A railroad line running from Niagara Falls through the Empire State, through Syracuse, Albany and Poughkeepsie to New York City, was once a pride of New York State in the 19th century, with the Empire State Express reputedly one of the fastest trains in the world. But trains have, in effect, gotten relatively slower since then as the automobile, in the now-waning age of cheap foreign oil and eight-lane expressways, outperformed rail travel.
Now, there is renewed hope that the Empire State may someday have a rapid rail service worthy of the 21st century, as the state Department of Transportation and Amtrak announced this month they had resolved a longstanding dispute and jointly agreed to invest an additional $10 million in infrastructure improvements on the Albany-to-New York City line, called the Empire Corridor.
However, although welcome, the amount will result in only a modest improvement in speeding up the currently two-and-a-half-hour trek from the state capital (Rensselaer, actually) to the Big Apple.
In their press release announcing the agreement, officials say the planned improvements would save some 2.6 million passenger minutes annually. With almost a million passengers using the Amtrak Empire Corridor service between Albany and New York City each year, that amounts to a time savings of approximately 2.7 minutes per passenger per year.
There are currently 13 trains daily running from Albany to the big city, with annual ridership at about 960,000. That number grew by more than 4 percent between 2006 and 2007, according to Amtrak figures. The train makes scheduled stops at Hudson, Rhinecliff, Poughkeepsie, and Croton-Harmon and is a separate service from the Metro-North service that is increasingly popular as a commuter option from the Mid-Hudson region.
Touting the modest gains
“A reliable, efficient passenger rail system is critical to tourism and robust economic development across New York State,” Gov. Eliot Spitzer said. “This agreement puts to rest a longstanding dispute and enables the state and Amtrak to move forward cooperatively to improve passenger rail service and the state’s rail infrastructure.”
Amtrak president and CEO Alexander Kummant said, “This settlement now allows both Amtrak and the State of New York to concentrate on the improvements to rail service that I know our board and Governor Spitzer desire to achieve in New York.”
Progress on bringing higher speed rail has been delayed by contract disputes and related federal court litigation over a former state Department of Transportation (DOT) program to develop high-speed passenger rail service from New York City to the Capital District using RTL Turboliner trains from Amtrak.
Under the terms of the settlement, announced Wednesday, Dec. 12, Amtrak will pay New York State $20 million. In addition, New York and Amtrak will jointly invest $10 million in infrastructure improvement projects on the Albany-New York City Empire Corridor as approved by the state Senate’s High-Speed Rail Task Force, which was appointed in 2005.
Most of the work is planned for tracks near the George Washington Bridge and any money left over will improve service and enhance safety elsewhere in the rail corridor. Officials concede the project as announced will do little to realize the dream of a high-speed rail link from New York City to the state capital, an idea that every governor since Mario Cuomo has endorsed as a method to help end the economic funk besetting much of upstate New York. New urgency has been added to the efforts to upgrade rail service due to concerns that fossil fuels from private automobiles are adding significantly to the amount of greenhouse gases emanating from the Empire State.
Jennifer Post, a state DOT spokeswoman, said that the new agreement was noteworthy for breaking the logjam between New York and Amtrak. And she said that the state is committed to upgrading its passenger rail network, pointing to an agreement announced on Sept. 5 to spend some $22 million.
That money was also slated at least in part for work around the George Washington Bridge, and also earmarked to upgrade the rail station in Hudson.
The press release of Sept. 5 also said that an “initial meeting is taking place on a critical study into issues of ‘unity of control.’ That analysis will seek to optimize both freight and passenger service by the four rail operators – CSX, Canadian Pacific, Metro-North and Amtrak – in the important New York-to-Albany corridor,” according to the press release.
That study on unity of control is ongoing and is crucial to the future of rapid rail in New York State, because through most of the Hudson Valley and the upstate area, rail lines serve both passenger and freight trains, creating a logjam preventing passenger trains from obtaining the sorts of speed attained by rapid trains in Japan and Europe, where passenger trains can travel at 125 miles per hour.