The bike and I happened by Albany Station while the southbound Coast Starlight was stopped there on Saturday afternoon.
At the risk of overdoing the railroad theme on this blog, here’s yet another train episode.
Toward the end of my Saturday bike ride around parts of Albany, I passed the station just as Amtrak train No. 11, the southbound Coast Starlight, made its stop there.
The newly built south section of the platform was open to the public, but the train didn’t make use of it yet.
Passengers still had to board the train or disembark along the old northern segment, the stretch of asphalt that doesn’t comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
As you heard the conductor explain in the video, that stretch is not long enough to accommodate passengers in all the coaches at the same time.
That won’t be a problem once the platform is reconstructed along its entire length. With luck that project should be completed late this year.
On Saturday, Train 11 was about half an hour late leaving Albany. The timetable calls for it to arrive in Los Angeles by 9:11 Sunday night. (hh)
Another look at the new platform, still unused, that Amtrak is having built at Albany Station.
I even waved the train into the Albany Station and enjoyed your chat with the conductor, then waving it out of the station! Can’t get enough of all things trains! Thank you, Hasso for being there!!
PS: Four days ago, while driving past the station, the CLOCK was giving us the correct time!
It does that, twice a day ;)
Hasso, Thanks for the train and train station video and the chat with one of the conductors, and thank you for waiting until the train took off for California so we could hear the whistle blow several times in succession as the train was getting underway. Trains used to be soo great and soo luxurious, so we hang onto what is left of them. This train seemed like one of Amtrak’s better ones.
I enjoy trains very much, but it’s not called the “Coast Starlate” for nothing!