Empire Corridor
Empire Corridor (red) as designated by the Federal Railroad Administration
Overview
Owner	CSX (Niagara–Poughkeepsie) Metro-North (Poughkeepsie–Riverdale) Amtrak (Riverdale–New York)
Termini	Niagara Falls New York Penn Station
Stations	35 (12 Amtrak, 20 Metro North, 3 shared)
Service
Type	Higher-speed rail, commuter rail
System	Amtrak CSX Transportation
Services	Empire Service, Ethan Allen Express, Adirondack, Lake Shore Limited, Maple Leaf, Berkshire Flyer, Hudson Line
Operator(s)	CSX (Niagara–Schenectady) Amtrak (Schenectady–Poughkeepsie) Metro-North (Poughkeepsie–Yonkers) Amtrak (Yonkers–New York)
Technical
Line length	461 mi (742 km)
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Route map CN Grimsby Subdivision Maple Leaf to Toronto Niagara River Ontario, Canada New York, United States Niagara Falls, New York Buffalo–Exchange Street Lake Shore Limited to Chicago Buffalo–Depew Rochester Syracuse Rome Utica Amsterdam Adirondack to Montreal Ethan Allen Express to Rutland Schenectady Hudson River Albany–Rensselaer Lake Shore Limited to Boston Berkshire Flyer to Pittsfield Hudson Rhinecliff Poughkeepsie Yard Poughkeepsie New Hamburg Wappingers Creek Beacon Beacon Line Fishkill Creek Newburgh, Dutchess & Connecticut RR Dutchess Junction Breakneck Ridge Breakneck Tunnel Cold Spring Garrison Tunnel (southbound) Garrison Manitou Anthony's Nose Tunnel Middle Tunnel Little Tunnel Roa Hook Annsville Creek Peekskill Montrose Cortlandt Crugers Oscawana Oscawana Tunnel Croton North Croton–Harmon Croton River Ossining Scarborough Philipse Manor Tarrytown Irvington Ardsley-on-Hudson Dobbs Ferry Hastings-on-Hudson Greystone Glenwood Yonkers Ludlow Mount St. Vincent Riverdale Hudson Line to Grand Central Terminal Harlem River Empire Connection Northeast Corridor to Washington New York Penn Station Northeast Corridor to Boston

The Empire Corridor is a 461-mile (742 km) passenger rail corridor in New York State running between Penn Station in New York City and Niagara Falls, New York. Major cities on the route include Poughkeepsie, Albany, Schenectady, Amsterdam, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. Much of the corridor was once part of the New York Central Railroad's main line.

Amtrak's Empire Service and Maple Leaf serve the entire length of the Empire Corridor, with the Maple Leaf continuing northwest to Toronto. The Lake Shore Limited follows most of the corridor from New York City, diverging west to Chicago at Buffalo–Depew station. The Berkshire Flyer takes the corridor to Albany–Rensselaer before diverging east to Pittsfield, while the Adirondack and Ethan Allen Express travel one stop further to Schenectady before diverging north to Montreal and Burlington, respectively. Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line merges with the Empire Corridor in Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx, just south of Riverdale, providing commuter rail service between Poughkeepsie, New York and Grand Central Terminal.

The line is electrified by both overhead catenary and top-running third rail on the Amtrak-owned segment between Penn Station and 41st Street, and by under-running third rail on the Metro-North segment, from the merge with the Hudson Line to Croton–Harmon. The Amtrak-owned section between 41st Street and the merge with the Hudson Line is unpowered and can only be served by diesel or dual-mode trains.

The corridor is also one of ten federally designated high-speed rail corridors in the United States. If the proposed high-speed service were built on the corridor, trains traveling between Buffalo and New York City would travel at speeds of up to 125 mph (201 km/h). In the 1890s, the Empire State Express between New York City and Buffalo was about 1 hour faster than Amtrak's service in 2013. On September 14, 1891, the Empire State Express covered the 436 miles (702 km) between New York City and Buffalo in 7 hours and 6 minutes (including stops), averaging 61.4 mph (98.8 km/h), with a top speed of 82 mph (132 km/h).^[1][2]

Ownership

The Empire Corridor is largely owned by CSX Transportation (CSX), which owns most of the trackage between Niagara Falls and Poughkeepsie.^[3] Amtrak owns trackage rights for most of the Hudson line section north of Poughkeepsie to its rail yard in Albany. South of Poughkeepsie, the Empire Corridor is coextensive with Metro-North's trackage until it forks-off between Metro-North's Riverdale and Spuyten Duyvil stations in the Bronx, to cross the Harlem River over the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge and make the Empire Connection to Penn Station. Amtrak owns the trackage after that fork, the West Side Line.

The corridor had been part of the main line of the New York Central Railroad; it was the eastern leg of the NYC's famed "Water Level Route" to Chicago. The corridor passed to Penn Central in 1968 upon the NYC's merger with the Pennsylvania Railroad, and passed to Conrail in 1976. In a series of purchases in the 1980s and 1990s, Amtrak bought the Bronx–Manhattan segment, Metro-North acquired the Poughkeepsie–Bronx segment, and CSX acquired the remainder when it split Conrail's assets with Norfolk Southern, in 1999.

On October 18, 2011, Amtrak and CSX announced an agreement for Amtrak to lease, operate and maintain the CSX-owned trackage between Poughkeepsie and Schenectady.^[4] Amtrak officially assumed control of the line on December 1, 2012.^[5] Later, Amtrak bought the segment between Schenectady and Hoffmans from CSX.

Current services

The busiest segment of the Empire Corridor is between New York City and Albany with multiple trains per day.

Amtrak

Southbound Amtrak train on Hudson line tracks, just south of Riverdale Station. Looking south from 254th street bridge, Riverdale, Bronx, NY

The following trains operate along the varied segments of the corridor:

• Empire Service: local service along the entire corridor from New York City to Niagara Falls, NY. Most trains operate along the southern segment between New York and Albany–Rensselaer, with two trains in each direction continuing west to Niagara Falls daily.
• Maple Leaf: daily service from New York City to Toronto, operating on the entire corridor.
• Lake Shore Limited: daily service from New York City to Chicago, splitting from the corridor at Buffalo–Depew. A section of this train splits-off at Albany–Rensselaer to serve Boston.
• Adirondack: daily service from New York City to Montreal, splitting from the corridor in Schenectady.
• Ethan Allen Express: daily service from New York City to Burlington, splitting from the corridor in Schenectady.
• Berkshire Flyer: weekly summer service between New York City and Pittsfield, reversing direction and splitting from the corridor at Albany–Rensselaer.

Stations

All stations are in the state of New York.

Location	Mile (km)	Station	Current station opened	Corridor services							Connections
				ES	ML	LS	AD	EA	BF	HD
Niagara Falls	461 (742)	Niagara Falls	December 6, 2016[6]	●	●						NFTA Bus: 52
Buffalo	437 (703)	Buffalo–Exchange Street	November 8, 2020[7]	●	●						NFTA: Metro Rail (at Erie Canal Harbor station) NFTA Bus: 14, 16, 42, 74 Amtrak Thruway to Jamestown
Depew	431 (694)	Buffalo–Depew	October 28, 1979[8]	●	●	●					NFTA Bus: 46
Rochester	370 (600)	Louise M. Slaughter Rochester Station	October 6, 2017[9]	●	●	●					RTS: 37, 41
Syracuse		New York State Fair	August 22, 2002[10]	●	●						(seasonal)
	291 (468)	William F. Walsh Regional Transportation Center	August 1998[6]	●	●	●					CENTRO: 16, 48, 50, 60, 62, 70, 82, 236, 246, 250
Rome	250 (400)	Rome	1914[6]	●	●						CENTRO of Oneida: 4, 7
Utica	237 (381)	Utica Union Station	May 24, 1914[6]	●	●	●					Adirondack Scenic Railroad to Thendara CENTRO of Oneida: 12 Birnie Bus Services, Adirondack Trailways, Chenango Valley Bus Company, Greyhound Lines
Amsterdam	177 (285)	Amsterdam	1973[6]	●	●
Schenectady	159 (256)	Schenectady	October 17, 2018[11]	●	●	●	●	●			CDTA: 351, 353, 354, 355, 370, 763, 905 BusPlus
Rensselaer	141 (227)	Albany–Rensselaer	September 22, 2002[12]	●	●	●	●	●	●		CDTA: NX Northway Express, 114, 214
Hudson	114 (183)	Hudson	1874[6]	●	●		●	●	●		Columbia County Public Transportation: Hudson–Albany Shuttle
Rhinecliff	100 (160)	Rhinecliff	1914[6]	●	●	●	●	●	●
Poughkeepsie	80 (130)	Poughkeepsie	February 18, 1918[13]	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	Dutchess County Public Transit: A, B, C, D, E, H, J, K, L, RailLink; UCAT: KPL, UPL
New Hamburg	71.5 (115.1)	New Hamburg	October 17, 1981[14]							●	Dutchess County Public Transit: RailLink
Beacon	65.5 (105.4)	Beacon	1915[15]							●	Dutchess County Public Transit: B, G; Leprechaun Lines: Newburgh-Beacon Shuttle Newburgh–Beacon Ferry
Cold Spring	61.5 (99.0)	Breakneck Ridge								●
	59 (95)	Cold Spring	1893							●	Putnam Transit: Cold Spring Trolley
Garrison	56.4 (90.8)	Garrison	1892							●
	52.5 (84.5)	Manitou	1983[16]							●
Peekskill	47.7 (76.8)	Peekskill	1874							●	Bee-Line Bus: 16, 18, 31
Montrose	44.9 (72.3)	Cortlandt	1996[17]							●	Bee-Line Bus: 14
Croton-on-Hudson	39.7 (63.9)	Croton–Harmon	1988[6]	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	Bee-Line Bus: 10, 11, 14
Ossining	37.3 (60.0)	Ossining	1914							●	Bee-Line Bus: 13, 13B, 19 Haverstraw–Ossining Ferry
Briarcliff Manor	36 (58)	Scarborough	1851							●
Sleepy Hollow	33 (53)	Philipse Manor	January 30, 1911[18]							●
Tarrytown	31.7 (51.0)	Tarrytown	1925[19]							●	Hudson Link: H07, H07X; Bee-Line Bus: 1T, 13, T
Irvington	29.2 (47.0)	Irvington	1889							●
	28.2 (45.4)	Ardsley-on-Hudson	c. 1896							●
Dobbs Ferry	27.2 (43.8)	Dobbs Ferry	1899							●	Bee-Line Bus: 1, 6
Hastings-on-Hudson	26 (42)	Hastings-on-Hudson	1910							●	Bee-Line Bus: 6, 1C, 1T, & 1W
Yonkers	24.3 (39.1)	Greystone	1899							●	Bee-Line Bus: 6, 1C, 1T, & 1W
	22.7 (36.5)	Glenwood								●	Bee-Line Bus: 1C, 1T, & 1W
	21.6 (34.8)	Yonkers	1911[6]	●	●		●	●	●	●	Bee-Line Bus: 6, 9, 25, 32, 91 (seasonal)
	20.8 (33.5)	Ludlow								●	Bee-Line Bus: 32
The Bronx	19.5 (31.4)	Riverdale								●	Hudson Rail Link: A, B, C, D
New York	0 (0)	Penn Station	1968[6]	●	●	●	●	●	●		Amtrak (long-distance): Acela, Adirondack, Cardinal, Crescent, Lake Shore Limited, Palmetto, Pennsylvanian, Silver Meteor, Silver Star Amtrak (intercity): Carolinian, Empire Service, Ethan Allen Express, Keystone Service, Maple Leaf, Northeast Regional, Vermonter LIRR: ■ Main Line, ■ Port Washington Branch NJ Transit: ■ North Jersey Coast Line, ■ Northeast Corridor Line, ■ Gladstone Branch, ■ Montclair-Boonton Line, ■ Morristown Line NYC Subway: ​​​​ PATH: HOB-33 JSQ-33 JSQ-33 (via HOB) NYC Transit buses: M7, M20, M34 SBS, M34A SBS, Q32, SIM23, SIM24

See also

• New York high-speed rail
• High-speed rail in the United States
• West Side Line

References

External links

• Empire Corridor, New York State Department of Transportation
• Empire Corridor section of the Federal Railroad Administration website

43°9′47.6″N 77°36′28.9″W / 43.163222°N 77.608028°W / 43.163222; -77.608028