The Empire Corridor is a

passenger rail Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

corridor in

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a U.S. state, state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the List of U.S. ...

running between Penn Station in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

and . Major cities on the route include Poughkeepsie, Albany,

Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Yo ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, Utica,

Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy *Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' *Province of Syracuse United States * Syracuse, New York ** East Syracuse, New York ** North Syracuse, New York * Syracuse, Indiana *Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, M ...

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

, and Buffalo. Much of the corridor was once part of the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mi ...

's main line. Amtrak's '' Empire Service'' and ''

Maple Leaf The maple leaf is the characteristic leaf of the maple tree. It is the most widely recognized national symbol of Canada. History of use in Canada By the early 1700s, the maple leaf had been adopted as an emblem by the French Canadians along t ...

'' serve the entire length of the Empire Corridor, with the ''Maple Leaf'' continuing northwest to . The ''

Lake Shore Limited The ''Lake Shore Limited'' is an overnight Amtrak intercity passenger train that runs between Chicago and either New York City or Boston via two sections east of Albany. The train began service in 1975; its predecessor was Amtrak's Chicago–N ...

'' follows most of the corridor from New York City, diverging west to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

at Buffalo–Depew station. The ''

Berkshire Flyer The ''Berkshire Flyer'' is a seasonal Amtrak passenger train service between New York City and the Berkshire Mountains in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, via the Hudson Valley. The weekly train departs Penn Station on Friday afternoons during the s ...

'' takes the corridor to before diverging east to , while the '' Adirondack'' and ''

Ethan Allen Express The ''Ethan Allen Express'' is a daily passenger train operated by Amtrak in the United States between New York City and Burlington, Vermont, via Albany, New York. One daily round trip is operated on a north-south route with a 7 hour 35 min ...

'' travel one stop further to before diverging north to and , respectively.

Metro-North Railroad Metro-North Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, is a suburban commuter rail service run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a public authority of the U.S. state of New York and under contract with the Connecticut ...

's Hudson Line merges with the Empire Corridor in

Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx Spuyten Duyvil (, ) is a neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City. It is bounded on the north by Riverdale, on the east by Kingsbridge, on the south by the Harlem River, and on the west by the Hudson River,Wolfe, Gerald R. "Spuyten Duyvil neig ...

, just south of , providing commuter rail service between

Poughkeepsie, New York Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie ...

and

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern termi ...

. The line is electrified by both

overhead catenary An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipment ...

and top-running

third rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway ...

on the Amtrak-owned segment between Penn Station and 41st Street, and by under-running

on the Metro-North segment, from the merge with the Hudson Line to . 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 High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, line ...

corridors in the United States. If the proposed high-speed service were built on the corridor, trains traveling between Buffalo and New York City would 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 Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

(CSX), which owns most of the trackage between Niagara Falls and Poughkeepsie.Amtrak system timetable, Fall 2010/Winter 2011, page 25 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 The Harlem River is an tidal strait in New York, United States, flowing between the Hudson River and the East River and separating the island of Manhattan from the Bronx on the New York mainland. The northern stretch, also called the Spuyte ...

over the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge and make the

Empire Connection The West Side Line, also called the West Side Freight Line, is a railroad line on the west side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. North of Penn Station, from 34th Street, the line is used by Amtrak passenger service heading north via ...

to Penn Station. Amtrak owns the trackage after that fork, the

West Side Line The West Side Line, also called the West Side Freight Line, is a railroad line on the west side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. North of Penn Station, from 34th Street, the line is used by Amtrak passenger service heading north via ...

. The corridor had been part of the main line of the

; it was the eastern leg of the NYC's famed "Water Level Route" to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. The corridor passed to

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and th ...

in 1968 upon the NYC's merger with the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

, 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 The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31, ...

, 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

. 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 multiple trains per day.

Amtrak

The following trains operate along the varied segments of the corridor: *'' Empire Service'': local service along the entire corridor from

to . Most trains operate along the southern segment between New York and , with two trains in each direction continuing west to Niagara Falls daily. *''

'': daily service from New York City to , operating on the entire corridor. *''

'': daily service from New York City to , splitting from the corridor at . A section of this train splits-off at Albany–Rensselaer to serve

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

. *'' Adirondack'': daily service from New York City to , splitting from the corridor in Schenectady. *''

'': daily service from New York City to , splitting from the corridor in Schenectady. *''

'': weekly summer service between New York City and , reversing direction and splitting from the corridor at Albany–Rensselaer.

Commuter rail

* Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line, from

, New York, comprises the corridor between Poughkeepsie to south of Riverdale.

Freight service

Freight service is provided by

Stations

All stations are in the

state of New York New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

References

External links

Empire Corridor
New York State Department of Transportation
Empire Corridor section
of the

Federal Railroad Administration The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is an agency in the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). The agency was created by the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. The purpose of the FRA is to promulgate and enforce rail s ...

website {{Coord, 43, 9, 47.6, N, 77, 36, 28.9, W, display=title Rail infrastructure in New York (state) High-speed railway lines in the United States