southbound into the city for 7:30 a.m. arrival into Moynihan Trail Hall.

In addition, the 10:45 p.m. northbound train departing Moynihan Train Hall will also be returned to service, arriving at Rhinecliff at 12:22 a.m.
...

I believe this restores the schedule to pre covid levels with trains. Finally

I'm happy to see this, I usually prefer taking the train out of Rhinecliff over Wassaic

Who wouldn't beside the price lol

Lol good point, but I usually don't find the price to be too much different, especially when you consider you're only hitting three stops on the way and not paying for parking

My wife and I like to see comedians and concerts in the city, so later trains aid in our determination on Metro-North vs. Amtrak. When we went to see Jim Jeffries a couple years ago I drove to Southeast because of the late night schedules, for Bert Kreischer at the Garden we took Amtrak down, but stayed at the Garden Inn on the Battery because it was too late for either service.

On an off topic note, we've started going to The Egg in Albany for more shows and I've been thoroughly impressed with the venue (plus Miss State Employee gets prime parking at the Plaza LOL).

Just drove past South Street in Rensselaer, just south of the station and saw a train stopped with a bunch of police cars and an ambulance. I'm guessing a trespasser got clipped, but I hope everyone's ok.

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Yes definitely an improvement for going to the city. I agree the price difference is worth it for the speed and comfort.

Update on the incident we saw earlier this evening... The train was just pulling away towards ALB as we came back through, a half hour or so later after grabbing food in East Greenbush. The ambulance was also still there along with most of the police.

Now that I'm home I'm able to share the street view and map location. The pin on the map is a little hard to see after I shrunk the image down, so I drew a blue arrow to it.




The tracks are just behind the black metal fence in the street view, the bridge carrying the Castleton Cut-Off would be behind the camera.