Niagara Falls International Transportation Center
The new station at Niagara Falls is scheduled to open in 2016. The
project—lead by the city of Niagara Falls in partnership with New
York State—is part of a $27.4 million redevelopment project that rebuilt
the 1863 Customs House, which will include U.S. Department of
Homeland Security border inspection facilities, retail shops, and an
educational center.
Construction continues on a new Niagara Falls
International Railway Station. The $27 million
facility is set to open in the spring of 2016.
PHOTO: DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
RAILS BEING UPGRADED
Railroad tracks and signals also are being upgraded, expanded and
reconfigured at key locations across the state to reduce congestion, ease
delays and enhance security. Significant construction continues through
2016. Project highlights include:
• A $368 million project scheduled for completion in late 2019 will
build grade-separated tracks dedicated to Amtrak service between Hell
Gate Bridge and Penn Station. The work will help speed passenger
trains through Harold Interlocking in Queens. It is the busiest passenger
rail switch-yard in North America, navigated each weekday by 136
Amtrak trains and 647 commuter trains.
• The $42 million Hudson Line Signal Project is replacing overhead rail signal cables with a more reliable fiber optic system underground. This will speed communication with the train dispatch center at
Penn Station and protect the signal system from weather disruptions.
Also, flashers, bells and gates have been installed at 12 highway rail
crossings between Poughkeepsie and Albany for improved safety.
• A $91 million project is constructing a second track and installing a
new signal system from the Livingston Avenue Bridge over the Hudson
River at Albany and Troy to just west of Schenectady Station. This
17-mile section is the worst bottleneck on the Empire Corridor. Amtrak
passenger trains and freight trains share a single track here, allowing
trains to travel only in one direction at a time. Once completed in early
2017, the new track will allow trains to pass each other, rather than wait
for a single rail line to clear.
• A $50 million project at the Albany-Rensselaer Station is updating
tracks, platforms, and the entire signal system there. The work,
scheduled for completion in 2017, adds a fourth passenger track that
will accommodate long trains and let more trains into the station to
ease delays.
• A $23 million project, scheduled for completion in early 2019, will
ease congestion and delays at Syracuse Station by upgrading two side
tracks and increasing train speed limits. The station is very close to
CSXT’s busy DeWitt Freight Yard, which causes conflicts between
passenger and freight trains.
For more information about New York State’s Empire Corridor
projects, please visit DOT’s website at https://www.dot.ny.gov/
programs/high-speed-rail/arra-rail-projects.
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New York By Rail | 21