Empire Corridor

Empire Corridor (red) as designated by the Federal Railroad Administration

The Empire Corridor is a term used to refer to the approximately 460-mile (740 km) railroad corridor between Niagara Falls, New York and New York City, including the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Schenectady and Albany. Amtrak's Empire Service and Maple Leaf serve the entire length of this corridor, and the Maple Leaf continues to Toronto. The Metro-North Railroad Hudson Line provides commuter rail service between Poughkeepsie, New York and Grand Central Terminal.

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 service on the Empire State Express service 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 the trackage between Niagara Falls and Poughkeepsie.^[3] South of Poughkeepsie, Metro-North owns the trackage to Yonkers, from which Amtrak owns the trackage into Pennsylvania Station.^[3]

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]

Current passenger services

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

Amtrak

• Adirondack- to/from Montreal.
• Empire Service- local service to/from Niagara Falls. Most trains terminate at and start from Albany, with two trains continuing to/from Niagara Falls. On the westbound journey to Niagara Falls, there are two trains daily. On the eastbound journey, there is one daily train, and the timing of the second train varies by day of the week.
• Ethan Allen Express- to/from Rutland, Vermont.
• Lake Shore Limited- to/from Chicago, using the Empire Corridor between Depew, New York (near Buffalo), and New York City (though half of the train splits off at Albany to continue to Boston).
• Maple Leaf- daily to/from Toronto.

Commuter rail

• Metro-North Railroad Hudson Line, from Poughkeepsie, New York to Yonkers, New York

Stations

Freight service

Freight service is provided by CSX Transportation.

See also

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

References

External links

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

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