From Empire State Passengers Association (ESPA), newsletter for March/April 2011:

The goal of getting the second track between Albany and Schenectady is still in sight. All involved parties, namely the FRA, NYSDOT, CP, CSX, and Amtrak, hope to see construction begin later this year.

In addition, CP is set this year to begin construction of a second track along the Adirondack route in the Ballston Spa area.

Amtrak New York State ridership continues to show gains, in fact for the 16th month in a row. In the month of February 2011, trains west of Albany showed the biggest increase at 13.2%. The Adirondack had 12.4% more passengers than February 2010, Hudson Valley (south of Alban) came in with an 11.2% rise, and the Ethan Allen Express rose 8.8%. Statewide ridership increased 11.8% for that month.

On the other hand, on-time performance has been slumping in this area. Overall timeliness for January 2011 was only 76.5%, which is 10.9% lower than the previous year. The best performance of the month was the Hudson Valley trains at 81.5%, the Adirondack 80.6%, the Maple Leaf 71%, west of Albany 69.4%, and the Ethan Allen 62.3%.

New York and Vermont are uniting to study options for serving communities in southwestern Vermont, as well as nearby areas in New York State.