ALBANY, N.Y. — Amtrak has restored some service through the Albany, N.Y., area, offering bus connections for the Lake Shore Limited, Maple Leaf, and Ethan Allen Express.
Empire Service west of Albany remains suspended, the company said in an update on its Amtrak Alerts Twitter feed.
The Lake Shore Limited will originate and terminate in Schenectady through at least Aug. 5, according to the Amtrak Alert Twitter feed. The New York section will be served by a bus bridge between Schenectady and Albany; the Boston section will operate with buses between Schenectady and Boston.
The passenger railroad halted most service through Albany on Friday over concerns that a portion of a 12-story structure adjacent to the tracks is on the verge of collapse [see “Amtrak suspends rail service west of Albany …,” Trains News Wire, July 29, 2022]. The Daily Gazette reports Albany Mayor Kathey Sheehan has said pieces of the building, the Central Warehouse, a long-vacant cold storage building, had fallen but not hit the tracks. Larger pieces could put rail traffic in jeopardy, but the building itself does not appear to be in danger of collapse.
— Updated at 8:20 a.m. CDT on July 31 with additional information on Lake Shore Limited operation, issues with building.
As of this AM at least the ETHAN ALLEN EXPRESS is not benefiting from this offer.
Perhaps because of the warehouse fire beside the approach to the Livingston Ave bridge in Albany the ETHAN ALLEN EXPRESS has vanished completely from the Amtrak booking system until August 6. This comes two days after the triumphant inaugural run. I am NOT protesting the decision not to run past a profoundly dangerous spot–but I hope we can make it clear that Amtrak Bus?rail options still exist this week.
Obviously this is most unfortunate–but the computer should default to offering the Vermont Translines Amtrak Thruway bus service as a still available option over these dates for riders in Burlington, Vergennes, Middlebury and Rutland–rather than displaying a “Sold Out” as it does on the Amtrak App or “We don’t have train service matching your request”as it does from the website.
Obviously this profoundly undermines the positive publicity we got from Friday’s inaugural and the bus bridge that day southbound at least resulted in only an 8 minute delay at Hudson for riders. Why isn’t the bus bridge still in place?
But assuming it was cancelled because of lack of bus availability we are not without options. More to the point is that there is still service from Burlington to Albany over those dates on the twice daily Vermont Translines “Ambus” and that bus option should be offered.
This brings home again why it is vital to update the reservations system to offer all three options when a passenger asks for any Amtrak trip from Burlington, Vergennes, Middlebury and Rutland. That would mean offering common station codes, but defaulting to the bus or rail locations when a passenger tries to book either the train or bus. But short-term potential riders must know we are not without Amtrak options in western Vermont this week.
It is critical that the Amtrak reservations system must advise potential riders that the disappearance of the ETHAN ALLEN is temporary. This might help: “Amtrak Trains 290 and 291–the ETHAN ALLEN EXPRESS–are suspended until August 6, 2022 because of severe structural fire damage to a building adjacent to the track approaching the bridge over the Hudson River at Albany. As this might collapse onto the track trains are temporarily cancelled west of Albany.
In the interim you can use the twice daily Vermont Translines “Amtrak Thruway” bus service, which is offered from Burlington, Vergennes, Middlebury and Rutland directly to the Amtrak Alany-Rensselaer station. These buses take Amtrak issued tickets and can be booked at Amtrak.com and on the Amtrak App. Select station code BLT for Burlington, VGN for Vergennes, MBY for Middlebury and RTC for Rutland. Please note the bus station locations are different except at Albany and Vergennes”.
Of course this is longer than just saying “Sold Out”, (or even worse telling them there is “no such service”) but more importantly it doesn’t discourage riders either. All points are being served within Vermont. Only Fort Edward, Saratoga and Schenectady, NY are missed by Vermont Translines.
This is incredibly important to get fixed NOW.
So good friends sometimes howling helps. As of 135PM 7/31/22 he ETHAN ALLEN EXPRESS is back in the Amtrak computer for booking between ALL points!
And a correction–although we were told by Amtrak on Friday’s train that there had been a fire at the Albany warehouse, there was only a partial wall collapse with more pending. However there was absolutely a chance for a collapse to hit the right of way.
We still need to see a way to show all booking options on the Western Vermont Corridor without knowing the different station codes for bus and rail, but the immediate mess is fixed. Thanks to Amtrak and VTRANS! This incomplete availability error is corrected and relatively quickly!
Its too bad Amtrak and NY State don’t have the money to buy and abate the building.
It looks like a good location for a new downtown station.
The Rensselaer station has just been (relatively) newly built. It is adjacent to Amtrak’s repair/storage yards making it very handy. They have also just put in an additional station track and (I believe) extended another.
It is also a nice hub for an excellent regional bus system.
Other than this reality, the cold-storage site is actually quite the lousy place for anything other than warehouse facilities.
I should have added–it is also not all that accessible to downtown.
Good Grief, this kind of stuff seems to only haunt Amtrak. Bulldoze the stinking building already and get back to running trains !!!
Cannot just bullsoze. One word Asbestos. Going to be a very costly to find a contractor with personnel and ability to do same in the building. Best if first that building be removed back from track at distance equal to its height. Some kind of barrier might mitigate that somewhat Better still build a full building that the trains can run thru.
Even so once revenue trains pass thru danger area all demo work will have to stop?
You ever heard of a “plastic wrap”, the building might be 12 stories tall, but it can still be encased in an envelope and imploded…as for the “might” collapse, was that determined by structural engineers that have been inside the building and looked at both the inside and outside? Those are the only people I’d trust to make a determination on whether there’s potential for collapsing or not.
From Google maps, it looks like the base of the building and the elevated railroad track are somewhat connected- heck, there’s even an abandoned spur bridge into the building. I think that, along with needed asbestos abatement, means this is not an easy nor quick fix. Stabilize it, then abatement, then take it down slowly, brick by brick, if necessary.
Bus bridge to where? Schenectady? What about Boston section of Lake Shore?
Boston section of the Lake Shore joins with NYC section at Rensselaer… so why do you think the “bus bridge” wouldn’t work? Rensselaer to Schenectady should work just fine.
There is no way that building will be removed within two weeks at least.
Amtrak needed some time to get equipment in place… readers here should understand stuff like logistics and just a bit of patience.
Amtrak does not own the building. Not sure but it “might” own up to the buiding. NY Central had 2 sidings now removed on the Amtrak side between building and present Amtrak 2 MT. Also NYC had 2 sidings in the building tracks next to the removed sidings.
The present owner owes over 1/2 Million in property back taxes. If he goes into bankruptcy it could get very messy. Know city before this happened was trying to size the property.