The Empire Corridor is a term used to refer to the railroad corridor between Niagara Falls, New York and New York City, including the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Amsterdam, Schenectady, Albany, and Poughkeepsie. Amtrak's Empire Service and Maple Leaf serve the entire length of the corridor, with the Maple Leaf continuing to Toronto. Lake Shore Limited trains from Chicago join the Empire Corridor just before station, and continue to Albany, where half of each train diverges to Boston, and the other half continues to New York City. The Ethan Allen Express and Adirondack follow the corridor between New York and, after which they diverge and continue on to and, respectively. Metro-North Railroad'sHudson Line merges with the Empire Corridor in Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx, just south of, providing commuter rail service between Poughkeepsie, New York and Grand Central Terminal. The line is electrified by both overhead catenary and top-running third rail on the Amtrak-owned segment between Penn Station and 41st Street, and by under-running third rail on the Metro-North segment, from the merge with the Hudson Line to. The Amtrak-owned section between 41st Street and the merge with the Hudson Line is unpowered and can only be served by diesel or diesel-electric trains. The corridor is also one of ten federally designated high-speed rail corridors in the United States. If the proposed high-speed service were built on the corridor, trains traveling between Buffalo and New York City would travel at speeds of up to. In the 1890s service on the Empire State Express service between New York City and Buffalo was about 1 hour faster than Amtrak's service in 2013. On September 14, 1891 the Empire State Express covered the between New York City and Buffalo in 7 hours and 6 minutes, averaging, with a top speed of.
Ownership
The Empire Corridor is largely owned by CSX Transportation, which owns the trackage between Niagara Falls and Poughkeepsie. Amtrak owns trackage rights for most of the Hudson line section north of Poughkeepsie to their rail yard in Albany. South of Poughkeepsie, the Empire Corridor is coextensive with Metro-North's trackage until it forks off between Metro-North's Riverdale and Spuyten Duyvil stations in the Bronx, to cross the Harlem River over the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge and make the Empire Connection to Penn Station. Amtrak owns the trackage after that fork, the West Side Line. The corridor had been part of the main line of the New York Central Railroad; it was the eastern leg of the NYC's famed "Water Level Route" to Chicago. The corridor passed to Penn Central in 1968 upon the NYC's merger with the Pennsylvania Railroad, and passed to Conrail in 1976. In a series of purchases in the 1980s and 1990s, Amtrak bought the Bronx-Manhattan segment, Metro-North acquired the Poughkeepsie-Bronx segment, and CSX acquired the remainder when it split Conrail's assets with Norfolk Southern. On October 18, 2011, Amtrak and CSX announced an agreement for Amtrak to lease, operate and maintain the CSX-owned trackage between Poughkeepsie and Schenectady. Amtrak officially assumed control of the line on December 1, 2012.
Current services
The busiest segment of the Empire Corridor is between New York City and Albany with multiple trains per day.
Amtrak
The following trains operate along the varied segments of the corridor:
Empire Service: local service along the entire corridor from New York City to. Most trains operate along the southern segment between New York and, with two trains in each direction continuing west to Niagara Falls daily.
Ethan Allen Express: one train in each direction daily from New York City to, splitting from the corridor in Schenectady.
Adirondack: New York City to, splitting from the corridor in Schenectady.
Lake Shore Limited: New York City to, splitting from the corridor at, though a section of the train splits off in Albany to serve Boston instead of New York.
Maple Leaf: daily service from New York City to, operating on the entire corridor.
Commuter rail
Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line, from Poughkeepsie, New York to Grand Central Terminal, New York, uses the corridor between Poughkeepsie to south of Riverdale.
Freight service
Freight service is provided by CSX Transportation.
