Amtrak

After taking the bus for several years, stepping onto the Amtrak car seemed like stepping into a palace. Was all this leg room actually mine?! The trip was pleasant with great views and of course — no traffic! This took a huge turn downhill when we reached Albany and the train parked for over an HOUR. I tried asking the conductors what was going on but no one seemed concerned or having any answers. Albany is one stop from my hometown and I’m stuck on a train you won’t let me get off of because it’s not my official stop? Pardon me if I currently think your serve is absurd. If you want to charge $ 89 for a one-​way ticket, you better let me do just about whatever I want. At least planes give snacks.

Took train twice to NYC staff was friendly and helpful cars were clean we were alittle late but you could be delayed using any public transportation. We look forward using the train again.

The Albany/​Rennsaleer Amtrak station is one of the cleanest modern and beautiful stations I have seen in New York. The Amtrak employees are very helpful and nice the trains arrive on time and clean too. Taking Amtrak’s Empire Service train into New York City on business is a much better alternative than taking the bus.
Simply put, If you live in upstate NY as I do then I would recommend Amtrak as your method of transportation to and from NYC. Make sure to make your reservations at least a day or so ahead of time that way you will get a lower fare. Because as the time gets nearer to your departure the fare can double its price.
Happy Traveling!

I can’t even begin to describe my frustration at what could have been a manageable situation. The one extra star goes to the staff in the café car on train #440 from Springfield (where I got on) to Albany (where I transferred trains) and train # 49 from Springfield to Chicago (ride is supposed to be 15 hours; it’s currently 17 hours and we are in Ohio somewhere i.e. not close to Chicago).
So my wife and I are using this trip as part of a life long desire of mine to travel across country by train.
I am currently on train 49 from New York City, NY to Chicago, IL. The train is currently an estimated 4 hours late. I am frustrated with this delay since our connecting train the Southwest Chief departs at 3pm from Chicago. While we will likely make the train, we will have NO time to spend in Chicago. I was planning on surprising my wife with lunch at Giordano’s Pizzeria, three blocks from Chicago’s Union Station, before heading to Arizona on the Southwest Chief.
In particular, I am frustrated at the level of service that was within Amtrak’s control that was poor. While my wife was on train 49 from NYC, I was on train 449 from Springfield due to a volunteer assignment. We were to meet in Albany, which we did. However, we were separately given misinformation about the process of connecting in Albany.
I commend the staff for balancing the need for passenger safety with the desire to get to our destination and connecting train and navigating the tracks, flash floods, and downed trees between Springfield and Albany.
I am utterly dismayed at the experience in Albany with changing trains. After making our way to Albany, the train remained just outside the station for at least another 10 minutes in order to wait for another train to depart. Knowing that train 449 was delayed and needed to connect to train 49 provisions should have been made to facilitate that connection and get all of us underway faster. Once we finally arrived in the station, only one door was provided for egress onto the train platform from the entire train. Again, with the need to facilitate connection to train 49, multiple doors should have been made for egress. Once we exited the train, riders found out that the escalators were not working and only stairs and one small elevator was working. Having only one escalator that is not working made for a very sad and difficult situation for many passengers who were stuck with the option of waiting on a long line for the slow, small elevator or hiking up the long flight of stairs. Once at the top of the stairs, the escalator on the other stairs that led down was made available only for sleeper car passengers, forcing all other passengers to descend another long set of stairs or wait for another small, slow elevator downstairs. In fact, we were initially told we would have a cross platform connection which clearly turned out to NOT be the case.
All of these events created a tense and frustrating experience in Albany for me and my wife traveling on our first trip with Amtrak across country. The fact that our train is four hours late and will arrive without us having a chance to enjoy Chicago for even an hour is extremely disappointing, disheartening, and frustrating.
I realize there is much that is not under the control of Amtrak as it relates to freight company owned track. However, Amtrak does control the station at Albany. To not use the skills, experience, and abilities of the staff on the train, in the station, and in the dispatch room effectively to facilitate the approach, platforming, and transfer of passengers from train 449 to 49 is a disgrace to the company and profession.
As an Amtrak supporter, Amtrak Guest Rewards and NARP member, I am optimistic that this communication will serve as a learning experience (yes, I provided this feedback to Amtrak as well).

OK. I want to like & support train travel. I really, really do. As i ride backwards on the train, a train that was delayed for the last 2 hours, I’m having a hard time seeing myself taking the train again. And that’s too bad. The conductors were forthright and available to passengers, moving from car to car explaining the situation. They did a good job in difficult circumstances. I was pleased with their performance. The issue is, you can’t travel by train unless you have a very flexible schedule and A LOT of patience. We really need to fix the train industry to make this green travel a more viable system.

Taking Amtrak to NYC is the most civilized way to travel (don’t get me started on Greyhound or Megabus). But this review is for the station, which is lovely and a great source of pride to the City of Rensselaer. You have to be from Rensselaer to understand this. Rensselaer has unfortunately been in a state of decline for the past 25 – 75 years, so it’s a nice consolation that this state of the art hub is the centerpiece of the City. The train station is one of the larger public works projects in the Capital Region in the past decade, and in 2002 opened to replace a smaller and decrepit terminal that used to exist down the hill. The new facility is spacious, seats are plentiful, and there is a café and newsstand (though the café is unsurprisingly overpriced).

What isn’t to love about train travel from Albany to «Down State», to the 5 Boroughs, and beyond? That «chug chug chug» and rocking back and forth is relaxing. The scenery is beautiful any time of year. Its usually quiet. The trains are clean (for public transportation). The fares are reasonably priced (the garbage in the café car is obscene).
The station itself is pretty and freakishly clean in the terminal. The ladies room is kinda grody. Parking is relatively cheap (and the first hour is free). I wish they had a café with better coffee. The news stand isn’t as expensive as you would anticipate.
Yes, the MegaBus and other buses are much cheaper, but they are not nearly as enjoyable as taking the train.
(That being said, when I was going to college in the late 90s out near Rochester, the train service out that way was awful. It was always delayed and my 4 hour ride was always closer or over 6 hours. It was also always packed. I don’t know if that has changed in the last decade).

Great modern station and convenient location, with plenty of security and cleanliness. It provided such a quick and smooth ride, however my trip between Albany-​Rensselaer and Philadelphia was not perfect, due to the parent company’s ticketing system being inadequate in a few ways.
My first gripe is with amtrak.com’s ticketing system and how it wants to handle the Albany, NY destination. If you are a fast typist like myself, if you type «Albany, NY» before the autocorrect is finished populating, it will say «No stations match your search.» This is poor form and could allude to some newbies that the Amtrak trains wouldn’t even go to Albany. I knew they really do, so I deleted my failed search and tried something else. «Albany.» Now Oregon’s Albany comes up on the autofill first, but you have an option to hand select Albany-​Rensselaer (NY). In number of annual volume, NY’s Albany serves nearly 20 times as many passengers than Oregon’s location. Alphabetically, NY comes before OR. However, ABY comes before ALB so they get listed out of order by most standards. The autocorrect function also hides «Albany, NY» because you must know that the station is in Albany-​Rensselaer. However, if you have even know how to spell «Rensselaer» let alone have heard of it, the Amtrak web ticketing service defaults to Rensselaer, Indiana and does not even provide the alternate option to select New York which is what locals would think of when they type Rensselaer. Therefore, there are multiple searches that do not prompt «Albany, NY», and only by typing «Albany» or «Albany-​R» do you find the sole one that actually works.
As I was purchasing tickets on the way up to Albany, I experienced some additional confusion as certain trains were designated as «sold out» even though they were in fact CANCELLED. So I continued to check back on the website each morning to see if any tickets had been returned to the queue. It would have made my life simpler if the train status had been more transparent. I have since learned that «sold out» can have multiple different meanings that have little to do with seating capacity, and that I need to research other parts of
to read service messages pertaining to potentially cancelled routes and other service restrictions and delays.
The ticketing system further disappointed me when it tried to default me onto a 5.5 hour each way, transfer trip to/​from Philadelphia, a trip that could have taken 4 hours driving. There were simple Amtrak connections in New York Penn Station that were scheduled 25 minutes, however these were hidden because they were not guaranteed. To avoid scheduling a 1:25 transfer at night on my way home, I had to buy two one way tickets and pay full fare. I spoke with two different reps by phone who agreed that this was Amtrak’s policy and that even by phone I could not have received a single-​trip discount that I was entitled to because it did not meet their official transfer specifications. I completed the transfer anyway, but had to pay double fare to connect normally with 25 minute hang time in the return trip instead of giving up an hour when I just wanted to get home in a competitive amount of time (so as to avoid having to drive or take a bus). So I got what I wanted but I had to pay extra for the «convenience» of making such a customized reservation and not stalling an hour while a often-​viable connecting train came and went. It does create some uncertainty as to whether the on time performance of Amtrak can be vouched for if they don’t even allow 25 minute connections in a transit hub because many things could go wrong.
Bottom line: OK! I would take the train to Albany again, but only after carefully reviewing all the itinerary options– both published and non-​pulblished– in order to make a sound judgment. Many provided connections in NYP are rather convenient, so my weekend evening inconveniences could have just been an exception to the normally favorable schedule flow.

Amtrak, particularly their Rensselaer station, is a great travel pick. It’s not perfect but they excel are certain things, specifically the Empire Service into NYC. Personally, I hate the drive to NYC. It’s not bad once you get there, but actually getting there is tedious and annoying, so I prefer to ride the Amtrak train. It’s comfortable and relaxing, and it gets you there about an hour faster than by car.
The station is kept in good condition, as are the trains. They’re also a lot more comfortable than the MTA. Some people I know prefer to drive to Poughkeepsie and catch the MTA into NYC from there, but if you ask me that doesn’t end up saving you a whole lot when you factor in gas and tolls to get to the station.
Some of the other Amtrak lines are not as convenient. One example would be the service to Boston. It takes about twice as long as it would to drive there, and most of the departures cost MORE than a commercial flight from Albany to Logan: $ 138 one-​way with Amtrak, $ 100 (including taxes and fees) one-​way on Delta Airlines. The variance is the same with round-​trip train versus air as well.
So the point is take into account the convenience the service offers you and how reasonable (or unreasonable) the price may be to you. The one-​way fare from Albany to Penn Station in NYC is $ 39. That’s pretty reasonable in my opinion.

The proximity to where I have to be in Colonie is perfect! This station is really clean and the staff here seems nice. They have a decent coffee shop and I like the outlets everywhere.
They just need more screens because a lot of people were confused. They should definitely have more screens were the stairs are to the tracks. Also the loudspeaker is kinda low.
I also found out that there is 1 train that goes to Boston each day! Which is amazing news for me and my job!

They’re often late, but the trains from Rensselaer to NYC have some of the best views in the NE. Loch Lomond and the Inside Passage have nothing on the Hudson (at least in a few spots…).