We left Buffalo-Depew Station at 9:51am running 16 minutes late. I was seated in Amfleet II Coach #25107, a refurbished coach with the blue seats, digital reader boards and AC outlets at each seat. The coach was located in the New York section of the train. I was seated across from a passenger and her one year old daughter. They were also getting off the train in Schenectady which is my destination for this trip. Outside of a few speed restrictions between Buffalo and Rochester, things were rather uneventful. However, as we continued through the trip, more info had come in about bad weather affecting the eastern end of the state. Just before arriving in Rochester I headed to the Cafe car and set up my computer to start writing the travelogue. I started to chat with a few members of the crew as well as 2 passengers from Portland, OR who were also riding today. We all discussed train travel in general. We arrived in Rochester at 10:50am and left at 10:55am running 12 minutes late. So far, no biggie on the train's lateness. The dining car attendant came by and took reservations for lunch, I chose the 12:30pm seating. Word came back that the Boston Section of the train (Train #448) will not be running today. By now, the sun was shining in Albany but the damage was already done from what would be the worst ice storm to hit the Capital Region in 21 years. I continued to write this travelogue and chat with the conductor as we made our way across snowy central New York on the way to Syracuse.
   Upon getting near Syracuse, there was a broken-down freight train located near the Syracuse station on another track however the fact that this train was there would require our train to make a back-up move into the station (I honestly don't know why this was necessary). By the time this was to happen, it was now time for lunch. I walked to the Diner-Lite car just as we made the backup move into the Syracuse station. I ordered the Buffalo Chicken Wings as an appetizer and the Angus Beef Burger for lunch. The wings were small and mildly spicy (OK to some people, they’re very hot, but I’m from Buffalo so these register as mild to me!!!). The burger was decent and was served with potato chips. I took a picture of the wings and would have gotten one of the burger but my fingers were so greasy after eating the wings. I figured I’d best not risk ruining a $700 camera with greasy fingers!!! The 2 passengers I sat with were on their way to Schenectady as well having traveled from Wisconsin. For the past couple years, Amtrak has been able to accept credit cards (it has accepted them for years using the old-fashioned carbon paper receipts!) using a satellite linked electronic card approval system, so no more carbon paper transactions when you use a credit card. I found out that if you use the Amtrak Guest Rewards MasterCard in the dining car, you don't get double points like you would if you were buying tickets with it. Bummer!
   The station stop in Syracuse was rather long as a huge crowd of people boarded (likely because of the service issues associated with the aforementioned ice storm). We spent 15 minutes in Syracuse and departed at 12:55pm, running 44 minutes late. Things were rather quiet outside of not knowing for sure what Amtrak’s plans were for running the train south and east of Albany. At Utica, I pulled out my BlackBerry and took advantage of the beauty of modern technology and posted our progress on Trainorders.com. We left Utica at 1:55pm, now 38 minutes late. The sun came out somewhere past Herkimer as we paralleled the Mohawk River/Erie Canal. We were actually moving right along even though two Empire Service trains from earlier today (Trains #280 and #284) were stuck in Amsterdam due to the ice storm for over an hour. Those trains likely also terminated in Albany but I wasn't 100% certain. We made it past Amsterdam with no problems (this train doesn't stop there). I had a Snicker's bar and Diet Pepsi in the cafe car as I watched the sun come out over the mighty Mohawk! Considering what has happened so far, things have been running rather smoothly, but that would change very quickly once we headed into the Schenectady area. Schenectady was my stop, so I walked back to my coach (I only sat in my coach seat from between Buffalo and Rochester and spent most of the rest of the trip in the cafe car, so I never got to talk to the passenger seated next to me who boarded in Rochester very much.
   The ice storm knocked out power to the railroad signals along the route as well as brought down trees across the tracks, making them impassible south of Albany. It was finally determined that this train would in fact terminate in Albany and the Boston section was also officially cancelled. Bus transportation would be provided for passengers heading to points east and south. The train came to a stop on the west side of the Union Street railroad overpass which is located just to the west of the station platform in Schenectady. ONE announcement was made saying we were waiting for a train to clear ahead. Now if another announcement was made about this, I didn’t hear it. A second announcement was made shortly after the first, but it was regarding the fact that the train was terminating in Albany. To Amtrak’s credit, they kept the cafe car open after we stopped as several announcements from the coach attendant stated that the cafe car was coming off the train in Albany (it normally would have gone with the Boston section of the train) though that would be a moot point by now as the train was terminating there anyway. Time would pass and the neither the conductor/assistant conductor made any announcement again for quite awhile. I called up the local Enterprise Rent-A-Car where I had my rental car reserved from to try to give them some idea of what was happening. I had a 3:00pm rental and it was now way past that time and I wasn't in town yet. Over an hour would pass and with no announcements from the crew, I decided to go find the conductor and see what was going on. I found the conductor several cars back in the Diner-Lite car and asked what was going on and "jokingly" asked if I could just be let off the train and walk the rest of the way!!! Obviously I couldn’t get off before the platform and the conductor had nothing new to report other than that things were a mess and we were waiting for a signal so we could pull into the station.
   Now here is my thought on this: Delays are a part of the game when you travel by train, you need to anticipate that it's always possible that delays may occur. This ice storm, as I said before, was the worst the Capital Region has seen in 21 years and caused wide-spread power outages and lots of property damage. There was one thing the crew should have done that they didn't do, and that was make announcements every so many minutes to at least let the passengers know if any new info was known, and even if no new info was known. Speaking purely from a customer service standpoint, it makes for better customer service to inform your customers that there's nothing new to report, rather than just saying nothing. It lets your customers know you care and will keep them informed. Over an hour passed as we waited, about an hour and 20 minutes approximately. The coach attendant said a few words here and there but nothing from the people in charge. It's more frustrating to not know what's going on rather than be told that there's nothing changing. Well, just after 4:30pm, after waiting over an hour, we started moving again and at 4:37pm, the train arrived in Schenectady running 1 hour and 46 minutes late.
   The AC opened the door on my coach and I shook hands with him and wished him luck as there were a fair amount of dissatisfied passengers after having to wait that long. Now than I'm here, my biggest concern was the possibility of not getting my rental car or my hotel not having power (I called them both after leaving Buffalo that morning and they both were open but had no power at that time!) as the temp was in the low 20's and I really didn't have any contingency plans in place for an ice storm and knew that a taxi up to Latham from here would have been VERY expensive! I took a few photos on the platform in the last few minutes of daylight shortly after calling Enterprise (who were gonna close at 4:30pm due to having no power and their building freezing inside but decided to stay and wait for me to arrive as long as I got in before 6pm which was their normal closing time!). A few minutes after going downstairs into the station and then outside to wait for them, they arrived to pick me up. The station and the surrounding area of Schenectady did have electric power which was evident as the Enterprise agent drove me back to their office. Not 2000 feet from their office however, the power was out and that included all street lights and traffic lights. Enterprise did have phone service so they called in the approval for my credit card and filled out the rental contract by hand. I'm greatful they were able to take care of this. After signing the paperwork, I was on my way to my hotel. I would get a 2008 Volkswagen Jetta 2.5 for my rental car this year. This is the first Volkswagen I've ever driven and it's a good little car. Upon driving up to Latham, I noticed that there was power in the surrounding area and my hotel did have power when I got there. I would be staying at the Econo-Lodge on Watervliet-Shaker Rd in Latham. I had a room with a king-sized bed and a good heater!!! I took a drive over to visit a friend of mine in nearby Clifton Park, NY. We met up with a friend of his and drove to Chili’s on Wolf Road in Colonie, one place that did have power and had dinner there. I spent some more time at my buddy's place watching videos on the New York Central Railroad before I drove back to the hotel and called it a day. Photos from this trip will be shown after the text of the travelogue, you'll see a link at the bottom of this page.