Passenger rail return to Vermont city took vision, decades

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — After a nearly 70-year absence, a passenger train running from Vermont's revitalized Burlington train station to New York City headed south Friday as part of a nationwide renewal of interest in rail travel.

Last November, President Joe Biden, who famously rode Amtrak between Washington and his Delaware home during his 36 years in the Senate, signed legislation that includes $102 billion for passenger and freight rail investment that will help Amtrak improve and expand its services over time.

Among the projects that will be funded with the help of the rail infrastructure money is a a planned $11 billion train tunnel under the Hudson River linking New Jersey and New York.

Vermont's new Burlington rail expansion caps a nearly 30-year-long effort that saw about $117 million spent on rail infrastructure and comes a year after Amtrak, on its 50th anniversary as the nation’s passenger rail service, announced a $75 billion, 15-year-plan to expand passenger rail around the country.

“With the price of gas, we just jump on the train, sit back and relax and don’t have to worry about it,” said Justin Kratz, who was boarding the Vermont train Friday headed home to Philadelphia.

The new service ran into some early hiccups when passengers were forced to get off the train and take a bus for the portion of the trip in upstate New York between Saratoga Springs and Albany, said Amtrak spokesperson Jason Abrams.

The track in Albany runs by an old warehouse with a wall in danger of collapsing, and Amtrak is avoiding that stretch out of safety concerns. The issue is causing service disruptions on other Amtrak lines. Abrams could not say how long the track in Albany would be closed.

Amtrak, which now serves 46 states, has recently been restoring service that was...