ALBANY, N.Y. — The mayor of Albany has ended the state of emergency surrounding the Central Warehouse, the derelict former cold-storage facility which led to a disruption of Amtrak service through the city last month. But long-term problems at the site remain.
WRGB-TV reports Mayor Kathy Sheehan said emergency repairs have been made at the 12-story concrete structure. Building owner Evan Blum has filed multiple lawsuits over efforts by Albany County to seize the building for non-payment of taxes.
Service was suspended past the structure in late July when portions of the building fell and an engineering report said a wall near the railroad tracks was in imminent danger of collapse [see “Amtrak suspends rail service west of Albany …,” Trains News Wire, July 29, 2022]. Service resumed Aug. 1 with trains operating past the building site under a slow order [see “Amtrak service resumes …,” News Wire, Aug. 1, 2022].
Nearby Schenectady is a good destination for a bus bridge. It’s 21 miles. Trains can be restocked there by trucking the stock. Turning the locomotives would be a problem. Crews or at least DSLE’s should have already been qualified via Selkirk with a preplanned overhead agreement.
How you turn the power is a problem. I don’t know if Buffalo or Niagara Falls has a protect motor, but that could solve the problem.
It still wonders me how, with school out and hundreds of school buses parked and drivers available, Amtrak could say with a straight face that they could not run a short bus bridge.
Could you expand on that, Mr. Mulligan? “Short bus bridge” between Rensselaer station and where? And what of the situation of the consists trapped west of the out of service route not being able to be serviced and restocked? And qualifying crews to detour around via the Post Road Sub to CP187, west across Castleton Bridge, through Selkirk Yard and out the Selkirk Sub to CP169 had already begun. I sure have no good feelings for Amtrak’s leaders in DC but…
The Hazardous Building Material as that is why the owner has not paid the taxes. To remediate the Hazardous Building Materials would bankrupt most peoples.
Then why did he buy it in the first place? No matter what you have to pay your property taxes, or the taxing authority will seize your property for non-payment. It’s one of the most basic rules of owning property in this country.
The hazardous materials (likely from long ago) are not the public’s responsibility for a piece of private property.
The overhead picture certainly explains the situation. We still have to worry about the danger to Amtrak tracks. Stablize the building? For how long? Can see why CP is far enough away to not worry too much.