Empire Corridor

Template:Short description Template:Use American English The Empire Corridor is a passenger rail corridor in New York State running between Penn Station in New York City and Template:Amtk. Major cities on the route include Poughkeepsie, Albany, Schenectady, Amsterdam, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. Much of the corridor was once part of the New York Central Railroad's main line.

Amtrak's Empire Service and Maple Leaf serve the entire length of the Empire Corridor, with the Maple Leaf continuing northwest to Template:Amtk. The Lake Shore Limited follows most of the corridor from New York City, diverging west to Chicago at the Buffalo–Depew station. The Berkshire Flyer takes the corridor to Template:Amtk, before diverging east to Template:Amtk, while the Adirondack and Ethan Allen Express travel one stop further to Template:Amtk, before diverging north to Template:Amtk and Template:Amtk, respectively. Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line merges with the Empire Corridor in Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx, just south of Template:Mnrr, providing commuter rail service between Poughkeepsie, New York and Grand Central Terminal in New York City.

The line is electrified by both overhead catenary and top-running third rail on the Amtrak-owned segment between Penn Station and 41st Street, as well as by under-running third rail on the Metro-North segment, from the merge with the Hudson Line to Template:Mnrr. The Amtrak-owned section between 41st Street and the merge with the Hudson Line is unpowered, and can only be served by diesel or dual-mode trains.

The corridor is also one of ten federally designated high-speed rail corridors in the United States. If the proposed high-speed service were to be built on the corridor, trains traveling between Buffalo and New York City could travel at speeds of up to . In the 1890s, the Empire State Express between New York City and Buffalo was about 1 hour faster than Amtrak's service in 2013. On September 14, 1891, the Empire State Express covered the between New York City and Buffalo in 7 hours and 6 minutes (including stops), averaging , with a top speed of .

Ownership

The Empire Corridor is largely owned by CSX Transportation (CSX), which owns most of the trackage between Niagara Falls and Poughkeepsie. Amtrak owns trackage rights for most of the Hudson line section north of Poughkeepsie to its rail yard in Albany. South of Poughkeepsie, the Empire Corridor is coextensive with Metro-North's trackage until it forks-off between Metro-North's Riverdale and Spuyten Duyvil stations in the Bronx, to cross the Harlem River over the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge and make the Empire Connection to Penn Station. Amtrak owns the trackage after that fork, the West Side Line.

The corridor had been part of the main line of the New York Central Railroad; it was the eastern leg of the NYC's famed "Water Level Route" to Chicago. The corridor passed to Penn Central in 1968 upon the NYC's merger with the Pennsylvania Railroad, and passed to Conrail in 1976. In a series of purchases in the 1980s and 1990s, Amtrak bought the Bronx–Manhattan segment, Metro-North acquired the Poughkeepsie–Bronx segment, and CSX acquired the remainder when it split Conrail's assets with Norfolk Southern, in 1999.

On October 18, 2011, Amtrak and CSX announced an agreement for Amtrak to lease, operate and maintain the CSX-owned trackage between Poughkeepsie and Schenectady. Amtrak officially assumed control of the line on December 1, 2012. Later, Amtrak bought the segment between Schenectady and Hoffmans from CSX.

Current services

The busiest segment of the Empire Corridor is between New York City and Albany with twelve trains per day.

Amtrak

File:Southbound Amtrak Train, Riverdale, Bronx, NY.jpg

Southbound Amtrak train on Hudson line tracks, just south of Riverdale Station. Looking south from 254th street bridge, Riverdale, Bronx, NY

The following trains operate along the varied segments of the corridor:

• Empire Service: local service along the entire corridor from New York City to Template:Amtk. Most trains operate along the southern segment between New York and Template:Amtk, with three trains in each direction continuing west to Niagara Falls daily.
• Maple Leaf: daily service from New York City to Template:Amtk, operating on the entire corridor.
• Lake Shore Limited: daily service from New York City to Template:Amtk, splitting from the corridor at Template:Amtk. A section of this train splits-off at Albany–Rensselaer to serve Boston.
• Adirondack: daily service from New York City to Template:Amtk, splitting from the corridor in Schenectady.
• Ethan Allen Express: daily service from New York City to Template:Amtk, splitting from the corridor in Schenectady.
• Berkshire Flyer: weekly summer service between New York City and Template:Amtk, reversing direction and splitting from the corridor at Albany–Rensselaer.

Commuter rail

• Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line, from Poughkeepsie, New York to Grand Central Terminal, New York, comprises the corridor between Poughkeepsie to south of Riverdale.

Freight service

Freight service is provided by CSX Transportation.

Stations

All stations are in the state of New York.

Location	Mile (km)	Station	Current station opened	Corridor services							Connections
				ES	ML	LS	AD	EA	BF	HD
Niagara Falls		Niagara Falls	December 6, 2016	●	●						Template:Rint NFTA Bus: 52
Buffalo		Template:Amtk	November 8, 2020	●	●						Template:Rint NFTA: Template:Rcb (at Canalside station) Template:Rint NFTA Bus: 14, 16, 42, 74 Template:Rint Amtrak Thruway to Jamestown
Depew		Template:Amtk	October 28, 1979	●	●	●					Template:Rint NFTA Bus: 46
Rochester		Louise M. Slaughter Rochester Station	October 6, 2017	●	●	●					Template:Rint RTS: 37, 41
Syracuse		Template:Amtk	August 22, 2002	●	●						(seasonal)
		William F. Walsh Regional Transportation Center	August 1998	●	●	●					Template:Rint CENTRO: 16, 48, 50, 60, 62, 70, 82, 236, 246, 250
Rome		Template:Amtk	1914	●	●						Template:Rint CENTRO of Oneida: 4, 7
Utica		Utica Union Station	May 24, 1914	●	●	●					Template:Rint Adirondack Scenic Railroad to Thendara Template:Rint CENTRO of Oneida: 12 Template:Rint Birnie Bus Services, Adirondack Trailways, Chenango Valley Bus Company, Template:Rint Greyhound Lines
Amsterdam		Template:Amtk	1973	●	●
Schenectady		Template:Amtk	October 17, 2018	●	●	●	●	●			Template:Rint CDTA: 353, 354, 355, 370, 602, 605, 763, 905 BusPlus
Rensselaer		Template:Amtk	September 22, 2002	●	●	●	●	●	●		Template:Rint CDTA: 114, 214 Template:Rint Vermont Translines
Hudson		Template:Amtk	1874	●	●		●	●	●		Template:Rint Columbia County Public Transportation: Hudson–Albany Shuttle
Rhinecliff		Template:Amtk	1914	●	●	●	●	●	●
Poughkeepsie		Template:Mnrr	February 18, 1918	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	Template:Rint Dutchess County Public Transit: A, B, C, D, E, H, J, K, L, RailLink; UCAT: KPL, UPL
New Hamburg		Template:Mnrr	October 17, 1981							●	Template:Rint Dutchess County Public Transit: RailLink
Beacon		Template:Mnrr	1915							●	Template:Rint Dutchess County Public Transit: B, G; Leprechaun Lines: Newburgh-Beacon Shuttle Template:Rint Newburgh–Beacon Ferry
Cold Spring		Template:Mnrr								●
		Template:Mnrr	1893							●	Template:Rint Putnam Transit: Cold Spring Trolley
Garrison		Template:Mnrr	1892							●
		Template:Mnrr	1983							●
Peekskill		Template:Mnrr	1874							●	Template:Rint Bee-Line Bus: 16, 18, 31
Montrose		Template:Mnrr	1996							●	Template:Rint Bee-Line Bus: 14
Croton-on-Hudson		Template:Mnrr	1988	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	Template:Rint Bee-Line Bus: 10, 11, 14
Ossining		Template:Mnrr	1914							●	Template:Rint Bee-Line Bus: 13, 13B, 19 Template:Rint Haverstraw–Ossining Ferry
Briarcliff Manor		Template:Mnrr	1851							●
Sleepy Hollow		Template:Mnrr	January 30, 1911							●
Tarrytown		Template:Mnrr	1925							●	Template:Rint Hudson Link: H07, H07X; Bee-Line Bus: 1T, 13, T
Irvington		Template:Mnrr	1889							●
		Template:Mnrr	c. 1896							●
Dobbs Ferry		Template:Mnrr	1899							●	Template:Rint Bee-Line Bus: 1, 6
Hastings-on-Hudson		Template:Mnrr	1910							●	Template:Rint Bee-Line Bus: 6, 1C, 1T, & 1W
Yonkers		Template:Mnrr	1899							●	Template:Rint Bee-Line Bus: 6, 1C, 1T, & 1W
		Template:Mnrr								●	Template:Rint Bee-Line Bus: 1C, 1T, & 1W
		Template:Mnrr	1911	●	●		●	●	●	●	Template:Rint Bee-Line Bus: 6, 9, 25, 32, 91 (seasonal)
		Template:Mnrr								●	Template:Rint Bee-Line Bus: 32
The Bronx		Template:Mnrr								●	Template:Rint Hudson Rail Link: A, B, C, D
New York		Penn Station	1968	●	●	●	●	●	●		Template:Rint Amtrak (long-distance): Template:Lnl, Template:Lnl, Template:Lnl, Template:Lnl, Lake Shore Limited, Template:Lnl, Template:Lnl, Silver Meteor, Template:Lnl Template:Rint Amtrak (intercity): Template:Lnl, Template:Lnl, Ethan Allen Express, Keystone Service, Template:Lnl, Template:Lnl, Template:Lnl Template:Rint LIRR: Template:Rcb, Template:Rcb Template:Rint NJ Transit: Template:Rcb, Template:Rcb, Template:Rcb, Template:Rcb, Template:Rcb Template:Rint NYC Subway: Template:NYCS Broadway-Seventh"A" train​"C" train​"E" train Template:Rint PATH: Template:Rcb Template:Rcb Template:Rcb Template:Rint NYC Transit buses: Template:NYC bus link

See also

• New York high-speed rail
• High-speed rail in the United States
• West Side Line

External links

• Empire Corridor, New York State Department of Transportation
• Empire Corridor section of the Federal Railroad Administration website