Poughkeepsie station

Coordinates: 41°42′26″N 73°56′18″W / 41.70722°N 73.93833°W / 41.70722; -73.93833
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Poughkeepsie
Leprechaun Lines: White Plains Bus
  • Bus transport Short Line Bus: X32N
  • Bus transport Ulster County Area Transit: Ulster-Poughkeepsie LINK
    • Construction
    Parking1,101 spaces
    AccessibleYes
    Other information
    Station codeAmtrak: POU
    Fare zone9 (Metro-North)
    History
    OpenedJanuary 4, 1850[1]
    Rebuilt1916–February 17, 1918[2][3][4]
    2009
    Passengers
    FY 2022111,135[5] (Amtrak)
    20181,956 daily[6] (Metro-North)
    Rank31 of 124[6] (Metro-North)
    Services
    Preceding station Amtrak Following station
    Rhinecliff
    toward Montreal
    		 Adirondack Croton–Harmon
    toward New York
    Rhinecliff
    toward Pittsfield
    		 Berkshire Flyer
    (seasonal)
    Rhinecliff
    toward Niagara Falls, New York
    		 Empire Service
    Rhinecliff
    toward Burlington
    		 Ethan Allen Express
    Rhinecliff
    toward Chicago
    		 Lake Shore Limited
    Rhinecliff
    toward Toronto
    		 Maple Leaf
    Preceding station Metro-North Railroad Following station
    Terminus Hudson Line New Hamburg
    toward Grand Central
    Former services
    Preceding station Amtrak Following station
    Albany–Rensselaer
    toward Chicago
    		 Lake Shore Croton–Harmon
    toward New York (Grand Central)
    Rhinecliff
    toward Detroit (Michigan Central)
    		 Niagara Rainbow
    Preceding station New York Central Railroad Following station
    Hyde Park
    toward Chicago
    		 Main Line Camelot
    toward New York
    Poughkeepsie Railroad Station
    Warren & Wetmore
    Architectural styleBeaux Arts
    NRHP reference No.76001214[7]
    Added to NRHPNovember 21, 1976

    Poughkeepsie station is a Metro-North Railroad and Amtrak stop serving the city of Poughkeepsie, New York. The station is the northern terminus of Metro-North's Hudson Line, and an intermediate stop for Amtrak's several Empire Corridor trains.

    Built in 1918, the main station building is meant to be a much smaller version of Grand Central Terminal. It was a source of civic pride when it opened. In 1976 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Poughkeepsie Railroad Station; it and Philipse Manor are the only Hudson Line stations outside Manhattan to be so recognized.

    Station layout

    Waiting room

    The station is a four-story building built into a rockface, with the bottom two levels given over to the tracks and the top two accounted for by the main waiting room, a two-story brick-faced building. Its five-

    parking garage. At the time of the station's construction, it served the businesses along Main Street.[4]

    The waiting room, modeled on

    Florence, Italy.[4]

    Amenities include

    MTA Police substation is adjacent to the station as well. In the late 1960s the North-South Arterial (US 9
    ) was built and elevated immediately to the station's east, somewhat isolating it from the rest of the city.

    There are four tracks at the platform level, enough to accommodate Amtrak and Metro-North stops simultaneously, and from west to east numbered 2, 1, 3, and 5. Only tracks 2, 1, and 3 are regularly used. Track 5, the easternmost, has a lower speed limit and is used mainly for non-revenue maintenance trains or those experiencing difficulties. The station has a high-level island platform, high level side platform, and a low level side platform, each six cars long and slightly offset from each other. Only the high level platforms are used in passenger service.[8]: 8 

    History

    Poughkeepsie station around 1890
    The station building in 2006

    The first Poughkeepsie station was built in 1850 as what became the

    Water Level Route worked its way up the Hudson River. For its first two years it was the end of the line, but even after it was completed all the way to Albany, it remained the most important intermediate stop. Many local industries, particularly the carpet mills and shoe factories in the city, used the rail facilities to get their products to market. The concentration of industry around a major rail stop also led to the rise of banking and finance within the city as well.[4]

    In 1889, with the completion of the nearby

    Warren & Wetmore was hired to design a station that would impress travelers and communicate the city's confidence and cosmopolitan aspirations. They chose to model it on Grand Central, another successful design of theirs.[4]

    After five years of design and construction, the station was opened on February 18, 1918. The city's main newspaper, then the Poughkeepsie Eagle (now the Poughkeepsie Journal) was unstinting in its praise:

    Poughkeepsie woke up Sunday and rubbed its eyes when it visited the new station of the New York Central Railroad, and gasped. Was this Poughkeepsie or a station in the

    Bronx? The new building certainly surpassed anything dreamed of by the present generation of Poughkeepsians and no more will travelers get a poor impression of the place by what they see when they alight from the railroad trains.[4]

    The building has remained largely intact since then, despite declines in passenger rail use and the demise of the New York Central. It has since transitioned, under the auspices of the

    Hudson, and Rhinecliff
    stations. On November 8, 2010, Lake Shore Limited service to the station was restored in both directions, and later at Rhinecliff, but not at Hudson.

    A massive restoration in the late 20th century included the reconstruction of the

    Rensselaer). Local property owners have objected to the given plans to build stations in Hyde Park and Staatsburg
    though those who do commute via Poughkeepsie are in favor of the plan.

    The Berkshire Flyer began running on July 8, 2022, providing direct service to Pittsfield on summer weekends.[9]

    Bibliography

    • Hasbrouck, Frank (1909). The History of Dutchess County, New York. Poughkeepsie, New York: S.A. Matthieu. Retrieved June 21, 2022.

    References

    1. ^ Hasbrouck 1909, p. 221.
    2. ^ "Begin Work Soon on New Station". The Poughkeepsie Eagle-News. April 17, 1916. p. 5. Retrieved June 21, 2022 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
    3. ^ Gildersleeve, E.D. (February 18, 1918). "Poughkeepsie's New Station a Credit to City". The Poughkeepsie Eagle-News. p. 5. Retrieved June 21, 2022 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
    4. ^ a b c d e f g Howe, Patricia; Moore, Katherine (February 25, 1976). "National Register of Historic Places nomination, Poughkeepsie Railroad station". Archived from the original on July 24, 2011. Retrieved January 19, 2008.
    5. ^ "Amtrak Fact Sheet, Fiscal Year 2022: State of New York" (PDF). Amtrak. June 2022. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
    6. ^ a b METRO-NORTH 2018 WEEKDAY STATION BOARDINGS. Market Analysis/Fare Policy Group:OPERATIONS PLANNING AND ANALYSIS DEPARTMENT:Metro-North Railroad. April 2019. p. 6.
    7. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
    8. ^ "Metro-North Railroad Track & Structures Department Track Charts Maintenance Program Interlocking Diagrams & Yard Diagrams 2015" (PDF). Metro-North Railroad. 2015. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
    9. ^ Britton-Mehlisch, Meg (July 8, 2022). "'Sold out' Berkshire Flyer train is rolling towards Pittsfield, after on-time departure from New York City". The Berkshire Eagle. Retrieved July 8, 2022.

    External links

    Wikimedia Commons has media related to Poughkeepsie station.
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