Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:02 — 17.4MB)
Erie to east of Rochester – US Rail Journeys Series 3 Episode 36
In ‘Erie to east of Rochester’ I travel a further 250 miles on my journey to New York on the Lakeshore Limited.
Please click on a thumbnail to see the photographs that go with this podcast:
Erie:
By the time we reach Erie we are only 40 minutes late. The ‘Art Deco‘ station opens on 3rd December 1927. Today Logistics Plus own the site and their headquarters is in the building. There is also a micro brewery / brew pub, The Brewerie, on the ground floor.
In 1927 trains departed every hour for destinations across the US. Today the station hosts two trains a day, the eastbound Lakeshore Limited services to New York/Boston and the westbound ones to Chicago. In 2023, 15,236 Amtrak passengers passed through the station.
A bus service operates to transport passengers into Erie.
Buffalo – Depew station:
Buffalo-Depew station dates from 1979. It replaces the magnificent, but by that time underused, Buffalo Central Terminal as Buffalo’s main Amtrak station. The station is 10 miles (16 km) east of downtown Buffalo.
It has the standard Amtrak 1970s to early 1990s design. This includes concrete block walls, floor-to-ceiling windows and a cantilevered black roof. There are eight trains per day with two Empire Service round trips, one Lake Shore Limited round trip, and one Maple Leaf round trip.
Rochester:
Rochester’s station moves to the current site in 1914. That New York Central railway station is four stories high with three high arching windows, reminiscent of train driving wheels, at the front of the train shed. Sadly this famous station is demolished in 1965.
In 1978 Amtrak builds an Amshack style station which opens on July 12, 1978. This temporary facility lasts until late 2015 when it makes way for the current station, the Louise M Slaughter station.
Dorothy Louise Slaughter was an American politician elected to 16 terms as a United States Representative from New York state, serving from 1987 until her death in 2018.
Listen to the podcast to hear about my journey from Erie to east of Rochester.
This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Vurbl , You Tube and others.
Music:
AKM Music licenses Steam Railway and Light Fun Azz for use in this podcast.