Over the past 20 years Schenectady, NY has changed from a blighted city suffering the effects of post-industrial decline, to a vibrant community benefiting from the resurgence in urban living. Public policy has played a huge role, starting with a program to sell vacant houses to refugees and immigrants for $500, to a complete reconstruction of the city's main drag. One of the more visible projects was the replacement of Schenectady's literal Amshack with a brand new station that called back to the New York Central era Union Station that previously existed on the same site. During my 2023 Trip to Albany (tm) I had the opportunity to check out the new Schenectady Union Station and grab some photos at the adjacent CP-159. On the return trip I also managed to divert the vehicle to grab some photos of Conrail era signaling on the former River Line freight route. Photos from all of this can be seen here ( mirror ).
The 1908 beaux arts New York Central Schenectady Union Station was closed in 1969 by the Penn Central due to high costs and low ridership before being sold to the city in 1971 to facilitate the construction of a paring lot. The Penn Central's idea for a replacement was a suburban station within the border of Colonie, NY consisting of a small building with parking. Needless to say, the resulting Colonie-Schenectady Station had even lower ridership than the failing 1908 structure and in 1978 Amtrak moved back downtown with immediate plans to construct what would become known as an Amshack style station similar to others on the old Water Level Route at Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo-Depew, Cleveland, South Bend and Hammond. By the 2010's the Amshack itself had become a rundown shambles that was out of place in a newly revitalized urban downtown and funding became available to completely replace the station and platform facilities with one that called back to the 1908 structure. Here we can see the station facade along with the new waiting room.
