(The following article by Cathy Woodruff was posted on the Albany Times-Union website on January 27.)
ALBANY, N.Y. — A long-awaited study of New York’s railroad infrastructure between the Capital Region and New York City recommends more than $400 million in specific projects to ease bottlenecks and reduce traffic jams on the crowded tracks.
The full Hudson Line Railroad Corridor Transportation Plan is expected to be released by the state Department of Transportation today, but a news release that summarizes many of the recommendations was distributed Thursday afternoon.
Amtrak, Metro-North Railroad, CSX Transportation and Canadian Pacific Railway, which all use tracks between New York City and Schenectady, cooperated with the study by Systra Consulting and Engineering of New York City and chipped in toward the $900,000 cost. DOT contributed one-third of the funding.
In a prepared statement accompanying the news release, state Transportation Commissioner Thomas J. Madison Jr. called the plan “one of the most comprehensive proposals for improving rail transportation between New York City and upstate New York ever devised.”
More than three years in the making, the study makes no recommendations on who will provide passenger rail service along the Hudson River, what trains will be used or how the service will operate.
Rather, the report outlines 15 specific projects for improving tracks, sidings, signals, crossovers, station platforms and other infrastructure the researchers say will allow more trains to operate simultaneously on the tracks at faster speeds with fewer conflicts and delays.
In addition to those projects, the plan assumes that a second track will be laid between Albany and Schenectady to ease one of the worst bottlenecks in upstate New York, said DOT spokesman Peter Graves. The cost for that work is not estimated, however. According to DOT, the Hudson Line tracks have not been significantly altered for decades.
The next step, Graves said, will be to find funding sources for the proposed projects, which include the $99 million installation of a high-capacity signal system between Poughkeepsie and Croton-on-Hudson and $70 million for six miles of additional track in Putnam and Dutchess counties.
The plan’s recommendations appear to be consistent with those included in a state Senate High Speed Rail Task Force report released earlier this month. The Senate task force’s report, which focused mainly on passenger rail needs, also recommended development of new train technology, railroad operational changes and other steps to upgrade passenger rail.
The Senate task force also determined that many repairs to track infrastructure were necessary and is encouraging quick action to consolidate the ownership of the tracks between Schenectady and New York’s Penn Station.