NY: Amtrak to restore full Albany train service through the winter

Two more trains will run daily between New York City and Albany as Amtrak restores full Empire Line service for the winter months, Gov. Hochul and the federal railroad announced jointly on Friday.

The news comes two weeks after Amtrak reduced service on the line by two trains per day in order to support a $1.6 billion effort to repair the East River Tunnel.

“These service restorations are a huge victory for passengers who depend on the Empire Service, and I thank Amtrak for working with us to ensure that we minimize to the fullest extent possible the schedule disruptions caused by the East River Tunnel Rehabilitation Project,” Hochul said in a statement.

Starting Monday, two round-trip trains will be added back to the Empire Line’s daily service, restoring the typical 10 trains a day. Six of those trains will also run with an additional fifth car to increase passenger capacity.

The Adirondack and Maple Leaf lines, which operate as part of Empire Line service and continue on to Montreal or Toronto, will also once again run direct from New York City.

The service restoration will run through March 2, 2025, though Amtrak, in a statement, said it will “continue to evaluate the service plan, including additional capacity, to see if there are any new possibilities for making improvements, restoring service or modifying it based on future development.”

The four-tube East River Tunnel connects Manhattan to Queens, and is a key component of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, as well as Long Island Rail Road service into Manhattan.

Although the Empire Line itself does not travel through the tunnel, an Amtrak spokesman said the tunnel is used by Empire trains to access the Sunnyside Yard in Queens, and that the loss of a tube complicates turning Empire Line and other trains around.

The three-year repair project will restore and modernize two of the tunnel’s tubes that were damaged by 2012’s Hurricane Sandy.

Crews will demolish the interior of the two tubes to rebuild them from scratch, shutting down one tube at a time.

An Amtrak spokesman confirmed the repair work is on schedule to begin this winter.

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