New York's Empire High Speed Rail Corridor

hey it's Earl pal Lucid Stu again we are continuing to move through the Federal Railroad Administration High-Speed Rail corridors in this video we're going to look at the Empire Corridor the Empire Corridor is located completely in New York state New York is the largest state in the American Northeast both by area and population New York city is the largest city in New York and the United States New York State's population is about 20 million and in a strange twist the population of the New York City metro is about the same because it spans four states New York State hosts five other Metro areas with more than 500 000 people including three with more than one million Albany Rochester and buffalo all five are in the Empire Corridor as a result this Corridor links the vast majority of the population of the state the southern Terminus of the Empire Corridor is Penn Station in Manhattan New York City the corridor Works its way up the Hudson River Valley to Albany it then takes a left turn up the Mohawk River Valley until it emerges into the Lake Ontario lowlands after winding through the Buffalo area it ends at the Canadian border near Niagara Falls about 85 miles from Toronto let's take a look at some of the potential benefits of High-Speed Rail in the Empire Corridor number one it connects most of New York state with a viable third form of transportation New York City is the king of mass transit in the United States but New York State's Regional Rail outside of the Northeast Corridor leaves something to be desired a high-speed train in the Empire Corridor could improve that number two it takes pressure off of New York City airports about one-fourth of Upstate New York commercial flights travel between there and New York City High-Speed Rail could reduce that load there is also potential to connect Manhattan to New York Stewart International in Newburgh via High-Speed Rail in about 40 minutes that would peel some flights off JFK LaGuardia and Newark And Delay expensive expansions there number three potential connection to Toronto this would benefit Upstate New York greatly by bookending the corridor with the largest metro in Canada number four it further opens the state to tourism from Niagara Falls to Leaf peeping to New York City a tourist could fly into any major New York State airport and have the ability to access the state by rail at a convenient travel speed but it's not all roses let's look at some of the challenges this idea presents number one getting out of New York City at speed is a major ask once you do get out the Metropolitan Transportation Authority owns a good stretch of the tracks and is currently using them for third rail service if MTA isn't on board you have a real problem on your hands number two the Hudson River Valley and Hudson Highlands present a major engineering puzzle in terms of getting through both at anything over 100 miles per hour number three the Hudson River it must be crossed where and how will have a big impact on cost and overall speed number four the Mohawk River Valley this is a winding narrow River Valley that leads between Albany and Syracuse it makes straight track near impossible and would be difficult to circumvent entirely number five the Buffalo Niagara area a tangle of oddly routed rail unavailable decommissioned rail rights of way narrow poorly routed freeways in single-family housing up the yin yang in the worst places possible if you want to run new rail through there High-Speed Rail is usually considered to have a high speed of 150 miles per hour or more however the Federal Railroad Administration is generally aiming for a top speed of 110 miles per hour in service on these routes with Siemens Chargers like this one before we look at true High-Speed Rail the question must be asked can we even get to 110 miles per hour as the fra would like the way we test this is by looking at some curves on the existing route for the purposes of this investigation a 110 mile per hour curve with a tilting train set will have a minimum radius of 4 000 feet the answer then is yes on a mostly 110 mile per hour route that however is quite different from a system capable of averaging 150 miles per hour which often requires curves with radii of 2 miles or more let's quickly review our High-Speed Rail principles and then Dive Right In within this Corridor I see two possible Alternatives the first would follow the existing route as much as possible and straighten out curves even further the second would get across the Hudson as soon as possible to avoid the slower parts of the Hudson River Valley thereby giving us a better average speed as mentioned the New York City Terminus of the Empire Corridor is Penn Station the Empire track out of pen is tunneled under the tracks coming in from New Jersey on the NEC through the north side tunnels they only link up at the platform this means any seat to Empire is a two-seat ride to Points West without alteration to Penn Station continuing East toward Boston would be possible if the Empire Corridor were electrified from Penn Station the corridor moves in a Northerly Direction on the west side of Manhattan this is an old rail cut Freight route that is mostly covered but portions still see the sun in Manhattan this portion is now owned by Amtrak it emerges from Darkness on the Northern end of Riverside Park some curves keep this section under 90 miles per hour but that's okay in our Urban part it does need to be electrified and better sealed our first engineering challenge is at the Harlem River currently the line is single tracked across a swing Bridge we want double track and no movable Bridges required navigational clearance is 100 feet so it's up and over we go this structure would need to be about a mile and a half long at a reasonable grade on the other side of that bridge the right-of-way is owned by MTA and that track is third rail MTA would either need to agree to switch to an overhead catenary system or our High Speed Line would need to use dual mode trains at lower speed on third rail portions that is perfectly okay in this case because the right-of-way constrains speed to 90 miles per hour in this portion anyway and it would be near impossible to improve that without massive lengths of tunnels our first chance of crossing the Hudson on this stretch is at the Mario Cuomo bridge but I'll come back to that later in the Montrose area you have a couple of slow speed curves that can really only be resolved with a tunnel a few miles further at Peak Skill is the worst of it at the southern end of the Hudson Highlands this curve is sub 60 miles per hour and nearly unimprovable without a huge curved bridge over the river that no one would go for as a result on your High Speed Line you're probably going to be below 60 miles per hour for at least five miles here the Hudson Highlands are where the Hudson River cuts a jagged path through a 12 mile wide line of hills and small mountains this is insurmountable unless sticking to the current rather slow right-of-way or digging a roughly 15 mile long tunnel the MTA owned tracks continue North to Poughkeepsie after that the right-of-way is owned by CSX but operated and maintained by Amtrak from there to Albany the track is straighter and more conducive to high speed this looks doable so the main thing is curves let's take a look at some with a two mile radius objective 200 miles per hour probably not happening but 150 looks possible in stretches with some exceptions conclusion faster than 110 the whole way is doable with some investment the current route crosses the river at Albany on this lift bridge we don't want we're in town so our goal is to stay at 90 to 110 miles per hour what gets demolished depends on the exact routing in speed this highlighted route is about speed the current station for this area is on the other side of the river from Albany at the edge of the metro area a high-speed train could continue to stop there too I like a location more Central to the area across I-90 from UAlbany about four miles from downtown this is also near state government offices and some Redevelopment potential from there we continue along the Interstate 90 right of way at high speed in New York I-90 is a toll road controlled by the New York State Thruway Authority anything taking place in the I-90 right away would need to be approved by this body however since this High-Speed Rail Line would be constructed solely in New York state one assumes this wouldn't be an issue at a town named fultonville both Freight and Interstate begin following the Mohawk River more closely this route is untenable without completely ruining the character of The River Valley instead I've opted for a third type of right-of-way power we want to avoid cutting large new swathes of rail right-of-way however if we need to a good place is a long power transmission lines this gives us an already cut path and should make land acquisition easier these paths are generally straight and an added bonus our train is electric that will take us about 100 miles where we can reconnect to Interstate 90 a little past Utica once to Syracuse I like a 150 acre piece of property between I-90 and Syracuse Hancock International Airport for a station there this heavily forested area could be carefully developed for mixed use you can also connect the station here to the airport by a mile and a half of tunnel Syracuse starts a trend that exists from here on out it's difficult to get to the city center in a way that makes sense with High-Speed Rail here you need to go out of the way on some weird Ring Road unless you want to try to deal with this and it's slow Anyway by the way this is by far the simplest of the three 80 miles further east I'm electing to somewhat bypass Rochester due to the aforementioned difficulty the junction of interstates 90 and 390 is a good location lots of land to develop I have a stop in Buffalo at Buffalo Niagara International Airport on a 10 mile long spur this would originate from the juncture of Interstate 90 and a power transmission line path that heads to Niagara Falls this right-of-way effectively circumvents Buffalo's suburbs and this is the only way to both serve Buffalo and reach the Canadian border at high speed without massive destruction Buffalo has considered expanding its light rail system from downtown to the airport so it's a good potential fit another option is the old Buffalo Central Terminal six miles closer to downtown offers a lot of Redevelopment potential but the routing is extremely tricky due to the terminal being abandoned about 40 years ago for Niagara Falls and the Canadian border we will once again need to follow a power transmission routing the suburbs of Buffalo combined with various nature preserves in the area make any other option quite dubious the Toronto option would extend this 85 miles to Union Station Toronto I'll let the Canadian government worry about cost and routing this does bring up the issue of the border and Customs we've talked about connecting to Toronto in two videos now from New York and Michigan our governments should be creating cross-border agreements and protocols to eliminate border crew changes and Customs checks customs and immigration should be handled at the terminal just like an airport not at the border otherwise the concept is moot final cost on this route from New York City to the Canadian border is 54.8 billion dollars here are some estimated travel times New York City to Niagara Falls 3 hours 35 minutes New York City to Albany an hour and 25 minutes Albany to Rochester an hour and 35 minutes Syracuse to Buffalo 50 minutes I did look at an alternative route crossing the Hudson at the Mario Cuomo bridge and going up Interstate 87 before continuing from Albany as previously described this route is a little cheaper and a little faster it does hook up with New York Stewart International Airport but the Hudson River route has a tourist draw that more than makes up for it so I won't go into further detail on the I-87 alternate route the Empire corridor from New York City to Albany is one of Amtrak's busiest routes it takes two and a half hours to Traverse the roughly 150 miles high speed rail could cut that in half but at a cost of 23 billion dollars passenger rail traffic drops by 60 percent west of Albany with those Metro cores being oddly impenetrable to High-Speed Rail would it be worth 27 billion more dollars we can build High-Speed Rail to the Canadian border but with nothing equivalent on the other side what's the point it is possible for this Corridor to connect to other fra High-Speed Rail corridors Buffalo to Cleveland would connect with a hypothetically built out Chicago Hub Network affording a six-hour Chicago to New York trip however the possibility of a similar connection exists through Pennsylvania on a designated High-Speed Rail corridor the Empire Corridor could connect to the NEC Eastward at Penn Station in Manhattan but the Northern New England Corridor proposes to connect to Albany in a way that would be mostly more efficient for the Empire Corridor as well the decision is mainly up to the people of New York since the Empire Corridor lies completely in their state but I think this is one route better left at 110 miles per hour considering the potential cost and potential benefit of trying to reach 186 miles per hour or higher more Federal Railroad Administration High-Speed Rail Corridor videos to come the next video in this series will cover the now defunct Florida Corridor of which brightline currently utilizes a portion look for that in three or four weeks time stews news is due next week so check that out for all the high-speed rail news worth consuming in the last month but that's all for now until next time I'll see you on that big beautiful freeway foreign [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Lucid Stew

Views: 11,282

Keywords: New York, high speed rail, New York City, Albany, Syracuse, Toronto, Canada, Buffalo

Id: ES-ZhPnP9KI

Length: 15min 44sec (944 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 25 2023