Passenger rail service from New York City to Montreal is back on track after a months-long suspension.
It’s a sound that hasn’t been heard in Plattsburgh since May.
Amtrak’s Adirondack passenger rail service pulled into the depot on its way to Montreal Monday.
Among the passengers disembarking was Queens resident Victor Escarate-Cruz. He says he tries to take the train every year to visit friends in the Adirondacks. He found out on the ride that this was the first northbound train in months.
“I come here to the Adirondacks just to spend some time with my friends and come enjoy the mountains. But I know that the train from the City to Montreal is really significant,” Cruz said. “I mean, the fact that in Europe we have high speed rail connecting so many different cities and here we can’t even get one of the largest cities in Canada and the largest city in the United States to connect. It’s really unfortunate. But I do know that this train is going to Montreal, which I do want to take in the future. In the future that seems like a very, very interesting trip opportunity. And if there was more train service, of course I would take it more often because I didn’t know that the train had stopped running for so long. But now that it’s running up, it gives me the opportunity to come up.”
The Adirondack rail service has been on-again-off-again for the last five years and was restored this time without any fanfare. North Country Chamber of Commerce President Garry Douglas isn’t surprised.
“Amtrak has made a botch of this thing for five years,” contends Douglas. “They took three years to get this service up and running after the pandemic. So strike one. Then they, with great fanfare with us, resumed the service only for a couple months later to say oh golly we know we had that three years that we could have solved problems, but we have a heat issue on the CN tracks north of the border, so we’re going to have to shut down for summer. And lo and behold they didn’t get it done in time for this last summer. So strike two and strike three. I think they’re being low profile because they took an awful lot of heat, deservedly so, over the last couple of years. And so I think they’re being a little sheepish and that’s okay as long as we have the service back.”
As frustrated as local leaders have been, they say they’re delighted to see the train back. Clinton County Legislature Chair Republican Mark Henry is pleased Amtrak service has been restored and hopeful it won’t be suspended again.
“I guess it would be accurate to say I’m cautiously optimistic. I haven’t had the opportunity to talk to any of the Amtrak leaders. Once that happens and we get the assurances, or somebody gets the assurances, as to what their plans are going forward that would be helpful to hear from the executives of Amtrak, the spokespeople for Amtrak,” Henry said. “So I’m cautiously optimistic they’ve opened it up. And so I’m going to assume, at least for the time being, that it’s good news and it will continue.”
Amtrak responded to an email asking for confirmation that the Adirondack line was restored and if repairs done this summer will prevent a similar suspension next year. Senior Public Relations Manager Jason Abrams answers that he “can’t confirm the repairs/work; that has to come from CN (Canadian National). But I can confirm we resumed service yesterday.”
WAMC has requested comment from CN – Canadian National Railway.
