Union Station (Utica, New York)

Utica Union Station
Utica Union Station in 2010
Location	321 Main Street Utica, NY 13501
Owned by	Oneida County
Line(s)	Empire Corridor Adirondack Scenic Railroad
Platforms	1 side platform, 1 island platform
Tracks	3
Connections	CENTRO of Oneida, Greyhound, Birnie Bus Services, Utica-Rome Bus Company, Adirondack Trailways, Chenango Valley Bus Company
Construction
Parking	Yes; free
Disabled access	Yes
Other information
Station code	UCA
History
Opened	1914
Rebuilt	1978
Traffic
Passengers (2015)	61,145[1]  6%
Services
Preceding station   Amtrak   Following station Rome toward Niagara Falls, NY Empire Service Amsterdam toward New York City Rome toward Toronto Maple Leaf Syracuse toward Chicago Lake Shore Limited Schenectady toward New York City or Boston South Station Adirondack Scenic Railroad Terminus Adirondack Scenic Railroad Holland Patent toward Lake Placid   Former services   Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Terminus Utica Branch New Hartford toward Binghamton New York Central Railroad Rome toward Chicago Water Level Route North Ilion toward New York City Terminus Adirondack Division Marcy toward Montreal St. Lawrence Division Marcy toward Ogdensburg Rome toward Oswego Oswego – Utica (via Richland) Terminus
Union Station
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	Main St. between John and 1st Sts., Utica, New York
Coordinates	43°6′15″N 75°13′24″W / 43.10417°N 75.22333°WCoordinates: 43°6′15″N 75°13′24″W / 43.10417°N 75.22333°W
Area	1 acre (0.4 ha)
Built	1914
Architectural style	Beaux Arts
NRHP Reference #	75001215[2]
Added to NRHP	April 28, 1975

The Boehlert Transportation Center at Union Station is a train station served by Amtrak and the Adirondack Scenic Railroad in Utica, New York. It is owned by Oneida County, and named for retired U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-New Hartford.

The station was built in the Italianate style and includes a rusticated granite first story with buff brick above. Symmetrically rectangular in plan, there are thirteen bays across the façade and fifteen on the side elevations. A brick parapet crowns the building; over the main entrance is a large clock flanked by eagle sculptures. The Utica station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.^[3]

Inside is a restaurant and a barber shop, one of the few barber shops in a train station today. The 15,000-square-foot (1,400 m²) waiting room's 47-foot-high (14 m) vaulted ceiling is supported by 34 marble columns. The station's blueprints called for the importing of columns that originally adorned Grand Central Station in New York City. Eight large benches are heated with steam pipes and vents.

History

Interior architectural features (columns & arches)

The station was built between 1912 and May 1914, replacing an older structure dating from 1869. The building was designed by New York architects Stem and Fellheimer.^[4] Construction involved the rerouting of the Mohawk River. The Mohawk River was relocated due to the risk of flooding and the proximity of the Mohawk River to the railroad had become a problem for the expanding city.^[5] Built as a New York Central Railroad station, in 1915 it became tenated by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and the New York, Ontario and Western Railway as well, those two companies abandoning their structures.

At one time, the waiting room also contained three ticket windows, an information office, 15 pay telephones, a Western Union office, two shoeshine stands, a bar and grill. The Western Union Office is no longer there.

The station's restoration began in 1978, but refurbishing/restoration work continues to this day.

Layout

The rear of Union Station with an Adirondack Scenic Railroad train approaching

As originally built, the station featured six island platforms with one alighting platform directly accessible from the station building, serving 12 tracks for New York Central Railroad trains; these were numbered 5 through 16 from south to north. (Tracks 1 and 2 were, respectively, the eastbound and westbound mainline for non-stop trains between Tracks 10 and 11, while Tracks 3 and 4 ran through the yards north of the station proper.) One additional dead-end island platform on the west side of the station building served the New York, Ontario and Western Railway (southern track) and Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (northern track), for a grand total of eight platforms serving 14 tracks. All platforms were linked by an underground passageway.

Postwar reductions in passenger traffic led to service cuts and the eventual bankruptcy of all three railroads, leaving only the mainline Water Level Route (the modern Amtrak Empire Corridor) with regular passenger service by the 1970s. Over time, all but the two centermost platforms were demolished, and the space originally occupied by the first seven station-side tracks was converted into passenger parking.

As it currently exists, Union Station has one side platform (originally the third island platform), accessible directly from the parking lot, serving eastbound Amtrak trains on Track 2 (the former Track 10); and one island platform (slightly widened from its original dimensions) serving westbound Amtrak trains on Track 1 (former Track 11) and Adirondack Scenic Railroad trains on the northern side (former Track 13). These are linked by an aerial walkway, constructed during station renovations at the turn of the 21st century.

Service

Amtrak

The station sees multiple daily departures of the following trains:

• Empire Service
• Lake Shore Limited
• Maple Leaf

A total of eight Amtrak trains use the station daily.

Adirondack Scenic Railroad

The Adirondack Scenic Railroad operates a heritage railway from Utica to Holland Patent, Remsen, and Old Forge on a seasonal basis.^[6]

Bus

Bus companies serving the station, one of the first intermodal facilities in the state, include the following:

• CENTRO of Oneida
• Greyhound Lines
• Birnie Bus Services
• Utica-Rome Bus Company
• Adirondack Trailways
• Coach USA/Chenango Valley Bus Company

References

1. "Amtrak Fact Sheet, FY2015, State of New York" (PDF). Amtrak. November 2015. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
2. Staff (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
3. "Utica Station". Amtrak's Great American Stations. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
4. Potter, Janet Greenstein (1996). Great American Railroad Stations. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 184. ISBN 978-0471143895.
5. Olney, Stephen S. (1987). Union Station, Utica, New York.
6. Utica's Union Station (Adirondack Scenic Railroad)

External links

Media related to Union Station—Utica, New York at Wikimedia Commons

• Boehlert Transportation Center at Union Station
• Amtrak – Stations – Utica, NY
• Utica, NY (UCA) (Amtrak's Great American Stations)
• Utica Union Station (USA Rail Guide -- Train Web)