Rensselaer, N.Y., rail station contract award nears

Amtrak expects to award a contract next month to knock down two former stations north of the current rail station in Rensselaer, N.Y., the Albany Times-Union reported.

Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole
said a contract would be awarded sometime in July. While Amtrak initially
estimated the demolition would cost about $300,000, Cole said Amtrak this
summer will have a better idea of what the final cost would be.

The demolition will clear
the way to construct a fourth track at the station. A platform designed for two
tracks now has just one, because the former stations — one dating from 1968
and another from 1980 — lie in the path of that track.

Installing the fourth track
would ease one bottleneck that Amtrak trains face. It happens more than one
would expect that the three existing tracks are blocked and arriving trains
must wait within site of the station for one to clear.

But how quickly that fourth
track would be built, once the stations are demolished, isn’t clear.

Cole referred questions
about the timetable to the state Department of Transportation.

The current rail passenger
station is operated by the Capital District Transportation Authority and is
much larger than the two earlier stations, the first of which was built before
Amtrak even existed. That station replaced Union Station in Albany and was
built by Penn Central at a time when it and other railroads were trying to get
out of the passenger business.