Amtrak Construction to Impact Popular NY Routes During Peak Fall Foliage — What to Know

Amtrak passengers with plans to see foliage around New York state may need to pack extra patience in the coming weeks.

Due to an ongoing rehabilitation project of the underwater tunnels, Amtrak’s train routes that operate through the East River Tunnel — which connects New York City, Upstate New York, and Long Island — service on specific routes may be reduced and travel times will be longer.

Specifically, the number of trains that operate upstate to the Hudson Valley will be reduced by 23 percent.

An Amtrak spokesperson confirmed to Travel + Leisure that they are reducing the number of New York City to Albany routes from 13 to 10 on weekdays and Sundays. The train service is lengthening the schedule of northbound Adirondack, as well as Southbound Maple Leaf by an 1.5 hours and 1 hour, respectively. 

Ongoing infrastructure work will impact several train lines throughout weekends during October.  For example, train lines will end at different stops, such as Train 65, which will end at Washington, D.C. instead of Newport News, Virgina. 

The project is a result of the 2012 Superstorm Sandy, which brought heavy flooding and damage throughout the Northeast. The storm also flooded subway and train tunnels, and the recovery has been a slow process to rebuild due to the high frequency of trains in the corridors. 

Trains to the Hudson Valley are popular among leaf-peepers, ski enthusiasts, and those looking to explore upstate New York during the fall season. For example, the affected Adirondack Train line stops at Croton-Harmon, NY and Hudson, NY, which are both popular fall destinations.

In order to see if an upcoming trip is affected, train passengers can find the latest service alerts and timing changes on Amtrak’s website, or can subscribe to text notifications on a particular route as well. 

Over 9.1 million passengers took a ride on Amtrak’s Northeast Regional lines over the last year, which was a 29.2 percent increase from 2022, according to Amtrak data.