The Business Review (Albany) - January 6, 2006 http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2006/01/02/daily29.html LATEST NEWS The Business Review (Albany) - 1:09 PM EST Friday Senate report urges upgrades to Albany/NYC rail operations Eric Durr The Business Review Creating a unified traffic system for the Rensselaer to Penn Station rail line would cut station to station travel times to two hours and five minutes, a report released Jan. 5 says. Currently it takes an average of two hours and 25 minutes to travel from the Albany, N.Y.-area train station to New York City, and only about 70 percent of those trains arrive on time, according to a study on New York's rail system prepared for the state Senate. Different portions of the rail line are owned by CSX , the Metropolitan Transit Authority, Amtrak. Amtrak passenger trains, though, have the lowest priority on the route south of Poughkeepsie where the MTA's Metro North commuter railroad operates, said John Egan, president of Renaissance Corp. and executive director of the New York State Senate High Speed Rail Task Force. And because the freight operators operate in a "just in time" environment, freight trains no longer automatically defer to passenger trains, Egan said. Putting in place a unified control system, and creating one owner for the southern Empire Corridor route, is a relatively cheap way to speed up passenger travel along the Hudson River, Egan said. Cutting travel times and improving reliability are the keys to drawing riders to New York's passenger rails, said state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick. "If you build it they will come," Bruno said. In a press conference held at the Renssealer Rail Station, the ninth busiest train station in the United States, Bruno promised that the state Senate would commit $22 million in short term improvements to passenger rail travel. Getting people and products from place to place quickly and reliably is the key to economic development Bruno said. While there have been plenty of studies on how to improve passenger rail transportation in New York, this study is practical and contains goals that can be met relatively quickly, Bruno said. Both business people and pleasure travelers need to know how long it will take to get from the Albany area to New York City to plan their days, Bruno emphasized. The Task Force on High Speed Rail spent six months coming up with its recommendations. He picked John Egan, former head of the Albany County Airport Authority, to oversee the task force's work because of his success in revitalizing the airport, Bruno said. When John Egan took over the airport it was a third rate facility, Bruno said. Now it is a first-rate enterprise that attracts first rate airlines. The same thing can happen along the Empire Corridor track that runs from Buffalo to Albany and then south to New York City, Bruno said. The task force's immediate recommendations call for putting in place joint control measures for the South Corridor, which runs from Schenectady to New York City. The next step would be creating one entity to acquire ownership of the old New York Central mainline from CSX, the MTA and Amtrak. CSX owns the right-of-way from Schenectady to Poughkeepsie, while Metro North owns the track from Poughkeepsie to the Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx. Amtrak controls the tracks from that location to Penn Station. This results in unity of ownership and operations. The track owner, though, does not have to be the service operator, the report says. The report recommends creating an Empire Corridor Express Service between New York City and Albany-Rensselaer using additional Amtrak rolling stock within six months. This service would begin attracting ridership. Longer range plans call for installing a second main track between Schenectady and Renssealer -- an issue that CSX has concerns about -- and extending Metro North commuter service to Renssealer by 2012. Other recommendations in the report include: Infrastructure improvements that allow trains to travel 110 mph. Currently they go an average of 90 mph. Acquire 12 new train sets with dual locomotive, push-pull capability. Establish 23 daily Albany to NYC trains by 2015. Adding spurs along the Buffalo-to-Schenectady western corridor which allow freight trains to pull over while passenger trains pass. Total cost of implementing all these recommendations, and more, over a 20 year period would cost about $6.2 billion in 2005 dollars, the task force report said. The next step, Bruno said, is to meet with the state Assembly and get their agreement to funding these initiatives. There is no reason to think the Assembly would not support the program, Bruno said. Bruno would not discuss the states ongoing dispute with Amtrak over 1970s-era turboliners which the state had paid to refurbish and were supposed to provide additional Renssealer to New York service. Because there is a $400 million lawsuit involved, he can't talk about the matter, Bruno said. edurr@bizjournals.com | 518-640-6818 All contents of this site © American City Business Journals Inc. All rights reserved.