MONTREAL — The last of Amtrak’s cross-border trains, and the last route suspended at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, has finally been fully restored.
After the New York-Montreal Adirondack made its first run on Monday, April 3, the first southbound train made the return trip today (Tuesday, April 4). It is shown above passing the Peel Basin, five minutes after departing Montreal’s Central Station at 11:11 a.m. According to Amtrak’s website, it is currently slated to arrive at New York’s Moynihan Train Hall at 10:07 p.m., about 8 minutes early.
It is the first Adirondack round trip in over three years. The resumption of service was announced March 10 by U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who were among members of the state’s congressional delegation who pressed for the train’s reinstatement; Amtrak President Roger Harris noted “the strong support and advocacy” of Schumer, Gillibrand, and Rep. Elise Stefanik as Amtrak began selling tickets for the route [see “‘Adirondack’ tickets now on sale …,” Trains News Wire, March 21, 2023].
Monday’s first northbound run found Harris and Stefanik greeting the train at Plattsburgh, N.Y., as WPTZ-TV reported.
In response to the comments above re: Express package and pallet services, with little fanfare and under the cover of Covid cutbacks they have eliminated Amtrak express forever. I used it, and I think it’s rediculous. It’s probably the case that at the time of the covid cuts it was losing money with internal accounting, but who truly knows because Amtrak in its most transparent years has never honestly shared those numbers and used accounting to manipulate things. (With the exception of W Graham Claytor’s time, which was only slightly transparent) Ifnit was true they are incompetent and needed to find a manager to make it work. The entire viewliner order was a waste pretty much. If the company truly cared about customer service they would utilize those baggage cars yo provide express and even add other services needed. ViA used baggage cars on the Canadian to provide pet transport. You could take a dog that was larger than what was allowed on board, they would cage it and let it ride there and you could come feed it and walk it and let it relieve itself at certain stations along the route, as well as clean any between break stop accidents they might have had, something they made you agree to in writing. That service ended because of equipment issues, but if not for removal of the super old equipment they seemed interested in keeping it. Amtrak needs to try and provide something like this for dog owners. As for express… It just seems like the freight railroads as well it’s another example of a company trying to not grow. I remember them
offloading a weekly pallet of flowers from the growers around Spokane for a shop in Minot. What a perfect arrangement for everyone. If we as advocates are trying to Argue that trains like the builder are vital for their communities, actions like this really undermine the message. It’s rediculous. And I refuse to cut them any slack because of equipment or staff. They clearly wanted to shit can this product for a long time. They tried to start the process under Anderson following the SP style playbook, closing 50 stations and checked baggage service. Barrow the market points until the service becomes more and
more irrelevant. Then kill it. Well the point is I can assure you it is unlikely there will ever again be a baggage car on that train!
Note that it’s only a 4-car train.
Better than no train at all. When I rode it back in 2013 it might have only been 5 or 6 cars at the most.
Why no head end cars to offer package service and container services. And more distance from the noisy locomotives for the passengers. Pick up and drop off containers along the way. Maybe only 20 footer boxes. A modern version of Railway express. They would make a killing if there were more services offered like they did in 1950s.
Gregory – I remember being more than a little frustrated with trains poking around with mail and express cars back when Amtrak was offering those services back in the late 90’s. If the process was seamless for the passengers great, but it never was in my experience (primarily on the Lake Shore.) The train would depart the station, stop wait for the mail and express to be added, and then actually proceed. And while it was mild interesting to watch them shuffle the mail and express cars around, I would prefer if the focus was on moving the passengers (myself included) rather than a bunch of mail and low priority packages.
Such a beautiful route, with equipment better suited for the scrap yard. The train should have equipment like the Glacier Express and it would look d ge packed every day. It will be the 2030s before New York State sees new equipment.
I rode the original Adirondack in May 1975 as a D&H train. If I remember right, we had an Alco up front (I think the model was a PA). Also recall the equipment in D&H colors. I remember a nice day and a great ride with good service and great scenery.
We went out of Grand Central in those days. I hope Amtrak will be able to make this a great train again or be willing to contract it out to and cooperate with a competent entity. Perhaps a private operator close to the route can do a really good job, maybe better than the large entity like Amtrak.