How to Ride Amtrak's Empire Service from Albany to New York City's Penn Station

Preparing for the Trip

Buy a ticket. Whether you are heading southbound (the way this article is reading) or northbound, you will need a ticket. If you live near the Albany train station, you can buy tickets inside the station. Warning: Tickets on the train are pricey, though if you have extra time and are sitting inside the center, you can often buy them right on their app, but make sure you use ALB as your starting point and NYP as your endpoint but expect ticket-shock at the priciness.

Board the train, heading southbound, in Albany. Although Albany's train station tracks are all guarded by locked gate agents inside the station, if you give them your ticket, they will allow you to proceed. Although you'll start inside the station above the train level, most will have you proceed down a flight of stairs. If you need help or need an elevator, see a gate agent. Some train lines stop in Albany and have you exit, come into the station, pass through the track assignment area to your gate, and reboard a different train. Very few - if any will find their continuing train on the opposite side of the platform. This applies more to eastbound and westbound trains from Toronto/Niagara Falls/Buffalo, Chicago, and Boston's South Station (where the Lake Shore Limited heads towards Boston). Amtrak tries to separate the CSX industrial trains here and often has to stop these cars here so they can conform to eastern Hudson River train travel policies (since industrial lines aren't allowed on the east side of the Hudson River). Technically, the Albany station isn't the official name of this station. It's called Rennsellaer but is geared toward the Albany (New York's capital) crowd and surrounding communities. It used to be called Albany-Rennsellaer Station, though in the middle 2010's went through a name change.

Find a seat on the train. Most Empire Service trains run between certain stops, but there are some that almost all run to. If you are running the entire length of the Empire Service, most train ticket collectors won't bother asking you to sit in a certain train car. If you need to get off somewhere along the route - not something this article describes by the title - you may be asked to move between cars because ticket collectors often provide cars solely for certain stations to certain car ratios and you may have to move. (If you are sitting in a car too far forward, you may be asked to move because that car might not be open at your particular stop.) Sit on the side of the River view, if you want picturesque views. Sit on the side opposite River view and you'll see more landmarks stations, buildings, and properties.

Riding the Train

Ride between Albany and Hudson, NY. This part is mostly just a river jaunt. No real significant points exist. The biggest thrill is seeing the old station in Hudson, its presence of stepping stones to get on and off the train, and various signs of old-time station life with only one station sign and a 10-space parking lot which often doesn't have enough parking to keep people moving. You'll pass through Rennsellaer, past Papscanee Island Nature Preserve, through Castleton-on-Hudson, past the Schodack Creek (where it runs alongside NY-9J), see Houghtaling Island off in the distance, then travel past more preserves as it makes its way through Stuyvesant, past Rattlesnake Island & Coxsackie Island, depart from NY-9J past Little Nutten Hook, and makes its way down to Stockport where it passes over Stockport Creek and through the Greenport Conservation Area along the Hudson River, as it passes into Hudson. Not all trains stop in Hudson. However, most Empire Service trains do. Bigger, larger trains (such as the Lake Shore Limited running towards New York), don't stop in Hudson and instead run express to the next station.

Ride between Hudson and Rhinecliff, NY. On this route, you'll continue past landmarks closer to Rhinecliff including Tivoli and Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, though if you look out the opposite side, you can often find the markings of an old station in Barrytown that got turned into a post office with a road leading up a hill. In this section, you'll run through the Livingston State Forest paralleling NY-9G along the riverside, through Germantown, past Clermont State Historic Site, through Tivoli, past Bard College's South Bay (Hudson River) in Annandale-on Hudson, past the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge (holding NY-199) and into Rhinecliff Station a few minutes later.

Ride between Rhinecliff and Poughkeepsie. Although Poughkeepsie is a famous stop, this ride between the two is famous for showing another old - now defunct as a current rail station - shows you the Hyde Park station, though it will not stop there, and you will find old signs and similar outside of it if you sit on the side not facing the river. You'll pass Wilderstein Historic Site (on the side not facing the riverfront), Linwood Spiritual Center, Staatsburgh State Historic Site and Staatsburgh, Mills Norrie State Park and Environmental Center, Esopus Island (on the Hudson River side), Blunts Island and the Poughkeepsie Yacht Club, Bolles Island, Vanderbilt Kayak Launch Site, Vanderbilt Lane Historic District, Vanderbilt Mansion Historic Site, Hyde Park Landing and Station, Crum Elbow Point, Culinary Institute of America (off in the distance), through the Hudson River section of western Poughkeeise and into Poughkeepsie Station (just south of the Walkway Over the Hudson and north of the Mid-Hudson Bridge/US-/55.

Ride between Poughkeepsie and Croton-Harmon. Poughkeepsie is the northern terminus station of the commuter line (Metro-North) running the Hudson Line, and many more stations are seen on the route. The train will run express through these Metro-North stations, but outside of small stations with tinier stations/platforms, you could avoid this portion and look out towards the River. You'll spot the former location of Indian Point (nuclear) Power Plant and Tarrytown. You'll pass southern Poughkeepsie and Fox Point, the former IBM Poughkeepsie location, New Hamburg-Chelsea, Beacon (and the Newburgh Beacon Bridge carrying I-84), past Bannerman Castle (on the River), the Breakneck Ridge station (where Metro-North only stops if they receive a call from a rider, which is not more than a step-stool), into Cold Spring and Bear Mountain Bridge (carrying US-6), past Constitution Island, West Point (across the River) into Garrison Landing, Manitou (popular hiker stop for Metro-North on select trains), into Peekskill, Buchanan-Montrose, Crugers, the /11 Memorial and Croton-Harmon Yard (for Metro-North repairing their engines) and into Croton-Harmon's station. Croton-Harmon is where your train will switch to a third-rail system (or disconnect and into a diesel power running north the opposite way).

Run between Croton-Harmon and Yonkers. Yonkers may not be a big stop for most trains on Metro-North anymore, but Yonkers is often thought of to be part of New York (City), and that's not true as it's outside the city lines. You'll pass Crotonville a minute after pulling out of the station, across Croton Bay, past Ossining, Scarborough-Briarcliff Manor, Archville, Sleepy Hollow Manor and Philipse Manor-Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown and the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge (with traffic on I-287/I-87), Irvington, Dobbs Ferry, Hastings on Hudson, Northwest Yonkers, and Glenwood, and into Yonkers.

Run between Yonkers and New York's Penn Station. After passing the almost-attached stations of Ludlow and Riverdale, your train line will split with Metro-North before passing over Spuyten Duyvil Creek, past Tubby Hook, and underneath the George Washington Bridge's rock form (carrying I-95, US-9), as it makes its way past Washington Heights into Upper Manhattan, Manhattanville and enters a tunnel that carries your train throughout the underground of Manhattan into New York's Penn Station) before it comes slightly out and you will often see New Jersey Transit's trains on other lines inside New York Penn Station.

Find yourself at your final destination. Get yourself out of the train; head to the next open door and walk out. If you need assistance, contact a train operator. Amtrak seems to keep track of those who may need special assistance, but you can find any Amtrak employee wearing an Amtrak nametag or special conductors hat once they've given the "all clear" signal to deboard.

Come up into Penn Station (recently renamed and slightly relocated to the Moynihan Train Hall.