(The following article by Cathy Woodruff and Bruce Scruton was posted on the Albany Times-Union website on August 17.)
RENSSELAER, N.Y. — Amtrak passenger service between the Rensselaer Rail Station and New York City was restored late this morning, but officials expected some delays as equipment gets repositioned and the backlog of passengers is handled.
Service was cancelled Monday when heavy rains washed out the bedding under tracks along the Hudson River were washed out by heavy rains between Peekskill and Garrison.
Amtrak officials expected service to begin at 10 a.m. Some equipment, which would have been moved as part of normal operations, could not be moved until the tracks were declared safe, creating some delays.
In the meantime, other transportation has been cobbled together for those who had planned to travel to New York City by rail today.
The state Department of Transportation arranged to have Capital District Transportation Authority shuttle buses at the train station this morning to take early New York-bound travelers to the downtown bus station in Albany, where they could get Adirondack Trailways buses, a DOT spokeswoman said.
Adirondack Trailways announced that it added buses this morning to compensate for the loss of train service.
Departures from the Albany Bus Terminal at 34 Hamilton St. were scheduled at 3:30 a.m., 5:45 a.m., 7:30 a.m., 8:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.
Metro North Railroad shut down operations along a stretch of track between Peekskill and Garrison, which is used by Amtrak trains, around 8:30 a.m. Monday, said Metro North spokesman Dan Brucker.
A 15-foot chunk of earth was dug out under the rails by cascading runoff, and other portions of rail were submerged, he said.
Six buses on loan from the Westchester County Department of Transportation were used to carry passengers on the commuter railroad between the Peekskill and Garrison stations, where they were able to resume their trips on Metro North trains, Brucker said.
Amtrak used buses to deliver passengers already en route to their destinations, but suspended service entirely between New York and Albany-Rensselaer at 11 a.m.
Brucker said Metro North was tentatively planning to have one track back in service between Peekskill and Garrison sometime today, but said the lack of a second track would still likely cause some delays.
Fully restoring the tracks was expected to be difficult, Brucker said, because the washout was in a hard-to-reach location. “We’re going to be working on this thing all night,” he said. “It’s a highly inaccessible area, and we will have to use trains to bring in material and manpower.”
Amtrak said limited service planned for today included eight trains leaving New York for Albany and six trains leaving Albany-Rensselaer for New York City.
The New York-bound trains and their usually scheduled departure times from Rensselaer are: the 294 (Ethan Allen Express) at 10 a.m.; the 284 at noon; the 48 (Lake Shore Limited) at 12:30 p.m.; the 286 at 3:15 p.m.; the 68 (the Adirondack) at 5:15 p.m.; and the 64 (the Maple Leaf) at 7:15 p.m.