(The Albany Times-Union posted the following article by Cathy Woodruff on its website on April 15.)
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s first rebuilt Turboliner train made its inaugural round trip to New York City with paying passengers aboard on Monday, marking a milestone on a journey to high-speed rail service begun by the state nearly five years ago.
With no prior notice or fanfare, Amtrak put the first of seven rebuilt 1970s-era diesel-turbine-powered trains on its regular 9 a.m. run from Rensselaer to New York’s Penn Station. The train rolled back in a little more than 15 minutes late, at 4:26 p.m., apparently because of heavy traffic south of Poughkeepsie.
Passengers stepping off the state-owned train at the Rensselaer Rail Station said they found the ride comfortable and smooth, with several unaware that they were part of a historic run.
“Oh, that’s what it was,” exclaimed Sandy Watson of Glens Falls after she and friend Judy Dooley of Wilton were told they had just arrived on one of the new trains. The two were wrapping up a “girls’ weekend” in the city and said they noticed a big improvement over the accommodations on their Friday ride to New York.
Amtrak officials say they still aren’t prepared to put the Turboliner — one of seven being reconditioned in Glenville under a $74.4 million state contract with Super Steel Schenectady — into regular service, calling Monday’s run the first of several “live revenue tests” necessary before the train moves into Amtrak’s regular rotation.
Amtrak spokesman Dan Stessel said more shakedown cruises are likely this week, but customers probably won’t know when they book their seats whether to expect a Turboliner or one of Amtrak’s other trains.
“We need to see how it performs under real-world conditions with real-world passengers aboard so we can replace it with traditional equipment should a problem arise,” Stessel said.
A second completed Turboliner is at Amtrak’s Rensselaer yard, and a third is slated for delivery in May, but Stessel would not predict when the first train will go into regular service or when test runs with the second train will start with passengers.
“It really will be a function of how the trainset performs in the tests,” he said.
For now, the trains are high-speed in name only.
When Gov. George Pataki announced in 1998 that the Turboliners would be the centerpiece of a state-sponsored high-speed rail initiative, he said the trains would be running by early 2001 and would shave about 20 minutes from the typical 2 hour, 25 minute trip from the Albany-Rensselaer station to New York City.
But some $140 million in work on tracks, bridges and crossings is needed to enable the trains to operate at their target 125 mph top speed. As a result, the trains can only run at the 110 mph current track maximum, with typical cruising speeds of closer to 75 to 95 mph.
The project also has been beset with delays related to rebuilding the trains, which have included unexpected asbestos removal and extra engineering work, as well as difficulty meshing European and American technology.
Most recently, Amtrak, the state Department of Transportation and Super Steel have disagreed about how quickly the trains should be moved through testing and into service.
But on Monday, most of the parties with a stake in the project expressed elation that, at long last, one of the Turboliners is, literally, on track.
“This is the first tangible evidence of the governor’s high-speed rail program that he announced some years ago,” said Bruce Becker, an Albany resident and president of the Empire State Passengers Association, who bought a ticket to Poughkeepsie after getting a tip that the Turboliner would be rolling Monday morning.
“It’s been very long in coming, but we’re glad to see it,” Becker said.
There were more than 120 passengers on board Monday each way, officials said. The Turboliners — which have a fixed five-car configuration of locomotives at both ends that include some passenger seating, two full-size passenger cars and a cafe car in the middle — have a maximum capacity of about 260 passengers, compared with capacities of 350 or more on Amtrak’s current conventional trains.
“Obviously, we’re pleased that Amtrak has put the first new train into service and we’re looking forward to the next,” said state DOT spokeswoman Jennifer Post.
However, Post said, the determination of when the Turboliners start running regularly and achieve high speeds rests mainly with Amtrak, which she said is obligated under its contract to run the trains to see that necessary infrastructure improvements are made to achieve higher speeds.
But Stessel said the state has an ongoing role, too.
“We are currently working with state DOT on where the Turboliners will be in the schedule and how they will be utilized,” he said. “We are working with the state of New York on many of these issues.”