Buffalo–Exchange Street station is an

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

station in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

. The station serves six Amtrak trains daily: two daily ''

Empire Service The ''Empire Service'' is an Inter-city rail service operated by Amtrak within the state of New York in the United States. The brand name originated with the New York Central Railroad in 1967. Trains on the line provide frequent daily service ...

'' round trips between

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Fall ...

and New York City and one ''

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 th ...

'' round trip between Toronto and New York City. There is also daily

Amtrak Thruway Amtrak Thruway is a system of through-ticketed transportation services to connect passengers with areas not served by Amtrak trains. In most cases these are dedicated motorcoach routes, but can also be non-dedicated intercity bus services, transi ...

bus service (operated by

Coach USA Coach USA, LLC is a holding company for various American transportation service providers providing scheduled intercity bus service, local and commuter bus transit, city sightseeing, tour, yellow school bus, and charter bus service across the ...

) at the station, operating between the

Buffalo Metropolitan Transportation Center The Buffalo Metropolitan Transportation Center is located on the southeast corner of North Division and Ellicott Streets in Downtown Buffalo, New York. The transportation center is open 24 hours daily. Managed by the Niagara Frontier Transportat ...

and

Jamestown station Jamestown station is a historic train station located at Jamestown in Chautauqua County, New York. Although no longer an active railroad station due to a lack of passenger service in the area after a restoration done in 2011 the building current ...

in Jamestown, New York, via Dunkirk and Fredonia, and serving the communities along the southeast shore of

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also h ...

. Local transportation is provided by the

Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA) is a New York State public-benefit corporation responsible for the public transportation oversight of Erie and Niagara counties. The NFTA, as an authority, oversees a number of subsidiaries ...

(NFTA), which operates buses and the

Buffalo Metro Rail Buffalo Metro Rail is the public transit rail system in Buffalo, New York, operated by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority (NFTA). The system consists of a single, light rail line that runs for most of the length of Main Street ( New Y ...

. Buffalo–Exchange Street is located close to Metro Rail's

Erie Canal Harbor station Erie Canal Harbor (formerly Auditorium until September 1, 2003) is a Buffalo Metro Rail station located in the 100 block of Main Street (just north of Hanover and Scott Streets) next to the South Aud Block of Canalside in the Free Fare Zone, wh ...

and the two stations are connected by a lit pathway beneath Interstate 190 with decorative cement and signage. The station is close to the

KeyBank Center KeyBank Center is a multipurpose indoor arena located in Buffalo, New York. Originally known as Marine Midland Arena, the venue has since been named HSBC Arena and First Niagara Center. Home to the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey Leagu ...

and

Sahlen Field Sahlen Field is a baseball park in Buffalo, New York, United States. Originally known as Pilot Field, the venue has since been named Downtown Ballpark, North AmeriCare Park, Dunn Tire Park, and Coca-Cola Field. Home to the Buffalo Bisons of the ...

. The station has one high-level

side platform A side platform (also known as a marginal platform or a single-face platform) is a platform positioned to the side of one or more railway tracks or guideways at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. A station having dual side platform ...

on the north side of two tracks. It is one of two stations in the Buffalo area, the other being

Buffalo–Depew station Buffalo–Depew station is an Amtrak train station in Depew, New York, a suburb of Buffalo. It was built in 1979 to replace the Buffalo Central Terminal as Buffalo's main Amtrak station. (Buffalo–Exchange Street station, located near downtown ...

which serves 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– ...

''. The current station is the fifth train station to be built at the current site, it was opened in 2020.

History

There have been four previous

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 Mid ...

stations on Exchange Street in Buffalo. Buffalo's first true railroad passenger station was built in 1848 on Exchange Street. It was a small brick building that was added to or changed at least 5 times during its use. It was built by the New York Central and

Hudson River 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 Mid ...

. The first attempt to direct rail traffic out of downtown Buffalo came in 1874, when a Union Depot (East Buffalo) opened on William Street. The new station proved unpopular, and as such Exchange Street station remained open. The third station on the site was built in 1880. The biggest issue with the Exchange Street site at the time aside from the station's small size for being the main station in Buffalo was that it was plagued with downtown congestion as the crossings in and out of the area were at grade and therefore had to contend with busy city streets. The station's importance declined after

Buffalo Central Terminal Buffalo Central Terminal is an historic former railroad station in Buffalo, New York. An active station from 1929 to 1979, the 17-story Art Deco style station was designed by architects Fellheimer & Wagner for the New York Central Railroad. Th ...

which was built to solve the issues at the Exchange Street site opened in 1929. The third Exchange Street station was closed on November 13, 1935, and demolished shortly after.

Fourth station building

Planning for the fourth and final New York Central structure began in 1949. New York heavily funded the station as being part of the

Skyway A skyway, skybridge, skywalk, or sky walkway is an elevated type of pedway connecting two or more buildings in an urban area, or connecting elevated points within mountainous recreational zones. Urban skyways very often take the form of enclo ...

construction. The total cost was $7 million. The station opened on August 2, 1952, as a secondary station to the Buffalo Central Terminal. The station originally served 21 New York Central and

Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Railway The Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway was a railway based in Hamilton that ran in Southern Ontario from 1892 to 1987. It never reached the other two cities in its name, although it did have branch lines extending to Dunnville and Port Maitla ...

trains daily. The double track station had two side platforms connected by an overhead walkway. Soon after the station was built passenger rail service began a steep decline that would eventually lead to the end of private passenger rail service in the United States. As part of the decline and problems within the railroad, in 1961, the New York Central Railroad ceased passenger operations to

, and the station building was closed, though some trains continued to stop at the platforms for a brief time. During this time the overhead walkway that connected the station's two platforms was demolished. On October 29, 1978,

routed the ''

Niagara Rainbow The ''Niagara Rainbow'', known as the ''Empire State Express'' before 1976, was an American passenger train service operated by Amtrak between New York City and Detroit via Buffalo and Southwestern Ontario in Canada. The service ran between Oc ...

'' through Niagara Falls, restoring service to downtown Buffalo and to the station. One old platform was reused immediately; a temporary structure was used for ''Niagara Rainbow'' and ''Empire State Express'' passengers while the station building was renovated. Exchange Street became one of the two main Buffalo train stations alongside the then-new

when Buffalo Central Terminal closed in 1979. The line was later reduced to

single track Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

in the 1980s and the second platform was abandoned. By the 2000s, the Buffalo–Exchange Street station had gained a reputation for being long outdated and in such a deteriorating condition that it got dubbed as one of the saddest Amtrak stations in America by

CityLab ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

in 2015. In September 2016, the station building was temporarily closed due to a partial collapse during heavy rains, further highlighting the need for a new station. The platforms remained open for passengers. Demolition of the 1952 station began on August 22, 2019, to make way for the new station.

Current station

Beginning in 2016, there were proposals to replace the dilapidated station with either a station at

Canalside Canalside, formerly known as Canal Side and Erie Canal Harbor, is the recreation of the western terminus of the Erie Canal in Buffalo, New York. Canalside is situated on the Buffalo River, in an area that was historically home to the Seneca peop ...

or at

as part of that building's restoration. The Exchange Street site where the previous station sat was chosen because of its proximity to the central business district, though public opinion strongly favored the Buffalo Central Terminal site. Supporters of the latter site alleged that the selection was made for political favors rather than on the merits of the downtown site. On April 17, 2017, a panel including Buffalo mayor

Byron Brown Byron William Brown II (born September 24, 1958) is an American politician who is the current mayor of Buffalo, New York. He has served as Buffalo's 62nd mayor since January 2006, the City's first African-American mayor and longest serving ...

approved the downtown location. The

New York State Department of Transportation The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) is the department of the New York state government responsible for the development and operation of highways, railroads, mass transit systems, ports, waterways and aviation facilities in ...

awarded a $27.7 million design-build contract in December 2018. Construction of a temporary station began in June 2019 and the 1952 station was demolished shortly after. The new station opened on November 8, 2020. The first train to stop at the station was the eastbound ''Maple Leaf'', arriving at 12:55 p.m. Assemblywomen

Crystal Peoples-Stokes Crystal Davis Peoples-Stokes (born December 22, 1951) is an American politician serving as Majority Leader of the New York State Assembly representing Assembly District 141, which includes the city of Buffalo within Erie County, New York. Educat ...

, Lieutenant Governor

Kathy Hochul Kathleen Hochul ( ; née Courtney; born August 27, 1958) is an American politician serving as the 57th governor of New York since August 24, 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, she is New York's first female governor, as well as the first ...

, Mayor Byron Brown, and State Senator Tim Kennedy attended the ribbon cutting. The new Buffalo–Exchange Street station in 2020 came as part of upgrades made to the Empire Corridor which also included new stations in

in 2016,

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 ...

in 2017 and

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 Y ...

in 2018.

Station layout

The current station is and is closer to Exchange Street and higher in elevation then the previous station so the building is not shadowed by the Interstate 190 viaduct. There is a lit, covered pedestrian walkway under I-190 to connect the Amtrak station to

on Main Street. Trains call at a single high-level covered

serving one track with a second track for freight trains to pass through the station away from the platform. There is a waiting room on the east side of the building, designated drop-off and pick-up zones, and an area for 14 canopied parking spaces for

Greyhound The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Since the rise in large-scale adoption of retired racing Greyhounds, the breed has seen a resurgenc ...

Trailways The Trailways Transportation System is an American network of approximately 70 independent bus companies that have entered into a brand licensing agreement. The company is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia. History The predecessor to Trailwa ...

and NFTA buses if they are later added.

References

External links

Buffalo–Exchange Street Amtrak Station (USA RailGuide – TrainWeb)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buffalo-Exchange Street Amtrak stations in New York (state) Former New York Central Railroad stations Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway Railway stations in the United States opened in 1952 Railway stations in the United States opened in 2020 Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach stations in New York (state) Railway stations in Buffalo, New York 1952 establishments in New York (state) 2020 establishments in New York (state)