ALBANY, N.Y. — It’s a never-changing ritual of Capital Region business life, according to the Business Review of Albany, N.Y.
On weekday mornings, bleary-eyed, briefcase-toting, business-suited men and women board trains in Rensselaer, Schenectady and Hudson and head south on the 6:20, the 6:55 or the 7:55, to the world’s capital of finance and business 150 miles away.
Amtrak’s Empire Service is the business community’s most convenient link to Manhattan and the opportunities New York City represents. The Rensselaer station, where people got on and off trains 630,630 times in fiscal 2001, was the 14th busiest in the Amtrak system that year. Total trips on the Empire Service, with most trains running only from Schenectady/Rensselaer to New York City, totaled 1.094 million in fiscal 2001, making the route the fifth most traveled in the United States.
Passenger traffic up and down the Hudson River has been critical to Albany since Fort Orange was founded in 1636, and business travelers still count on that route.
“It’s very important to our company,” said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer for First Albany Corp. “We use it all the time because we have so much business that needs to be done in New York. We have a very large presence or office in New York City and we have many clients in New York City and we need to be in New York City all the time.”
While trains heading for Toronto, Montreal, Rutland, Vermont, Chicago and Boston stop at the Rensselaer station, the bulk of the people are going south.
“The train is the preferred mode of travel to New York City outside of private car,” said Bruce Becker, a Clifton Park resident who is president of the Empire State Passenger Association, a pro-rail advocacy group. “People don’t fly to New York City unless they are connecting to a flight, and intercity bus, at least in this market, is not attractive.”
Not only do business travelers count on the train for weekly or monthly trips to New York City, but there’s a growing number of people who live in the Capital Region and take the train to work in New York City, Becker said. About 250 to 300 people are buying monthly and 10-ride commuter tickets good for reserved seats on Empire Corridor trains, he said.
The Amtrak service to New York City is an important selling point for new businesses locating in the area, said Lyn Taylor, president of the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce.
“Many, many of our members utilize the rail service to New York City on a regular basis, and not just our business members, but those organizations that work in government and have a need to be back and forth to New York City,” Taylor said.
The high-tech businesses that regional leaders want to lure to the area prize the train connection to New York City, said John Poorman, staff director of the Capital District Transportation Committee. The new Rensselaer train station, due to open on Sept. 22, helps project a positive image for the region, he said.
Access to New York City via passenger train is one factor when people decide to locate their homes or offices in the Capital Region, said Bob Blackman, vice president of Realty USA, which has 13 offices across the region.
“There’s not one single thing that swings their decision,” he explained. “It’s a hurdle you take out of the equation. It’s one less objection to the Albany area.”
His agency has been involved, recently, in helping to relocate several people who are coming upstate from the downstate area, Blackman said. The availability of a train to New York City is one of a combination of factors that lure downstaters up north, he said.
Congressional advocates of weaning Amtrak away from its federal tax dollar subsidy and requiring railroad passenger service to be self-supporting are talking about killing passenger train service between New York City and the Capital Region, said Scott Leonard, assistant director of the National Association of Railroad Passengers, a Washington D.C. advocacy group.
“There’s no transportation system that can survive commercially without some sort of government support. There was a system of having a passenger train network with no government support and the failure of that system was the reason why Amtrak had to be created [in 1971] in the first place,” Leonard said.
“We have a mentality in this country that the only thing the government should be involved in is highways and airports, and railroads are left out,” he complained.
While most Capital Region residents think in terms of heading south on the train, travel from New York City is also economically important.
Nixon Peabody’s Albany office often plays host to some of the 100 lawyers from the mega-firm’s New York City office who come to Albany on legal business, said Andrew Gansberg, managing partner of the firm’s Albany office.
“We have regular transportation and communication of lawyers between the two offices,” he said. “We make good use of the train from Albany to New York City.”
Amtrak also plays a role in Columbia County’s growing attraction to Manhattanites looking for a new, cheap, rural getaway, said Deena Pewtherer, president of the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce.
“You can go down there and look at the overnight parking lot and see how full it is,” she said.
“It is very difficult to rent a car in Columbia County on a weekend. The car rentals are booked by people coming up from New York City. They pick up the cars at the station on Friday and the cars are returned the same way Sunday night or on Monday when people go back to the city,” she said.
The train also allows easy access to the antique shops and arts venues that have turned Hudson into a destination for upscale New Yorkers, said Kenneth Jacobs, president of the Columbia County Lodging Association.
A location four blocks from the Hudson Amtrak station is a key reason his five-bedroom Hudson City Bed and Breakfast is filled on a regular basis.
“A lot of our guests avail themselves of the fact that they can get off the train, be our guest and enjoy the town of Hudson without a car,” he said. “There are not a lot of towns that works for.”