Schenectady station

Schenectady
Amtrak station
View west along platform, 2008
Location	332 Erie Boulevard Schenectady, NY 12305
Coordinates	42°48′53″N 73°56′34″W / 42.8146°N 73.9428°W / 42.8146; -73.9428Coordinates: 42°48′53″N 73°56′34″W / 42.8146°N 73.9428°W / 42.8146; -73.9428
Owned by	CDTA
Line(s)	Empire Corridor (Hudson Subdivision)
Platforms	1 island platform
Tracks	3
Connections	Capital District Transportation Authority
Construction
Parking	Yes; free
Disabled access	Yes
Other information
Station code	SDY
History
Opened	1979
Traffic
Passengers (2015)	58,551  3.5%
Services
Preceding station   Amtrak   Following station Saratoga Springs toward Montreal Adirondack Albany–Rensselaer toward New York City Saratoga Springs toward Rutland Ethan Allen Express Amsterdam toward Niagara Falls, NY Empire Service Amsterdam toward Toronto Maple Leaf Utica toward Chicago Lake Shore Limited Albany–Rensselaer toward New York City or Boston South Station   Former services   New York Central Railroad Hoffman's toward Chicago Water Level Route Albany toward New York City

Schenectady is an Amtrak intercity train station in Schenectady, New York. The station is built under the railroad tracks with an elevator and staircase leading to a railway platform between the two tracks. The station is a popular railfan site.

Schenectady Union Station closed in 1969 due to low ridership and was replaced with Colonie-Schenectady near NY-155 several miles to the east in Colonie. The Colonie-Schenectady station was a small building with a parking lot.

In 1979, a new Schenectady station was built on the site of the former Union Station. It was made possible through a partnership among Amtrak, the State of New York and the City of Schenectady. The state funded the rehabilitation of the tracks at $3.9 million, while Amtrak paid two-thirds of the $881,000 cost of the depot with the state covering the rest. The city donated the land. Passengers were able to board at the new station beginning in October 1978, though no customer service agents were present until July 29, 1979, and the station did not fully open until August 8. The new station decimated ridership at Colonie-Schenectady, which was closed on September 9, 1979 to allow trains to operate at full speed between Albany and Schenectady.

A replacement structure known as the Schenectady Intermodal Station is planned to be built on the site of the existing station. It will serve both Amtrak and local transit service. The Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA) received a US $4.2 million grant for the construction of the planned structure in October 2010.

By 2014, funding from federal and state sources for the new station had reached $15 million and the CDTA had largely completed design work for a four story station building, though by 2015 it had been scaled down to two stories. Track construction was planned to begin in the spring of 2014, but was delayed until fall, with station construction to go out to bid in 2014 for completion in 2017. In August 2015, the Metroplex Development Authority sold Amtrak 2,400 square feet (220 m²) of parking lot that was intended to allow for construction of a temporary station to begin immediately, followed by the demolition of the 1979 building and construction of the replacement station.