To Grand Central
Neil Breslin, Pat Fahy, and John McDonald have written to Amtrak asking that trains from Albany/Rensselaer to NYC be routed to Grand Central instead of Penn Station this summer so as to avoid the impending service delays at Penn that will be part of track work there.
(Albany/Rensselaer had 842,000 passenger arrivals and departures in 2016, the vast majority of them involving New York City.)
[Politico NY] [National Association of Railroad Passengers]
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Comments
Seems really inconvenient for anyone traveling by Amtrak with a transfer in NYC. But definitely an improvement for anyone whose destination is NYC.
... said Blech on May 3, 2017 at 8:48 PM | link
Now there is a logical, practical solution. ...compliments to these 3 local officials. ...our congressional reps ( including those from Vermont who share the tracks) and the Governors should chime in too.
Hopefully amtrak's new ceo...with his private sector background will see the savings, customer service and practical benefits of this modification
... said Jsc on May 3, 2017 at 11:47 PM | link
As for connections.. I wonder if there are numbers available for Albany trains - how many people are going to NYC, and how many are continuing elsewhere.
... said Mike on May 4, 2017 at 10:13 AM | link
@Mike: I was curious about that too and spent some time yesterday trying find if there's federal data on that sort of thing, but came up empty. (There's something similar for air travel.) I'll dig a little more and see I can turn anything up because it would be interesting and helpful to know.
My guess is that a huge percentage of the Albany to NYC travel ends in NYC.
... said Greg on May 4, 2017 at 11:25 AM | link
Grand central has not served Amtrak since 1991. The station exclusively serves Metro North. Once the east side access is complete trains from the LIRR will connect to Grand Central on the new lines deep below the current station.
Grand central doesn't have the capacity to handle more trains. Also it would be additional cost to Amtrak to have workers operating at two stations.
... said Dave on May 4, 2017 at 4:22 PM | link