ALBANY — As Amtrak cuts down on trips due to East River Tunnel repairs, the Metro-North Railroad will run its first-ever trains between Albany and New York City starting in the spring of 2026.
Announced in a Monday news conference by Gov. Kathy Hochul, the extended Metro-North service will begin with one daily round-trip between Albany-Rensselaer Station and Grand Central Terminal on the Hudson Line, which currently ends in Poughkeepsie. The expansion is intended to fill a gap in NYC-Albany service left by the cancellation or consolidation of three weekday Amtrak trips last May to accommodate long-delayed repairs to the East River Tunnels after damage done by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
The new northbound Metro-North train will depart from Grand Central in mid-morning, and the southbound train will depart from Albany in the afternoon. Test trains without passengers will run later this year.
Prior to the creation of the Metropolitan Transit Authority and Metro-North, the New York Central Railroad carried passengers on the Hudson Line between Grand Central and Albany. Since the 1970s, Amtrak has been the only passenger train to run between New York City and Albany — the company’s fifth busiest route in the country.
The $1.6 billion East River tunnels reconstruction project, which involves two of the four tunnels connecting rail service to Manhattan, is slated to take three years to complete. Amtrak has added some passenger cars to existing trains to compensate for the shortfall, but has faced criticism for the impacts of service reductions on upstate and Hudson Valley commuters.
“I know Amtrak didn’t make that decision lightly, but shutting down one of the four tubes for repairs meant limiting service in the remaining three, but we all know this, New Yorkers deserve more, and they certainly demand more,” Hochul said at the news conference.
She added that her focus on train service is also part of her promise during congestion pricing push to make transit to and from Manhattan easier without a car.
“We’re asking people to drive less,” she said. “They need to have more reliable alternatives.”
To ease the crunch, Amtrak will also be restoring one daily round-trip between Albany and Penn Station starting on Dec. 1 — the 12:10 p.m. train from Albany and the 3:15 p.m. train from Penn Station — and implementing a price cap on coach flex-fare seats at $99. Hochul has pressed Amtrak to pause dynamic ticket pricing amid the reduced service between Albany and New York City, which has driven prices as high as $109 for coach tickets.
“We’re grateful that you shared your voices and opinions, and we heard you loud and clear,” said Amtrak President Roger Harris. “When the three of us in our teams met right before the East River Tunnel work began, we talked about New York, what New York would be gaining in the long run, but how painful it would be in the short run, and we resolved together to go above and beyond and create more options along the lines that the governor just mentioned.”
Metro-North ticket prices are expected to be “competitive with the low end of existing Amtrak fares,” according to the governor. She said the extended service will not involve adding a payroll mobility tax to the counties now being served.
Amtrak is also in the process of rolling out its new high-speed Acela trains, which are manufactured in upstate New York but unlikely to serve the region anytime soon due to a lack of electrified tracks. As Amtrak introduces the new Acela trains to the Northeast Corridor, the Empire State Passengers Association, a passenger advocacy group, has called for the company to shift more passenger cars from Northeast Regional trains to serve the Hudson Valley amid the reductions.
Amtrak will also restore service between Albany and Boston on Dec. 1 — a route that has been served by a temporary bus service.