(The following article by Eric Anderson was posted on the Albany Times Union website on November 1.)
RENSSELAER, N.Y. — Food service is planned on the new express train between the Capital Region and New York City, according to an official at the state Senate High-Speed Rail Task Force.
Amtrak stopped serving food on trains originating or terminating in Rensselaer at the end of June 2005 to cut costs. The passenger railroad said it was losing $1 million annually.
The task force wants to start operating the express train as soon as possible, according to Carla Chiaro, its administrative director. While it likely won’t begin operating this week, she said Monday that talks with Amtrak and the state Department of Transportation were progressing. And she said she hopes the new train’s food service would be available shortly after.
Amtrak officials have equipment and crews that could provide the service, and food likely would be provided from the railroad’s commissary in New York City.
The train already appears on Amtrak’s fall schedule, with a footnote that explains the start date hasn’t been set. It’s the first in a series of steps that would put in place new equipment, faster schedules and other improvements to passenger rail service upstate.
The plan to restore food service includes both a cafe car and a rolling cart, with unionized Amtrak employees providing both services. The task force would subsidize the service as a demonstration and seek ways to increase sales. One idea is to offer a customized menu featuring New York state products.
Amtrak tried this several years ago on its Adirondack service to Montreal, but eventually discontinued it because it was too expensive.
“We’d work with Amtrak to determine the type of menu,” Chiaro said.
But if the demonstration is successful, the task force likely would want to extend it to other Amtrak trains between Rensselaer and New York City that lost their food service in June 2005.
The station, meanwhile, has regained its top-10 ranking in the overall Amtrak system, said Empire Corridor General Manager Jim Turngren.
“We are ranked the 10th busiest station in Amtrak as of the end of September,” he said Tuesday.
Still, some union officials think the loss of food service has hurt.
“The lack of food service has impacted some of the ridership,” said Sam Nasca, state director of the United Transportation Union. “It’s something people enjoy having.”
The most recent ridership figures show boardings on service between Rensselaer and New York fell 1.1 percent in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, even as boardings surged on other routes passing through Rensselaer. Among them are the Ethan Allen to Rutland (up 14.4 percent), Albany-Niagara Falls-Toronto service (up 9.3 percent), Adirondack service to Montreal (up 8.4 percent), and the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago (up 3.4 percent).
And it’s not clear what role a lawsuit filed by the state Department of Transportation against Amtrak over the disposition of several quarter-century-old turbo trains may play in all of this. The state paid tens of millions of dollars to rehabilitate the trains, which Amtrak then declined to use, citing a range of problems with them.
“The litigation is a completely separate issue,” state DOT spokeswoman Carol Breen said Tuesday. “We won’t block the service.”