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I flew up to Albany from Austin. It was not too difficult to get from the airport to the ALB Amtrak station via bus: it took 3 busses and a little over an hour but the bus came right into the airport and another dropped right in front of the station and all changes were from standing in the same spot; all drivers and others very helpful. The ALB station is very nice as has been reported here before. I had a short uneventful ride to Hudson which has a station with a lot more character than Albany. I walked up Warren St. to my hotel - the only one in this small town/former city. On Thursday I took Ethan Allen down to Poughkeepsie and walked around four hours before taking Ethan Allan back to Hudson. Stunning views along the river. I found Poughkeepsie to be a more attractive place for me to live, partly because it also has MetroNorth service to the city as well as Amtrak. I walked the former RR bridge across the Hudson which is now a public park. From there I noticed a neat neighborhood below which I explored on my return. It turned out to be an Italian neighborhood which I liked a lot and made some contacts for future rental - and it's a few blocks from the station. A couple of days later I took Empire Service from Rhinecliff to NYP. I was changing to Regional 172 to Boston which was 2 hrs late (along with everything else) because of downed wires around Philly. The ride up was pleasant and beautiful - much more bucolic and less densely populated than I expected. The odd thing to me is that I was sitting on the right seaward side of the train and the afternoon sun was frequently shining in my eyes! Since when does the sun go down in the east? Arrival in a humming South Station at rush hour. I rode the MBTA around a bit and flew back to Austin a couple of days later. My inspiration is that Amtrak should forget upgrading to HSR to Boston and focus on extending south where the population growth is. The service is obviously acceptable as it is and further development would better serve the nation going south to Charlotte and Atlanta and Florida. Also TX - spend the money where the people are going, not where they are leaving.
All trains were well patronized and clean etc etc. I had no complaint with the service - and I didn't hear complaints about the delays on the NEC that day either. I noticed that the next day everything was running on time.
Posts: 326 | From: San Antonio Texas USA | Registered: Dec 2003
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The ex-New Haven along the Connecticut shoreline is so stinking crooked that it probably faces every point of the compass between due south and due north, if not a little beyond, in its nominally eastbound trek.
Posts: 2808 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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Glad you enjoyed your trip. Interesting about taking buses from Albany Airport to the train station in Rensselaer--you certainly got to see a lot of the city!
I know some people who crossed that old rr bridge in Poughkeepsie--it opened as a walkway quite recently, I believe. My friends said it was spectacular, esp now in foliage season. I also know that Italian neighborhood in Poughkeepsie you describe--close to the train and also not far from St Francis Hospital. I am not a big fan of Poughkeepsie in general; it's been so subdivided by what they did with Route 9 down there that the city flavor was pretty much destroyed. But that neighborhood still looks OK. There is also quite a nice area closer to Vassar College (which has a nice campus including an impressive library and pretty decent small art museum). And if you have a chance to walk in Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery along the river (further south than the station), that is very lovely, esp in spring when the trees bloom. I believe it's quite safe there too. OTOH there is a degree of crime in downtown Poughkeepsie, esp just up Main St a way (up the hill a way from the train station, I mean, a few blocks past the street where the Civic Center is).
Are you moving to the area, then? You might look into living in Rhinebeck too--more expensive, but very nice. No Metro North, though; or, at least, you'd have close to 1/2 hour drive to get to the Metro North terminus in Poughkeepsie, plus the hassle of parking. However, the Rhinecliff Amtrak station would be nearby, and it's an OK station too. Empire Service, which I use all the time, is fairly frequent. Costlier than Metro North, of course. Hudson's station is nicest of all, I think, but I guess between Poughkeepsie and Hudson, Poughkeepsie is certainly more convenient, and both have their problems. I know that hotel in Hudson that you mention, too! I ate there once many years ago, right after they opened. I remember it because there was a dead cockroach in my glass! There is also a new hotel that opened in Rhinecliff, called The Rhinecliff. Quite pricey, I believe, but right by the train station.
Glad too you liked your trip from Boston to NYC. I thought if you were heading to NYC your windows would be facing mainly south (across the LI Sound), and east would be behind you, no?
Re population density: The area around Boston and between Boston and Providence is fairly dense, I believe, even though Boston itself is a small city compared to NYC of course. But it's not an area from which lots of people have been fleeing to the Sun Belt, I don't think--western NYS is far more in that category, for example. Besides, I thought the move to the Sun Belt was now curtailed some. The highest foreclosures are in places like Florida, Arizona, and Las Vegas, aren't they?
That's not to say I know where they do or don't need HSR, or care all that much about it. I'm more interested in more rail lines to more places! For example, in NC I'm looking forward to that new line to Asheville, and perhaps the train in Florida up from West Palm to Stewart. But I sure do wish the train from eastern Florida to Pensacola would be brought back, even if it goes no further!
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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Regarding the New Haven RR Poughkeepsie Bridge, I posted the following over at their Historical Society's page:
quote: Tuesday October 5, The Times favorably editorialized on the Bridge's restoration as a walking trail:
Brief passage:
The Henry Hudson anniversary sparked many plans for legacy projects, many of them - including land purchases as a bulwark against view-destroying sprawl - still unrealized. Maybe as the economic and aesthetic benefits of this once-dreamy, impractical vision - saving and fixing a big old bridge - become clearer, people will summon the will and means to dream even bigger.
This past weekend, I was "out" for a family wedding (somehow Mr. Curtin, in view of the "great" weather Saturday, I don't think our tentative Lunch at St. Barts would have been a "go"). On approach to HPN Runway 16 Friday, from a good flightseeing seat, I saw the Bridge. While in all likelihood it was simply the sun, "I'd swear" the Bridge had been painted Silver!!!
Finally but unrelated, I did have occasion to drive past the Cos Cob Pumping Station. Even though a Porsche Cayenne was breathing down the tail of my rented Chevy Impala, I was able to see that the NYNH&H 1927 signage still stands. Maybe some Greenwich zillionaire might bother to ask someone in the know just what that means, but it is great to see that "our Road" will live on in some small way.
Posts: 9976 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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Interesting, City of Miami. I'm not very familiar with the Hudson valley, other than the train ride. With a son in northern NJ, we should explore more.
Hope you find your perfect spot. I was intrigued with the Stonington and Mystic, CT area on a recent visit. Had a small town feel. For train watching, it's hard to beat Old Saybrook. But it wasn't long before we were glad to head south again.
Posts: 2397 | From: Camden, SC | Registered: Mar 2006
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I think I originally became aware of the town of Hudson when someone mentioned it on this forum. It is an old town with lots of old buildings, residential and commercial of various materials. A lot of them are in an advanced state of decay. The town had the feel of New Orleans to me - or even Venice. Lots of beautiful old buildings crumbling right before your eyes. And yet right next to one of these would be its sister in a pristine state preservation, fully restored. I am sure there is a lot more activity around town in the summer with the tourist traffic, but I felt the fall and certainly winter would be depressing for me. I walked many miles around town and never felt unsafe or threatened for a moment. There were lots of rental and for sale signs displayed.
Poughkeepsie had a more positive feel for me, particularly the neighborhood Sojourner speaks of. I had several pleasant encounters on the street (it was a spectacularly beautiful day) following which I went into a pasticceria called Caffe Aurora and had a fabulous cannoli and coffee. Then I walked up to a bench on a grassy knoll in a park across the street and watched leaves blow around me and gazed out over the train station to the river and colorful view beyond. I felt totally 'stoked' as we used to say in the good old days. Here there is enough for me - but, Palmland, it was a warm day not giving any hint of what is to come to make one yearn for southern climes! If I have learned anything on my travels it is that folks pretty nearly always complain about their own weather and think fondly of yours. The RR bridge was far from my concept of a 'park.' They put a huge concrete slab on the bed of the bridge all the way across - I cannot even imagine what that must weigh. I kept thinking it would be more pleasant as a boardwalk, but they must've had their reasons.....
Sojourner, my trip on the NEC was from NYP to BOS so I thought I was going E with the sun at my back. Prodded by Mr. Harris' remark, I google-mapped Conn and see that the RR line IS very convoluted; I didn't have a sense of that while on the train. I walked around the village of Rhinecliff as Sojourner suggested while waiting on the train and noticed the hotel mentioned; I found it to be definitely more upscale than Hudson but less interesting. As of right now, my list of places I would like to live is Charlottesville VA, Poughkeepsie NY, Portland OR & San Luis Obispo CA. You will notice they all have good-to-excellent train service - this seems to be my top priority! Am I kidding myself?
Posts: 326 | From: San Antonio Texas USA | Registered: Dec 2003
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That is interesting, City of M. I have been to Charlottesville, Portland OR, & San Luis Obispo and liked all three a zillion times more than Poughkeepsie, though I don't think I'd want to live in Portland either--too much rain, and really for a city its size, just a little boring (though everyone there tries not to make it so). Of the four places you list, I'd pick San Luis Obispo first, if I could afford to live in California (though I liked Santa Barbara even more, thought it had much more to offer, but San Luis Obispo was a lovely little small town in its way). Charlottesville is very nice too, but I don't like the fact that they have no public buses (or didn't when I last checked) to go to Jefferson's Monticello, for example. I loved the public bus ride I took in San Luis Obispo through some very nice beach areas up to San Simeon (I believe bus, which cost $1.50 for a gorgeous little ride, was on the rec of Mr Williams at this website, btw. I also like being near river, lake, or ocean; don't recall much of that in Charlottesville.
I actually kinda liked your current home town of Austin, City of M, though I was only there for a day. And I really loved San Antonio, esp that King William neighborhood. Not that I could afford that either!
If you are looking for an Italian neighborhood to live in, one of my favorite is North Boston. I believe it's still affordable, but I'm not sure. . . You also might check out Providence, RI, that had a lively Italian neighborhood and a fantastic little Italian pastry shop when I was there a couple of years ago. I have been to Caffe Aurora in Poughkeepsie too, btw, though not in many many years.
The original Rhinecliff Hotel was actually an interesting old building with a tin ceiling, but in later years quite a "gin mill," and it fell into such a state of disrepair that when it was bought and remodeled as this la-dee-da hotel The Rhinecliff, the owners basically had to gut the place and put up what you now see.
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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