Tracks 4 Disabled access Yes Opened 1874 Platforms in use 1 | Parking 488 spaces Fare zone 6 Connection Bee-Line Bus System | |
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Location 300 Railroad Avenue
Peekskill, New York, 10566-4412 Connections Bee-Line Bus System: 16, 18, 31 Address Peekskill, NY 10566, United States Similar Manitou, New Hamburg, Croton–Harmon station, Cortlandt, Southeast | ||
The Peekskill Metro-North Railroad station serves residents of Peekskill, New York via the Hudson Line. Trains leave for New York City every hour on weekdays and about every 25 minutes during rush hour. It is 41.2 miles (66.3 km) from Grand Central Terminal and travel time to Grand Central is approximately one hour. It is the northernmost station on the line in Westchester County.
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It is just south of a grade crossing whose gates remain down as long as any northbound train is in the station. The former station building built by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad in 1874 still stands, although it is no longer staffed.
History
Rail service in Peekskill can be traced as far back as 1850 to the Hudson River Railroad. The freight depot, was the site of a February 19, 1861 visit by Abraham Lincoln who stopped there during his train trip to his inauguration. The railroad was acquired by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad in November 1869, and they rebuilt the passenger station in 1874. NYC&HR rebuilt the freight depot around 1890 and today it is on the National Register of Historic Places, as is the Standard House which served the railroad, as well as ships on the Hudson River.
A 1943 New York Central schedule lists Peekskill as the northern terminus of its Hudson Division commuter service. Trains continuing north of Peekskill were "long distance" trains, continuing not just to Poughkeepsie but also to Albany and other destinations.
With the railroads in decline during the post-WW II era, New York Central merged with their long time rival Pennsylvania Railroad in 1968 and the station became a Penn Central station. Amtrak took over intercity passenger service in 1971, but Peekskill station continued to serve only the expanded Penn Central Hudson Division trains which by that time ran to Poughkeepsie and were subsidized by the MTA. Conrail took over Penn Central in 1976 and ran Hudson Branch trains as far north as Albany until 1981 when they reverted to Poughkeepsie where it has remained ever since. MTA assigned the station to the newly established Metro-North Commuter Railroad in 1983.
Station layout
The station has four tracks and two high-level platforms each six cars long. Tracks 4 and 6 terminate at the north end of the station while tracks 1 and 2 continue on.