As a recent Amtrak and New York State Department of Transportation open house made clear, long-awaited updates to the Rhinecliff rail station appear to be on track.
Hudson/Catskill Sam Dingman discussed with Claire Greenburger, of The Daily Catch, what these changes could mean for a growing Hudson Valley region that's more reliant on rail than ever before.
Click the play button to listen to the full conversation.
Read Claire Greenburger's reporting here.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Editor's note: This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Dingman: As I understand it, this series of changes has been in the works for some time, but there have been some administrative delays.
Greenburger: For more than 20 years, the Rhinecliff Amtrak station, which is one of New York's busiest train stations, has been in severe disrepair and in desperate need of renovation.
Back in 2022, the Biden administration awarded $28 million for needed repairs. But since then, there hasn't really been much visible progress at the station, so commuters have been wondering when and if the project will actually get done, and what exactly the renovation is going to include.
There were also some hurdles earlier this year in April when the Trump administration announced that the federal grant money was going to be under review, so it was temporarily stalled. But then they announced a couple months later that it was reinstated, which allowed the the project again to to move forward.
Dingman: That seems very relevant here. This idea that this was money that was originally allocated four years ago, and they now are going to have less than four years to complete these pretty extensive changes. Let's talk about what those changes are, because they're they're very specific to the the way that people use and interact with the Rhinecliff train station.
Greenburger: The renovation is planned to happen in two phases. The first phase, which will actually be completed next year in 2027, focuses on restoring the station building, which was originally built in 1914, so they'll do things like replacing the roof and repairing the exterior of the building.
Then, the much larger second phase of construction, which is what is supposed to be completed by 2030, is really what most commuters are waiting for. That's when they're going to do a major rehaul of the platform, the tracks, the parking lot, the pedestrian bridge that crosses over the tracks, the elevator, the station interior-all of that will be rebuilt.
One thing that they announced at the open house is that the current platform is actually going to double in length. The current platform right now is 500 feet long, and it sits below train level, which means that when the train comes, conductors have to pull out these portable step stools so people can climb on and off. But this new platform will be twice as long — 1,000 feet long, and built at train height. Hopefully that will mean faster boarding, shorter train stops, and easier access for people traveling with luggage or people who are in a wheelchair.
Officials also said that the reason for this longer platform is because Amtrak expects to run longer trains in the future, so they said that demand has been growing along the line that runs from New York City to Albany, which also has a stop in Rhinecliff, and they project that demand will continue to increase over the next few years.
Dingman: I believe the figure is 21.4% 21.4% increase in ridership on Amtrak in 2024 to 2025. That's a pretty substantial uptick in this form of transportation that a lot of people really rely on, especially to get around the Hudson Valley. Could you characterize the tone in the room at this event, because there there was an interesting detail in your piece. I thought that there were at least some people there who wished that the presentation had been a little bit more definitive and formal.
Greenburger: Some were definitely disappointed to find that it was just a sort of one-on-one conversation format, and one person made the comment, "I call this a cocktail party with without the wine, cheese, or crackers."
I think what she was really trying to get across was her frustration with how long this project has taken, and the bureaucracy that has kept the Rhinebeck station project on hold for years.
Dingman: I think it it hooks into a sort of bigger story about the Hudson Valley. As I was reading your piece and thinking about other train stations in our region, in so many ways they're the gateway to the towns and cities of the Hudson Valley. I wonder what you make of what this project and the fact that it's finally moving says about the relationship between our towns and cities and hamlets and passenger rail.
Greenburger: It's an interesting question. We've been seeing a lot of change in the Hudson Valley. In the last five years, I'd say since COVID, we have had a lot more people moving up from the city who are now able to work remote, or maybe only need to go to the city one or two days a week to work in person, and they rely on the train for transportation. We've also seen a major influx of tourism in the Hudson Valley. So, having a more functional train station is going to potentially facilitate that relationship, where we have more tourists coming up.
