Albany-Rensselaer (Amtrak station)

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Albany-Rensselaer

Main waiting area

Station statistics

Address

525 East St.
Rensselaer, NY 12144

Lines

Maple Leaf

Adirondack

Empire Service

Ethan Allen Express

Lake Shore Limited

Connections

Capital District Transportation Authority

Parking

Yes; paid

Baggage check

Yes

Other information

Opened

2002

Accessible

Code

ALB

Owned by

CDTA

Traffic

Passengers (2007)

774,458 ▲ 1.7%

Services

Preceding station	Amtrak	Following station
Schenectady toward Montreal	Adirondack	Hudson toward New York
Schenectady toward Niagara Falls, N.Y.	Empire Service
Schenectady toward Rutland	Ethan Allen Express
Schenectady toward Toronto	Maple Leaf
Schenectady toward Chicago	Lake Shore Limited	Croton-Harmon toward New York
Schenectady toward Chicago	Lake Shore Limited	Pittsfield toward Boston (South)

The Albany-Rensselaer Rail Station is a long-distance rail terminal in Rensselaer, New York, located 1.5 miles from downtown Albany (from which the station gets its name) across the Hudson River. As of 2007, the station was Amtrak's tenth busiest station^[1] and is served by many of Amtrak's northeastern routes outside of the Northeast Corridor. These include the Lake Shore Limited, whose Boston and New York branches meet at the station.

Old station

The current structure dates from September 2002 and features a Coffee Beanery coffeeshop, a newsstand, and a post office. This structure replaced the adjacent 1968 terminal, which is now used as office space by Amtrak. Prior to 1968, trains stopped at Albany's Union Station, a building located on Broadway that now houses the northeast headquarters of Bank of America (via predecessors Fleet Bank and Norstar Bank). The New York Central Railroad had plans to leave Albany beforehand in part due to the construction of Interstate 787 needing the space where an adjacent rail yard lay, but it was under Penn Central's watch that the move took place. The station was built with three tracks (a fourth was planned, but eliminated due to cost) and the station has been with a less-than-preferable number of tracks since. In late January 2007, however, it was announced that a fourth track would finally be built, and the trains that serve the station will be less prone to delays resulting from limited track capacity. There is a fourth track that allows freight trains to bypass the station.

The Albany-Rensselaer Rail Station is operated by the Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA), which has three bus routes serving the station. These routes and range of service are as follows:

14-Rensselaer/Third Street-Amtrak (every 30 minutes weekdays/rush hours, every 60 minutes nights/weekends)
15-Rensselaer/East Street (8 runs weekdays on 1-2 hour headways)
24-Albany/Troy via Rensselaer (every 25 minutes rush hours, 50 minutes weekday middays)

Car rental and taxi services are also available at the station with the average taxi ride into downtown Albany averaging about $7.

[edit] Amtrak Service

With the exception of the Boston branch of the Lake Shore Limited, all trains have southbound service to Penn Station in New York City.

Adirondack to Montreal
Empire Service: all trains to New York (via Hudson, Rhinecliff, Poughkeepsie, Croton-on-Hudson, Yonkers); some westbound to Buffalo and Niagara Falls.
Ethan Allen Express to Rutland, Vermont
Lake Shore Limited to Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland, Toledo, and Chicago
- New York Branch (Train 48/49): Croton-on Hudson, New York (Penn Station)
- Boston Branch (Train 448/449): Pittsfield, Springfield, Worcester, Framingham, Boston (Back Bay), Boston (South Station)
Maple Leaf to Toronto