Schenectady, NY Station

I'm looking at a trip where I might have a layover here for 4 hours or so and i'm curious if there's anything in the area to do etc.

I'd almost rather change in DC, but i'm not sure how long i'd really want to be on the ethan allen express (DC has tons to do and is a lot of fun, plus would be a great place to get stranded)

SDY is a block from the center of downtown Schenectady. Right across the street (although it has been a few years since I've been there) is a Burger King in case you get hungry. BTW - The EA doesn't go to WAS, there is no way to get from Rutland to DC on the same train. And SDY is a much better transfer point than ALB! (There's nothing nearby the station.)

Albany has a Coffee Beanery, and is a nice edifice. Or it was last time I was there. Also there are a bunch of Albany metro busses.

While true, I don't think you can catch a bus into Albany (across the Hudson River) and another back within 3 hours. The schedule is not that often.

I was there on a short layover this summer. Walked around the downtown. Had dinner in little Italy. There are also plenty of nice restaurants downtown. Even a theater. If I had four hours rather than two I would have wandered around a bit more, maybe gone inside the city hall building to see what its like and whether there is any civic oriented artwork. They seem to have a decent transit service. Don't know where it will take you or whether you can get back to the station on time. I'd say Schenectady is a nice little city to visit for a layover. Indeed, better than most.

The theater mentioned by NorthShore is Proctor's Theater. It is one of the old time theaters, built in 1926 with the large balcony and Wurlitzer organ, and is beautifully restored. It once hosted all the big stars and vaudeville acts. I saw Mickey Rooney and Ann Margaret there in the 1980's!

It is only a block or 2 from the station. Even those just passing thru on the train can see the facade. Going west or north the train crosses the major street of SDY (State Street) just before the station stop. (Going east or south, it's just after departure.) If you look east from the bridge (right going west/north or left going east/south) a few hundred feet, you'll see it!

I traveled from Syracuse to Montreal in August, 2012. The trip required a change of trains in Schenectady. The layover was about four hours.

The ticket agent was friendly. There was a little bit of train activity to be viewed from the platform. The elevator to street level is said to be famously slow. (I did try it, and it was quite slow!)

Waiting around, I found it difficult to overlook that the place had seen its heyday, of course back in the days of the New York Central. Tracks removed. Rusted steelwork. Crumbling concrete. One platform suffices today, but the bridge in the distance clearly once accommodated multiple tracks. Still, there is some relief that the place is still there, that it still serves intercity trains. That some intercity trains still exist.

If you get hungry, there is a Burger King across the street. I happen to like the onion rings!

Schenectady is going to be rebuilt with high level platform in the near future.

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Just north of the station (going to Rutland and Montréal) is the former American Locomotive Company (ALCO) plant - birthplace of many of the famous steam locomotives and later diesels. Going to Buffalo and Chicago, you turn west and do not pass it.

Spent about 3 hours in Schenectady this summer transferring from the Adirondack to the Lake Shore Limited. There is an Irish Pub across the parking lot called Katie O'Byrne's that has tasty appetizers and a decent beer list. Across the street is another place called the Grog Shoppe that I didn't try.

Schenectady's Station is in a perfectly nice small downtown I've had a couple of layovers in. Don't let the decrepit train station sway you otherwise. It was built to be 'temporary' in the late 1970s and has been in use ever since! I would much rather have a layover there then in ALB. There plenty of nice little cafes and restaurants, not just the Berger King as previous posters have mentioned.

For the first few years of Amtrak, the "Schenectady stop" was actually in Colonie - about 5-10 miles away. The route between BUF and ALB bypassed it and did not even enter Schenectady at all. (It ran south of town.)

jis said:

Schenectady is going to be rebuilt with high level platform in the near future.

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Do you know the current schedule to actually start construction on the new station and platform at Schenectady? This year? 2015? Someday?

the_traveler said:

SDY is a block from the center of downtown Schenectady. Right across the street (although it has been a few years since I've been there) is a Burger King in case you get hungry. BTW - The EA doesn't go to WAS, there is no way to get from Rutland to DC on the same train. And SDY is a much better transfer point than ALB! (There's nothing nearby the station.)

Click to expand...

Yea, that's a good point

SubwayNut said:

Schenectady's Station is in a perfectly nice small downtown I've had a couple of layovers in. Don't let the decrepit train station sway you otherwise. It was built to be 'temporary' in the late 1970s and has been in use ever since! I would much rather have a layover there then in ALB. There plenty of nice little cafes and restaurants, not just the Berger King as previous posters have mentioned.

Click to expand...

Any idea if there's redcap or some similar place to drop baggage to go exploring?

No Redcap, but you can store your bags with the ticket agent for a fee (or not). If you‘re transferring to the LSL, you also have an option to check your bags - for no cost!

afigg said:

h

Do you know the current schedule to actually start construction on the new station and platform at Schenectady? This year? 2015? Someday?

Click to expand...

NYSDOT has been remarkably closed-mouthed, but the money has to be spent by 2017 (at least part of it was ARRA money) so I expect they're moving as fast as they can. The work on the Albany station and on the Albany-Schenectady tracks started quite suddenly without prior announcement.

Initially CDTA was supposed to be responsible for the SDY rebuild. But since then I have heard that the responsibility has been transferred to Amtrak, and I have no idea what they have been upto.

Just ask the agent they will definitely hold them maybe charge you the $4 per bag maybe not. Most of the time in tiny station's the've not bothered to charge me, especially if I'm on a defined connecting layover. This includes the CL to Pennsy layover in Pittsburgh. He immediately handed me and the Amish family ahead of me red cap tags so we could take walks.

The two times I've stopped in SDY were both short couple-night trips when I had basically my computer backpack that I use in my daily life with a change of clothes so luggage storage wasn't an issue.