page_title: Empire Service
section_title: Equipment
hierarchical_section_title: Empire Service / Equipment
caption_attribution_description: English: Penn Central Empire Service train #50 departing Hudson station in September 1968
context_page_description: The Empire Service is a higher-speed train service operated by Amtrak within the state of New York in the United States. The brand name originated with the New York Central Railroad in 1967. Trains on the line provide frequent daily service along the 460-mile Empire Corridor between New York City and Niagara Falls, New York via Albany, the state capital.
  During fiscal year 2018, the Empire Service carried 1,150,498 passengers on the line between New York and Albany, while services between Albany and points west, including the Maple Leaf and Lake Shore Limited, carried an additional 366,696. Ticket revenue on the New York–Albany section in FY2016 was $49,361,545, an increase of 1.4% from FY2015, while revenue on the Albany–Toronto route was $22,143,803.
context_section_description: The New York Central did not order new equipment for the Empire Service, preferring to rehabilitate existing equipment. 40 64-seat coaches, built by Pullman-Standard in 1946, were refurbished in 1967–1968. Another 21 coaches from the same pool were rebuilt as 50-seat "coach-buffet" cars. Amtrak acquired this equipment when it took over the Penn Central's passenger trains in 1971. The cars remained on the Empire Service under Amtrak into the mid-1970s. A typical train between New York and Albany consisted of two coaches and the coach-buffet or "snack bar" coach. Trains which operated west of Albany had additional coaches. Presently, the Empire Service usually operates with a single GE P32AC-DM locomotive, four Amfleet coaches, and a business class car. The Empire Service utilizes dual-mode locomotives due to a longstanding ban on diesel operations in the Penn Station tunnels. An "on the fly" power change from diesel to third rail (or vice versa) takes place once the train enters the Empire Connection tunnel near Penn Station.
  For trains traveling from New York to Niagara Falls, the business class car is also used as a café car.
caption: PC No. 3636, one of the rehabilitated 64-seat coaches, at Hudson in 1968
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