Poughkeepsie station

Poughkeepsie
Poughkeepsie station in 2007
General information
Location	41 Main Street, Poughkeepsie, New York
Owned by	Metro-North Railroad
Line(s)	Empire Corridor (Hudson Subdivision)
Platforms	1 side platform 1 island platform
Tracks	4
Connections	Dutchess County Public Transit: A, B, C, D, E, Poughkeepsie RailLink Leprechaun Lines: White Plains Bus Ulster County Area Transit: Ulster-Poughkeepsie LINK Short Line Bus: X32N
Construction
Parking	1,101 spaces
Accessible	Yes
Other information
Station code	POU
Fare zone	9 (Metro North)
History
Opened	1918
Rebuilt	2009
Passengers
2017	102,070  0.53% (Amtrak)
Services
Preceding station Amtrak Following station Rhinecliff–Kingston toward Niagara Falls, New York Empire Service Croton–Harmon toward New York Rhinecliff–Kingston toward Toronto Maple Leaf Rhinecliff–Kingston toward Montreal Adirondack Rhinecliff–Kingston toward Burlington Ethan Allen Express Rhinecliff–Kingston toward Chicago Lake Shore Limited 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–Kingston 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
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Coordinates	41°42′26″N 73°56′18″W
Area	8.7 acres (3.5 ha)
Built	1918 (1918)
Architect	Warren & Wetmore
Architectural style	Beaux Arts
NRHP reference No.	76001214
Added to NRHP	November 21, 1976

The 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-bay facade features sculptured masonry designs over the five high arched windows. To the west, a 420x15-foot (128x5 m) steel-frame overhead walkway provides access to the tracks via stairs and elevators. Today it continues westward to provides access to the adjacent parking garage. At the time of the station's construction, it served the businesses along Main Street.

The waiting room, modeled on Grand Central Terminal, is a high gallery lit during daylight by the windows and the three original chandeliers. The 14 benches within are also original finished chestnut pieces. The walls are paneled in wood to eight feet (240 cm), after which the carved stone shows all the way to the cornice. More original woodwork, the stained walnut rafters, is present in the ceiling, possibly modeled after a similar design in San Miniato al Monte, an 11th-century church in Florence, Italy.

Amenities include bathrooms (also modernized), a concession stand, as well as a ticket counter selling Metro-North tickets alongside two vending machines which also sell MetroCards; Amtrak tickets are available only by Quik-Trak machine. The northernmost MTA Police substation is adjacent to the station as well. As of August 2006, daily commuter ridership was 1,633 and there were 1,101 parking spots.

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. This 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.

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. Traffic going along the expressway gets a good view of the station, and it and the nearby steeple of the Church of the Holy Comforter have become landmarks to travelers passing through the city.

Platform and track configuration

The station has five tracks, two side platforms and an island platform, but the easternmost platform is not in service.

G	Street level	Exit/entrance, platform crossover, station house, parking, buses
P Platform level	Side platform, not in service
	Track 5	← No regular service →
	Track 3	←      Hudson Line termination track ←      Hudson Line toward New York–Grand Central (New Hamburg) →
	Island platform, doors will open on the left or right
	Track 1	←      Hudson Line toward New York–Grand Central (New Hamburg) → ←      Adirondack toward Montreal (Rhinecliff–Kingston) ←      Ethan Allen Express toward Rutland (Rhinecliff–Kingston) ←      Empire Service toward Niagara Falls (Rhinecliff–Kingston) ←      Maple Leaf toward Toronto (Rhinecliff–Kingston) ←      Lake Shore Limited toward Chicago (Rhinecliff–Kingston)
	Track 2	←      Lake Shore Limited toward New York–Penn Station (Croton–Harmon) → ←      Adirondack, Ethan Allen Express toward New York–Penn Station (Croton–Harmon) → ←      Empire Service, Maple Leaf toward New York–Penn Station (Croton–Harmon) → ←      Hudson Line toward New York–Grand Central (New Hamburg) →
	Side platform, doors will open on the right

History

Poughkeepsie station around 1890

The station building in 2006

The first Poughkeepsie station was built in 1850 as what became the New York Central Railroad's 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.

In 1888, with the completion of the nearby Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge providing east-west rail service across the Hudson, Poughkeepsie became even more important to regional rail transportation. When it came time for a third station to be built on the site, the firm of 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.

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.

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 Metropolitan Transportation Authority, from being a station for primarily intercity rail to the commuter services of Metro-North. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Until April 4, 2009, the southbound Lake Shore Limited (Train 48) stopped at this station, as well as at Hudson, and Rhinecliff-Kingston stations. On November 8, 2010, Lake Shore Limited service to this station was restored in both directions, and later at Rhinecliff-Kingston, but not at Hudson.

A massive restoration in the late 20th century included the reconstruction of the overpass from the station to Main Street and a large parking garage to serve commuters (many of whom come from points north and west). Since the 1990s, there have been rumors and plans to expand the Hudson Line north to Rhinecliff (or even further to Rensselaer). Local property owners have objected to this given plans to build stations in Hyde Park and Staatsburg though those who do commute via Poughkeepsie are in favor of the plan.

External links

• Poughkeepsie, NY – Amtrak
• Poughkeepsie, NY – Station history at Great American Stations (Amtrak)

• Metro-North station page for Poughkeepsie
• List of upcoming Metro-North train departure times and track assignments from MTA
• List of upcoming Metro-North train arrival and departure times and track assignments from MTA