May 13, 2026

ABOVE: Looking south (left) at the ongoing construction and (right) on the ground at the old team tracks used for private cars and special trains, including for the excursion trains of the defunct Saratoga & North Creek Railway and Amtrak a few summers ago when the 'Adirondack' was turned at Saratoga due to distruption in service to Montreal.

Construction is underway on a new high-level platform at the Saratoga Springs Rail Station — the $12.5 million project funded by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and part of Amtrak’s ADA Stations Program.

Steve Strauss, ESPA Executive Director, stated in the press release that: “The new high-level platform at Saratoga Springs we’ll speed boarding and alighting and slightly shorten travel time for customers using the Adirondack and Ethan Allen trains. The Empire State Passengers Association is excited to see Amtrak advancing this project in Saratoga.”

A new six-hundred-foot high-level platform will facilitate level boarding for improved accessibility, eliminating climbs up and down the drop-steps of the coaches. There will be new LED light fixtures, wayfinding signage, new microphone and speaker system, and a yellow-painted safety detectable warning system at the platform edge.

This station improvement project began construction in January this year and is on track for completion in summer 2027. The station served 38,000 passengers last year in 2025.

The station dates back to 1956, when it was built by the Delaware & Hudson Railway as part of a state funded realignment and grade separation of their mainline out of the center of Saratoga Springs. The mainline is now part of the Class One freight railroad CPKC (Canadian Pacific) system.

The Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA) acquired the station building and rebuilt it in 2004 in a $5.9 million project. It is also served by intercity buses of Greyhound and Adirondack Trailways,b with the CDTA providing transit bus and microtransit (Flex) service in the city.

The original station had two “team tracks” for servicing private cars, and as of May it seems that one will remain for special trains, for example railroad business trains that have stopped at Saratoga during the horse racing season.

The new high-level platform seems to be located on a new dedicated track just east of the running and main tracks, leaving the existing mainline tracks free for use by freight trains. Updates with photos are being posted on the ESPA Facebook page.

Amtrak Press Release | May 12th, 2026

BELOW: Looking north (left) at the ongoing construction and (right) at a posted construction plan on-site.